Fortune Media is seeking an exceptional Executive Creative Director to lead the brand's creative vision across its full portfolio - spanning digital, print, events, video, and brand partnerships. This is a senior leadership role for a practitioner who is as comfortable setting brand strategy as they are hands-on in execution, with a clear and confident point of view on where design, storytelling, and AI-augmented creativity are heading.
The Executive Creative Director will serve as the creative standard-bearer for Fortune, owning global brand consistency and elevating the quality bar across every audience touchpoint. You will lead an integrated team of designers, copywriters, video and photography professionals, and production specialists - and will serve as the central hub for all freelance creative resourcing and unified tooling decisions across the organization.
Reporting structure: Fortune Media is actively conducting a search for its next Chief Marketing Officer. In the interim, the Executive Creative Director will report directly to Fortune's Executive Committee. Upon the arrival of the incoming CMO, the reporting line will transition accordingly.
You will:
- Own and evolve Fortune's global brand identity, visual system, and style guides across all platforms and markets - including Fortune.com, the magazine, newsletters, social, and international editions.
- Direct both traditional design (print, magazine, OOH, event materials) and digital design (web, social, email, digital products) to ensure a unified, contemporary aesthetic that translates consistently across every channel.
- Lead creative direction for Fortune's major tentpole events - including the Fortune 500 Forum, Most Powerful Women Summit, and CEO Initiative - overseeing all event design deliverables from stage and signage to branded environments.
- Provide creative oversight for the video and photography department, ensuring all visual production aligns with Fortune's brand standards; maintain a deep roster of photographers, directors, stylists, and collaborators whose work is right for Fortune.
- Act as the senior creative partner to Fortune's Brand Studio, ensuring sponsored programs and advertiser campaigns meet the same creative standard as editorial while serving commercial objectives and protecting the Fortune brand.
- Work closely with Fortune's web product, paywall, and subscription teams to ensure the digital brand experience - from Fortune.com to subscriber acquisition and retention campaigns - is consistent, premium, and conversion-aware.
- Serve as creative lead and strategic partner to both B2B and B2C marketing teams, providing direction for campaigns across paid, owned, and earned channels while helping both teams build repeatable creative frameworks and templated assets.
- Own the centralized freelance creative roster - vetting, onboarding, and managing designers, illustrators, photographers, and copywriters - and manage creative budgets with rigor and transparency.
- Own the evaluation and governance of Fortune's core creative tooling stack, including the Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, design platforms, and project management tools, and lead rollout of unified workflows across the organization.
- Lead Fortune's creative organization through the AI inflection point: actively integrate AI-first tools into creative workflows, establish clear ethical standards for AI-generated and AI-assisted output, and build AI literacy across the creative team.
- Uphold Fortune's editorial and ethical standards across all creative output, serving as the final internal authority on whether creative work meets Fortune's brand standards before publication or production.
The right candidate:
- Has 10+ years of progressive creative leadership experience, with at least 4 years directing a multidisciplinary creative team at a media company, publisher, or content-led brand.
- Brings a portfolio demonstrating mastery across both traditional and digital design disciplines, with strong editorial sensibility and platform-agnostic visual fluency.
- Has proven experience overseeing creative production for large-scale live events or brand experiences, and deep fluency in building or stewarding visual identity systems at scale across multiple platforms and markets.
- Has active, demonstrable use of AI-first creative tools in professional practice - this is a hiring requirement, not a differentiator.
- Brings strong executive presence: the ability to present creative vision confidently to senior stakeholders, advertising clients, and editorial leadership.
- Has experience managing freelance creative talent and leading creative budgets with transparency and discipline.
- Has deep industry contacts across photography, direction, illustration, and creative production.
- Ideally brings experience leading creative within a recognized media brand with a print heritage and a digital transformation mandate, and familiarity with revenue-generating creative contexts including branded content and advertiser co-creation.
What Success Looks LikeIn your first 90 days:
Conducted a full audit of Fortune's current creative output, team capabilities, tooling stack, and brand standard adherence
Built trusted relationships across editorial, marketing, events, Brand Studio, and the Brand Partnership Group
Developed an initial point of view on the highest-leverage creative priorities and shared it with interim leadership and the incoming CMO
Within six months:
Established or refreshed Fortune's global style guide and design governance model
Centralized the freelance roster with clear processes and measurable quality improvements
Made a clear DAM tooling recommendation with a phased rollout plan
Introduced at least one AI-augmented workflow that demonstrably improves the team's output or velocity
Established a clear, productive working relationship with the Brand Partnership Group
At one year:
Fortune's creative output is consistently elevated and recognizable across all platforms, with measurably higher satisfaction scores from internal stakeholders
The creative team operates with greater speed, lower freelance cost per project, and reduced re-work
The Brand Studio pipeline has a strong creative lead relationship contributing to revenue growth
Fortune is regarded externally as a creative leader in the media industry - winning awards, attracting talent, and setting standards
Location: This role will be based in NYC in our headquarters, with hybrid flexibility.
Salary Range: $200,000-$225,000 base + eligibility for a variable annual bonus. This range is a good faith estimate and may ultimately vary based on a number of relevant factors.
A Few Of Fortune's Perks and Benefits - 20 vacation days and 2 personal days on top of 11 company holidays and an honor-based sick leave policy
- Health, dental, and vision coverage (90% paid for individuals and families), along with flexible spending accounts where Fortune contributes to your HSA
- Dependent care, commuter, and cell phone benefits
- Tuition reimbursement program
