The Director, Creative Services is responsible for leading, elevating, and strengthening SASSO's creative team through high-level creative execution, day-to-day creative leadership, and partnership with the Chief Creative Officer, management team, and executive leadership.
This role is designed for a strong creative leader who brings exceptional design craft, conceptual thinking, storytelling ability, presentation skills, and team leadership. The Director, Creative Services helps scale the Chief Creative Officer's vision across the team, strengthens the quality of the work, improves clarity in the creative process, and supports the continued growth of designers, video producers, photographers, and other creative team members.
This is a player-coach role. The Director, Creative Services will carry a meaningful hands-on design workload while also helping uphold creative standards across brand, campaign, digital, social, print, video, presentation, and production work. This individual should be a strong designer first, with the ability to think conceptually, execute beautifully, give clear direction, communicate complex ideas in clear and compelling ways, and help others grow through direct, thoughtful, and constructive feedback.
The ideal candidate brings strong creative judgment, a high standard of craft, a collaborative mindset, excellent presentation and client-facing communication skills, and the ability to translate brand strategy and creative vision into thoughtful, well-executed work across a wide range of clients, industries, audiences, and channels.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Under limited supervision and with proactive, solution-oriented decision-making, this position will be responsible for...
Creative Direction & Design Execution
- Lead and execute high-level design work across brand, campaign, digital, social, print, presentation, and integrated marketing projects.
- Translate brand strategy, campaign objectives, and creative direction into thoughtful, polished, and strategically aligned creative work.
- Develop concepts and visual systems that balance strong design, storytelling, audience relevance, and clear communication.
- Create compelling, brand-right creative for digital performance, paid media, ecommerce, and conversion-oriented campaigns.
- Demonstrate creative range across industries, audiences, and brand personalities while ensuring each client's work feels distinct and intentional.
Brand Stewardship & Creative Standards
- Serve as a brand steward across multiple client accounts, ensuring visual identity, voice, tone, and creative standards remain consistent across channels.
- Help uphold and elevate SASSO's creative standards across all client work through strong taste, discernment, attention to detail, and strategic judgment.
- Review creative work regularly to ensure it is polished, thoughtful, on brief, audience-aware, and aligned with client goals.
- Bring a decisive creative point of view, knowing when to push, simplify, refine, redirect, or finalize work.
- Maintain creative quality under tight timelines, shifting priorities, and client feedback without compromising the integrity of the work.
Creative Production & Multimedia Direction
- Oversee and direct photo and video productions, helping guide shot lists, visual direction, styling, composition, pacing, and overall creative execution.
- Hold the creative standard for post-production, including photography, video edits, motion, color, sound, pacing, and finishing details.
- Partner with production team members to ensure creative outputs are polished, strategic, brand-right, and aligned with agency expectations.
- Support concept development and execution for multimedia campaigns, social content, digital content, and brand storytelling initiatives.
- Ensure production work connects strong visual direction with client objectives, campaign strategy, and audience relevance.
Client Relationship, Presentation & Creative Rationale
- Build trust with clients by communicating clearly, listening well, and demonstrating strong creative judgment throughout the creative process.
- Clearly articulate creative ideas, strategy, and design rationale in a way that builds confidence and helps clients understand the purpose and value of the work.
- Present creative strategy and design recommendations internally and to clients with clarity, confidence, and professionalism.
- Listen empathetically to client goals, concerns, feedback, and business needs, then translate that input into stronger creative solutions.
- Help guide clients and internal teams toward creative decisions that are strategic, thoughtful, brand-aligned, audience-aware, and effective.
Cross-Functional Collaboration & Workflow Support
- Partner closely with the Chief Creative Officer to define creative direction, translate strategy into execution, and deliver a clear vision to the team.
- Collaborate with Account, Strategy, Social, Production, Media, and Digital teams to ensure work is aligned, on brief, and moving efficiently.
- Help prioritize creative resources and support workflow across active projects.
- Communicate creative needs, project risks, feedback, and direction clearly to team members and cross-functional partners.
- Support agency processes that improve creative clarity, operational efficiency, and quality of execution.
AI, Creative Exploration & Innovation
- Use AI tools thoughtfully and responsibly to support concept development, design exploration, content creation, production workflows, and creative efficiency.
- Maintain high standards for originality, craft, brand integrity, and human creative judgment when using AI-assisted tools.
- Explore emerging creative technologies, design trends, cultural shifts, and digital behaviors that can elevate SASSO's work.
- Continuously refine creative taste and perspective by studying design, culture, category shifts, and evolving audience expectations.
- Bring fresh thinking and practical innovation to creative development, production workflows, and team capabilities.
Team Leadership & Creative Development
- Lead, mentor, and develop designers, video producers, photographers, and other creative team members while helping establish a culture of creative excellence, accountability, and growth.
- Provide clear, constructive, and actionable feedback that improves the work while supporting team confidence and development.
- Lead creative reviews with clarity, candor, and respect, creating an environment where feedback is productive and focused on making the work better.
- Encourage strong conceptual thinking, attention to detail, ownership, collaboration, and a high level of craft across the department.
- Model professionalism, creative excellence, low ego, accountability, and a collaborative spirit for the team.
QUALIFICATIONS
Education and Experience:
- Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communications, Advertising, Fine Arts, Marketing, or a related field preferred.
- 8+ years of experience in a senior design or creative role, preferably within an agency, creative studio, or brand environment.
- 2+ years of experience managing, mentoring, or directing creative team members, including designers, photographers, video producers, or other creative talent.
- Strong portfolio demonstrating elevated design, brand thinking, campaign work, and creative execution across multiple channels.
- Experience working across integrated campaigns, social content, digital, print, video, presentation design, and brand development.
- Experience with sports, lifestyle, CPG, retail, ecommerce, or performance-driven brands preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to balance high-level creative thinking with hands-on execution and fast-moving timelines.
- Experience presenting creative ideas and explaining design decisions to internal teams and clients.
Technical Skills:
- Excellent design skills with a strong eye for typography, layout, hierarchy, visual systems, composition, and brand consistency.
- Advanced proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and related design tools.
- Strong understanding of digital, social, paid media, ecommerce, and performance-oriented creative best practices.
- Ability to guide photography, video, motion, editing, post-production, and multimedia creative execution.
- Strong conceptual thinking with the ability to develop emotionally resonant storytelling and campaign ideas.
- Ability to adapt creative direction, design style, and visual point of view across a wide range of client categories and audiences.
- Familiarity with AI-powered creative tools and emerging production technologies preferred.
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, deadlines, and creative needs at once.
BEHAVIORAL COMPETENCIES
- Strong creative judgment, visual taste, and commitment to craft.
- Player-coach mindset with the ability to lead the team while staying close to the work.
- Clear, direct, and thoughtful communicator who can give and receive feedback well.
- Collaborative leader who works effectively with the Chief Creative Officer, creative team, account team, and cross-functional partners.
- Confident but humble, opinionated but open, and committed to making the work better.
- Comfortable leading through ambiguity, shifting timelines, client feedback, and competing priorities.
- Strong client-facing communicator with the ability to build trust, present ideas clearly, navigate feedback, and strengthen relationships through the creative process.
- High standards for quality, professionalism, ownership, accountability, and team development.
- Curious, culturally aware, and committed to continuous creative growth and improvement.
