Creative Director, Marketing

Job Description

Job Description

Museum of Science, Boston

Innovation and creativity come from the unique perspectives of a diverse staff.  We value your perspective.

 

Who We Are

As science and technology increasingly shape our lives, the Museum of Science strives to equip and inspire everyone to use science for the global good while keeping up with the pace of change. Among the world's largest science centers and New England's most attended cultural institution, we engage nearly five million people a year – at Science Park and in museums around the world, in classrooms, and online.

The Museum's singular location connecting Boston and Cambridge puts us at the junction of some of the world's most influential academic institutions and industries, local and state government, schools, and the public. Trusted by each sector, we are ideally positioned to convene, inspire, and create meaningful experiences for all. Come join us on our mission to inspire a lifelong love of science in everyone and living our vision for a world where science belongs to each of us for the good of all of us.

Why We Need You

As Creative Director, Marketing, you will own the visual identity, tone of voice, and creative standards of the Museum of Science across all consumer-facing channels, our website and digital platforms, advertising, social media, email, merchandise and products, and the marketing presence of the Public Science Common and future launches.

You'll be the creative authority for how we show up in the world and in the market, bridging brand strategy with cultural insight, translating audience intelligence into compelling creative, and ensuring that every piece of marketing feels like it came from the same confident, curious, and culturally fluent institution. The ideal candidate brings an agency-sharpened creative edge alongside the instincts of a brand builder, and is driven by data and audience insight as much as craft.

What You'll Accomplish

Own and Evolve the Brand Representation

• Work with the VP of Marketing/Brand and cross department stakeholders.
• Define, protect, and continuously evolve the Museum of Science's visual identity, tone of voice, and creative standards across all marketing and consumer-facing channels.
• Develop and steward brand guidelines that scale, empower internal teams, agencies, and partners to show up with consistency and creative ambition.
• Lead the brand expression for the Public Science Common and future institutional launches, from campaign identity to digital presence to marketing environments including signage, retail, and promotional materials.
• Stay ahead of visual culture, platform trends, and the evolving creative landscape to ensure the MOS brand feels current, distinctive, and resonant.

Drive Multi-Channel Creative Excellence

• Set and uphold the creative standard across all marketing output: website design, digital and social advertising, paid and organic content, out-of-home, email, print, merchandise, retail product design, and event marketing materials.
• Act as the primary creative voice in all agency and vendor relationships, writing tight briefs, reviewing work with authority, and elevating creative partners to their best.
• Bring a sharp, audience-informed creative point of view to every project, from a single asset to a full brand campaign.
• Leverage AI-powered creative tools to accelerate ideation, production, and testing — building a team culture where AI augments creative output rather than replacing creative thinking.

Shape the Digital Brand Experience

• Own the creative direction of the Museum of Science website, ensuring it reflects the brand, serves the audience, and performs.
• Partner with the digital product team to ensure brand design and user experience work in sync.
• Set the creative standards for how the brand shows up across all owned platforms and content channels, with a fluency in what works where and why.
• Bring a platform-native sensibility — understanding that great brand creative on Instagram, YouTube, email, and out-of-home each require a different creative language.

Be Audience-Driven

• Ground every creative decision in a genuine understanding of our audiences — who they are, what motivates them, and what makes them stop, click, or walk through our doors.
• Synthesize audience research, platform data, and cultural insight into clear creative strategy and a consistent point of view.
• Build and apply audience intelligence to develop personas, content positioning, and creative frameworks that drive both engagement and conversion.
• Use testing, performance data, and feedback loops to continuously evolve the creative approach — not just at the end of a campaign.
• Champion inclusive, accessible creative that reflects the full diversity of the audiences we serve.

Collaborate Across the Organization

• Partner closely with Marketing, Digital, Membership, and Communications teams to ensure creative alignment across all campaigns and consumer touchpoints.
• Work with Exhibits, Programming, ESSO, and other institutional teams as a trusted brand partner, providing creative input on consumer-facing materials and ensuring the MOS brand carries through wherever audiences encounter us.
• Bring a working familiarity with the creator economy and branded content, enough to provide guardrails and creative direction when the brand shows up in those spaces.
• Translate institutional strategy into compelling creative direction that internal teams, agencies, and external partners can execute against.

What We're Looking For (Competencies)

• 10+ years of creative leadership experience, with a portfolio demonstrating exceptional brand building across multiple marketing channels, digital, social, advertising, and brand identity.
• An agency background or equivalent experience that has sharpened creative standards, briefing skills, and the ability to lead and evaluate creative teams and partners.
• Deep fluency in digital and social platforms, understanding what great brand creative looks like on each channel and why it works.
• A sharp cultural antenna, able to track shifts in visual culture, platform behavior, and audience sentiment, and translate those observations into creative strategy.
• Hands-on experience with AI creative tools (Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT, or equivalent) and a clear point of view on how AI fits into a modern creative workflow.
• Proven experience building and managing creative teams, leading agency relationships, and driving high-quality output on real deadlines.
• A data-informed creative mindset, using analytics and audience insight to make better decisions, not just to validate instincts after the fact.
• Strong communication skills, able to present a brand vision to a board, co-create a concept with a junior designer, and write a brief that gets great work back.
• Experience with major brand launches, venue openings, product lines, or institutional campaign moments is a strong plus.
• An authentic curiosity about science, learning, or public engagement, you don't have to be a scientist, but you must care about why this work matters.
• A background in science, STEM communications, science media, or a related field is a plus experience translating complex or technical subjects for broad audiences is something we value highly.

How We Work-Our Values

Mission-Focused:  We inspire a lifelong love of science in everyone.

Audience-Driven:  Everything we do begins with the people we serve. 

Innovative:  We are curious, take smart risks, share responsibility, and own outcomes. 

Generous:  We offer time and energy towards common goals. 

Salary Range

$116,000—$145,000 USD

The Museum of Science is fully committed to Equal Employment Opportunity and to attracting, retaining, developing and promoting the most qualified employees without regard to their race, gender, color, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, citizenship status, veteran status, or any other characteristic prohibited by federal, state or local law. We are dedicated to providing a work environment free from discrimination and harassment, and where employees are treated with respect and dignity.