Brand and Creative Lead

Job Description

Job Description

Division/Department: Marketing Department

Reports to: Marketing Manager

Full Time | Non-Exempt

Job Summary

The Brand & Creative Lead is SunWest Credit Union’s senior in-house creative owner, responsible for translating business and marketing strategy into original creative ideas and high-quality brand experiences. This role combines creative concept development, brand stewardship, storytelling, creative direction, and hands-on production across digital, social, video, photography, environmental, experiential, print, and internal channels. The position leads everyday creative work from brief through execution, determines the right medium and production approach for the objective, and personally executes core design and creative work while directing agency, vendor, and specialist resources when additional capabilities are needed. Working closely with the Marketing team and our brand agency, the Brand & Creative Lead protects and evolves the SunWest brand while continually improving how it is experienced across member and employee touchpoints.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

· Lead day-to-day creative strategy, concept development, execution, and visual expression of the SunWest brand across social, digital, print, branch, event, environmental, experiential, and internal marketing channels.

· Translate marketing strategies, business objectives, audience insights, and campaign briefs into original creative concepts, visual narratives, storyboards, and integrated brand experiences.

· Lead creative development from brief through concept, creative direction, production, launch, and iteration, determining the most effective format, medium, visual approach, and storytelling technique for the audience, channel, and desired action.

· Create high-quality, hands-on graphic design and creative assets that bring campaigns, initiatives, products, and business objectives to life, while treating graphic design as one capability within a broader creative toolkit.

· Adapt and extend campaign creative across multiple channels, formats, audiences, and applications while maintaining a cohesive and recognizable brand experience.

· Serve as a primary steward of the SunWest brand, ensuring creative work aligns with established brand strategy, standards, visual systems, typography, color, imagery, voice, and design principles while identifying thoughtful opportunities for the brand to evolve.

· Challenge request-based creative thinking by helping internal partners clarify the objective, audience, desired action, and business outcome before determining the appropriate creative solution or deliverable.

· Review creative materials for strategic alignment, effectiveness, quality, accuracy, consistency, accessibility, and adherence to established brand and creative standards.

· Partner closely with Marketing team members to ensure creative concepts and executions support campaign objectives, member needs, brand strategy, timelines, and broader business goals.

· Partner with our Brand Agency of Record and with other external creative, media, and production partners, translating agency-developed strategy and high-level creative direction into ongoing SunWest execution while contributing internal creative perspective and ideas.

· Provide creative direction, feedback, art direction, and production guidance to vendors, agencies, photographers, videographers, designers, and other creative partners when specialized expertise or additional production capacity is needed.

· Determine which creative work should be executed internally and when an external specialist or production partner will produce a stronger, faster, or more effective outcome.

· Lead and support photoshoots, video productions, on-location content capture, events, and other visual initiatives through concept development, storyboarding, art direction, shot planning, graphic needs, and production support.

· Identify opportunities to incorporate photography, video, motion, animation, digital-first content, experiential creative, AI-assisted production, and emerging formats into campaigns and brand storytelling without requiring every discipline to be produced in-house.

· Develop and maintain templates, design systems, creative resources, production assets, and brand tools that improve consistency, efficiency, scalability, and quality across the Marketing team.

· Collaborate with content, social media, digital, marketing, and cross-functional teams to ensure creative work creates a cohesive experience across member and employee touchpoints.

· Partner with the Marketing team to evaluate creative performance and audience response, identify learnings, and evolve creative approaches based on campaign results and member engagement.

· Explore and thoughtfully apply evolving design practices, creative technologies, AI-assisted tools, and new formats to improve creative quality, speed, experimentation, and effectiveness.

· Serve as a creative resource and subject-matter expert for Marketing and cross-functional partners, promoting strong creative thinking, constructive feedback, collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.

· Manage multiple creative projects, priorities, and deadlines while maintaining a high standard of craftsmanship, attention to detail, organization, collaboration, and accountability.

Education and/or Work Experience Requirements

· Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Creative Media, Visual Communications, Graphic Design, or a related field preferred.

· 5+ years of professional experience in brand creative, integrated marketing, creative direction, graphic design, multimedia production, or a related field, preferably within a corporate, agency, financial services, or consumer-facing organization.

· Demonstrated experience developing original creative concepts and translating business objectives, marketing strategies, audience insights, and campaign briefs into cohesive brand experiences and integrated creative solutions.

