Director, Graphic Design

Position Summary: The Director, Graphic Design leads the company's overall graphic design vision and execution across packaging, brand identity, e-commerce, digital, retail, and other consumer-facing channels GR. This role ensures a consistent, compelling, and differentiated visual expression of the company's brands while partnering closely with Marketing, Brand, Sales, E-commerce, Innovation, and other cross-functional teams. This position will lead internal and external creative resources, establish design standards and processes, and ensure high-quality creative execution that supports brand growth and business objectives. Key Responsibilities: Brand & Creative Strategy

• Own the overall design vision and creative direction for the company and its portfolio of brands.
• Translate brand positioning, consumer insights, and business objectives into compelling visual strategies.
• Establish and evolve brand identities, visual languages, design principles, and creative standards.
• Develop a clear creative vision that differentiates the company and brands within a competitive food CPG marketplace.
• Serve as the senior design authority and champion design excellence across the organization.
• Partner with Marketing and Brand leadership to develop annual and long-term creative priorities.

Packaging Design

• Lead the end-to-end packaging design strategy and creative development process across new products, renovations, line extensions, and portfolio updates.
• Establish packaging architecture and design systems that create consistency while allowing individual products and brands to stand out.
• Partner with Innovation, R&D, Marketing, Sales, and TOR to ensure packaging designs are both creatively compelling and commercially viable.
• Oversee design development from initial concepts through final artwork, production, and commercialization.
• Ensure packaging effectively communicates brand equities, product benefits, claims, hierarchy, and shelf impact.
• Collaborate with printers, packaging suppliers, agencies, photographers, illustrators, and other creative partners.

E-Commerce & Digital Experience

• Own the design vision for the company's e-commerce and digital consumer experiences.
• Lead the visual design of websites, e-commerce platforms, product detail pages, digital campaigns, and other consumer-facing experiences.
• Ensure digital experiences are consistent with brand identity while optimized for consumer engagement and conversion.
• Partner with E-commerce, Digital Marketing, Technology, and external agencies to establish effective design systems and user experiences.
• Develop guidelines for digital photography, product imagery, icons, graphics, typography, and other digital assets.
• Ensure brand consistency across owned digital channels and key retail/e-commerce platforms.

Creative Direction & Content

• Provide creative direction for photography, video, illustration, typography, and other visual content.
• Lead art direction for product photography, lifestyle photography, campaign development, and digital content.
• Build and maintain a high-quality library of brand and product assets.
• Establish visual standards for social media, advertising, retail, presentations, and other marketing communications.
• Partner with internal marketing teams and external creative agencies to bring campaigns and brand stories to life.

Retail & Commercial Design

• Ensure the brand experience translates effectively from packaging to retail environments and shopper touchpoints.
• Oversee design for point-of-sale materials, displays, trade marketing, sales presentations, and other commercial applications.
• Partner with Sales and Customer Marketing to create compelling, on-brand retail experiences.
• Ensure designs work effectively across multiple retailers, channels, formats, and consumer environments.

Design Systems & Governance

• Establish and maintain comprehensive brand and design guidelines.
• Develop scalable design systems that enable consistency across brands, channels, and teams.
• Create efficient workflows, briefing processes, approval processes, and creative standards.
• Ensure appropriate version control and management of design assets.
• Establish quality-control standards for all consumer-facing creative work.
• Identify opportunities to improve the organization's design capabilities, tools, processes, and ways of working.

Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, develop, and inspire internal design talent and/or creative resources.
• Determine the appropriate balance of internal capabilities, freelancers, agencies, and specialized creative partners.
• Build a culture of creativity, collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Provide clear creative direction and constructive feedback to designers and agency partners.
• Recruit and develop high-performing design talent as the organization grows.
• Manage creative budgets and external agency relationships.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner closely with Brand Marketing, Innovation, Product Development, Sales, E-commerce, Operations, and Executive Leadership.
• Translate business objectives into clear creative briefs and actionable design strategies.
• Influence stakeholders and build alignment around design decisions.
• Educate cross-functional partners on the role of design in building brand equity and driving commercial performance.
• Balance creative ambition with business objectives, timelines, budgets, technical requirements, and production realities.

Requirements:

• BA in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, Art, or a related field preferred.
• 15+ years of progressive design experience, with significant experience leading brand and/or consumer design.
• Experience in food, CPG, retail, consumer products, or a similarly consumer-driven industry strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience leading packaging design and brand identity development.
• Experience designing across multiple consumer touchpoints, including digital and e-commerce.
• Experience managing internal designers, agencies, freelancers, and other creative partners.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating excellence in brand identity, packaging, digital, and integrated consumer experiences.
• Strong understanding of typography, layout, color, photography, illustration, production, and digital design principles.
• Ability to operate strategically while maintaining a high level of creative and design judgment.
• Strong understanding of current design, consumer, retail, and digital trends.

The base salary for this position is between $145,000.00 and $175,000.00 per year. Actual compensation will depend on a variety of factors, including qualifications, experience, and location. This position may also be eligible for additional compensation and benefits, including an annual incentive bonus, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, PTO/FTO, and a 401(k) plan with company match.