Scheduled Hours

40

Position Summary

The Senior Creative Director (design) is a compelling and inspiring presenter, a senior-level client contact, and is focused on large-scale campaigns and key initiatives that support commercialization, advancement, recruitment and all departments across the education, research and clinical practices at WashU Medicine. The Senior Creative Director is a captivating visual storyteller, an expert communicator and passionate problem solver responsible for all aspects of visual marketing and communications and is responsible for creative operations, overseeing the work of the department’s in-house creative staff as well as freelance and agency partners. Both as manager and hands-on designer, the Senior Creative Director will ensure the team, including its culture, work environment, tools, capabilities and processes support the delivery of inspiring, industry-leading creative that helps Washington University’s School of Medicine (including departments, labs, partnerships and more) achieve their objectives.

Job Description

Primary Duties & Responsibilities:

Strategy and Design

• The Senior Creative Director (design) is responsible for the development of the creative strategy and visual expression of the brand for all projects, including (but not limited to) print, digital, social, video, and environmental design while providing clear and productive creative direction to team members.

• Works with the team to ensure the work delivers on the strategy, determines the effectiveness of the work after it has been activated, and uses the learnings to make the necessary adjustments and improvements to future work.

• Get your hands dirty, but don’t get stuck in the weeds. Pitches in and helps whenever and wherever needed, but this should not come at the expense of the development and productivity to other team members.

• Strong design proficiency in a variety of capacities with a devotion to grammatical and material accuracy.

• Advanced understanding of typography, composition, color theory and design best practices and technologies.

• Monitors projects through all phases of production.

• Effectively handles multiple assignments and manages multiple team members at one time and adhere to client budget and time constraints.

Concepting and Idea Development

• Leads, inspires, motivates, and develops a creative team of art directors and copywriters.

• Develops strategy, concept ideas, and provides direction to the team throughout the creative process.

• The Senior Creative Director possesses strong creative ideas, but more importantly gives others the confidence to express their ideas, too. People shouldn’t work with you because they have to — they should work with you because they want to.

• Presents and sells in the department’s work in compelling ways to clients. The presentation should demonstrate a clear vision of how the work addresses the client challenge.

• Interacts with members of the creative team to develop creative concepts and executions of assigned project(s).

• Possesses solid understanding of the market dynamics and challenges of the medical and higher education categories.

• Presents new ideas to members of the team.

Mentorship (Talent and Resource Development)

• The Senior Creative Director ensures the professional development and readiness of the creative team so their team members are learning, growing, and getting better every single day.

• Trains and supervises assigned staff of designers, writers, and production personnel; oversees their execution of all assigned creative efforts to insure they are on strategy, on budget, and on schedule.

• Resolves differences with other team members throughout the agency which may lead to discord in the office.

• Effectively promotes the overall creative capabilities of the department.

• Shares best practices to benefit overall creative staff/communications professionals at the School of Medicine.

Performs other duties as needed.

Working Conditions:
Job Location/Working Conditions

• Normal office environment.

• Alternative work schedules.

• Ability to move to on and off-campus locations.

Physical Effort

• Typically sitting at desk or table.

• Repetitive wrist, hand or finger movement.

Equipment

• Office equipment.

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