Creative Director

ABOUT SKETCHDECK

Elevate your career working with leading global brands alongside inspiring colleagues in a flexible, remote-first environment. At SketchDeck, we aim to bring great people together to deliver exceptional impact. Through a combination of purpose-driven partnerships, technology, and global talent, we help brands realize their limitless potential with high-quality creative and digital solutions delivered on demand. We work with clients ranging from startups to well-known enterprise brands such as Dropbox, Rémy Cointreau, and Asana.

At SketchDeck, our values are more than just guiding principles—theyʼre the foundation of how we work and grow together globally. We commit to:

→ Win as a Team.

→ Find Solutions.

→ Take Ownership.

→ Do the Right Thing.

→ Be Human.

Guided by our vision to be the best creative partner, we empower our team to collaborate and innovate from anywhere with a flexible, remote-first culture. Our camera-on, Slack-heavy environment cultivates genuine relationships and collaboration, where we actively seek culture add, not just culture fit.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR ROLE AT SKETCHDECK

This role has four key focuses:

• Lead the creative strategy and direction on select brand, positioning and campaign programs, grounding work in insight from audience, market and competitor research
• Lead creative strategy on select key accounts, generating impactful ideas and strategies and turning those into reality
• Partner with Design Directors, Content Strategists and the account team so the creative strategy and the visual concept grow from the same idea
• Bring strategic thinking to win new business

How you work with the team: You build the strategic foundation and partner with Design Directors on the visual expression, shaping the work together from the first conversation. You'll also work closely with Project Managers, Production Directors, Content Strategists and the Business Development team.

Reporting: This role has no direct reports. You'll report to the VP, Creative Impact.

Working with clients: You'll be in front of clients often. You'll lead discovery, present strategy and recommendations, and build the trust that brings us bigger problems to solve.

You'll succeed in this role if you're a sharp strategic thinker and a natural collaborator. You should enjoy making others' work stronger, be at ease in client conversations, and keep things moving. You set a high bar, and you raise it by working well with others.

SketchDeck is an entrepreneurial environment. You'll be expected to jump into new work and help other teams. Priorities can shift quickly with clients' condensed timelines.

As the Creative Director, you'll have three (3) areas of responsibilities:

CLIENT ACCOUNTS AND PROJECTS: (70%)

Lead discovery with clients to understand their business goals, audiences and the real problem behind the brief

Run audience, market and competitor research, and turn it into clear insights the team can act on Develop brand positioning, value propositions, brand architecture, brand character and strategic creative concepts.

• Build messaging frameworks and brand narratives, and guide how they come to life across touchpoints
• Shape campaign and content strategy: audiences, key messages and channels
• Write creative briefs that give the team a clear, inspiring starting point
• Partner with Design Directors and Content Strategists throughout, so the strategy, the visual expression and the copy strengthen each other

Partner with Design Directors at key phases to guide designers through concept exploration and development, and lead the design team directly when the project scope calls for it.

• Present strategy and recommendations to clients with clear rationale, provide creative reviews and resolve client feedback
• Bring a strategic view to your accounts, and spot where we can do more for our clients
• Partner with Project Managers on scoping and estimates for strategic work
• NEW BUSINESS AND PITCHES: (20%)
• Partner with Business Development on discovery for new pitches and large opportunities. Define creative approach, deliverables, timeframe and resourcing
• Lead the strategic thinking in pitches, including research, positioning and point of view, and present with the pitch team
• Help grow existing accounts into larger brand strategy and campaign work
• Develop proposals that show the breadth of SketchDeck's strategic capabilities
• SKETCHDECK TEAM AND INTERNAL: (10%)
• Contribute to the Creative Impact team's growth, sharing your strategic approach and learning from the team
• Run trainings on brand strategy, research, briefs and presenting
• Build the decks and materials that present our brand strategy services
• Contribute to internal communications, portfolio and case studies
• Bring ideas to improve how the team works together

Requirements

• 8+ years in brand strategy or strategic creative leadership, including at least 5 in an agency environment
• Case studies showing your positioning, brand strategy and messaging work, and how each one shaped the creative outcome
• Experience partnering closely with designers and visual creatives, with a strong eye for visual craft
• Strong research skills, from competitive analysis to audience insight
• An excellent writer and presenter, able to make strategy clear and compelling for senior stakeholders
• Experience with large enterprise clients
• A track record of strong partnerships with design and creative leads
• Experience contributing to and winning new business
• Curious about how AI is changing brand and creative work
• Available during U.S. hours for overlap with the team and clients