· Proven experience managing, strengthening, and evolving a brand identity across multiple channels, audiences, and member/customer touchpoints.

· Strong hands-on graphic design capability combined with creative fluency across multiple disciplines such as photography, video, motion, multimedia, digital content, experiential creative, or emerging creative technologies; mastery of every discipline is not required.

· Ability to select the right creative medium, format, and production approach for the objective rather than defaulting to a single format or traditional graphic-design solution.

· Strong professional portfolio demonstrating brand application, original concept development, integrated campaign work, graphic design, creative production, visual storytelling, and the ability to extend creative direction across multiple channels.

· Advanced proficiency with Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud, including Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. Experience with After Effects, Premiere Pro, or other Adobe creative applications is preferred based on the candidate’s production strengths.

· Proficiency with Canva and the ability to create polished, on-brand materials efficiently using templates, brand kits, and collaborative design tools.

· Experience developing and maintaining brand standards, visual systems, templates, creative resources, and other tools that support consistent execution while allowing the brand to evolve.

· Experience collaborating with external creative, branding, advertising, media, or production agencies, including the ability to translate agency-developed strategy and high-level creative direction into effective ongoing internal execution.

· Demonstrated ability to provide creative direction, strategic feedback, art direction, production guidance, and quality control to internal stakeholders, vendors, agencies, and creative partners.

· Experience leading creative work from concept through production and managing multiple projects, competing priorities, and deadlines while maintaining quality and consistency.

· Photography, video production, motion graphics, animation, experiential, or other multimedia experience is preferred but not required. Candidates should demonstrate enough cross-disciplinary creative judgment to know when to execute internally and when to engage a specialist.

· Working knowledge of emerging creative technologies, AI-assisted design and production tools, and evolving digital formats, with the judgment to apply them appropriately and effectively.

· Strong understanding of typography, layout, composition, hierarchy, color, imagery, visual storytelling, accessibility, and core design principles.

· Strong communication, collaboration, organization, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to work effectively with marketers, leadership, creative professionals, vendors, agencies, and cross-functional partners.

Physical Requirements

· Ability to safely and successfully perform the essential job functions consistent within the ADA, FMLA, and other federal, state, and local standards, including meeting qualitative and/or quantitative productivity standards

· Ability to maintain regular, punctual attendance consistent with the ADA, FMLA, and other federal, state, and local standards

· Must be able to lift and carry up to 20 lbs; 4-6 hours of standing; frequent travel within Phoenix metro area and periodic travel outside using personal vehicle, subject to varying insight/outside temperatures

· Must be able to talk, listen, and speak clearly on the telephone

SunWest was founded on the belief that financial institutions should exist to serve. Our original founders knew then what a lot of bankers still don’t understand. Financial institutions should help people, not take advantage of them. That’s why 12 telephone workers came together in 1937 to create a financial cooperative with one goal in mind – to help people thrive financially so they can excel personally.

When you work with us, you’re not just clocking in and hoping for the best. You aren’t counting down the minutes until you can hop in your car and drive far, far away from your workplace. Nope, not here. When you work with SunWest, you’re devoting your time to something bigger than yourself. We aren’t just Branch Representatives, Marketing Gurus, Human Resource Professionals, Lending Extraordinaires or Financial Experts. We are friends, family, support systems, and most importantly, we are difference makers. We are passionate about helping others achieve the highest level of financial success and we feel strongly about our communities. Join our team if you’re ready to do what you love, while helping those who need what you have to offer.

Company Description

SunWest was founded on the belief that financial institutions should exist to serve. Our original founders knew then what a lot of bankers still don’t understand. Financial institutions should help people, not take advantage of them. That’s why 12 telephone workers came together in 1937 to create a financial cooperative with one goal in mind – to help people thrive financially so they can excel personally. \r\n\r\nWhen you work with us, you’re not just clocking in and hoping for the best. You aren’t counting down the minutes until you can hop in your car and drive far, far away from your workplace. Nope, not here. When you work with SunWest, you’re devoting your time to something bigger than yourself. We aren’t just Branch Representatives, Marketing Gurus, Human Resource Professionals, Lending Extraordinaires or Financial Experts. We are friends, family, support systems, and most importantly, we are difference makers. We are passionate about helping others achieve the highest level of financial success and we feel strongly about our communities. Join our team if you’re ready to do what you love, while helping those who need what you have to offer.