Associate Creative Director Jobs in Reston, VA (NOW HIRING)

Barbaricum is seeking an experienced Content and Creative Director to lead content and creative services under the Military Community and Family Policy (MC&FP) Outreach and Digital Enterprise Services (MODES) contract. You will ensure creative strategy, content production, and engagement products align with MC&FP brand, messaging, outreach, and mission objectives, enhancing the DoD's ability to inform and support the global military community.

Responsibilities:

• Lead content and creative services for MC&FP outreach, engagement, strategic communications, and digital enterprise initiatives.
• Develop and execute creative strategies that align with MC&FP brand, messaging, engagement objectives, and audience needs.
• Direct the production of visual, multimedia, interactive, digital, print, and social media content across multiple platforms.
• Lead and manage creative personnel, including graphic design, copywriting, multimedia, web, and content production professionals.
• Oversee creative concepts, campaign development, content calendars, brand campaigns, and production workflows from planning through delivery.
• Collaborate with program leadership, executives, government stakeholders, and cross-functional teams to define deadlines, deliverables, risks, and content goals.
• Review and approve creative concepts, designs, copy, multimedia products, and campaign materials for quality, consistency, effectiveness, and compliance with brand standards.
• Manage creative project timelines, workload priorities, production risks, and creative budgets to ensure timely delivery of high-quality products.
• Use data, analytics, audience insights, and campaign performance metrics to assess content effectiveness and inform future creative decisions.
• Recruit, mentor, train, and develop team leads and creative staff while fostering a collaborative, accountable, and mission-focused work environment.

Required Skills:

• Expert knowledge of creative direction, brand development, content strategy, campaign execution, and multichannel marketing concepts.
• Strong understanding of strategic communications, outreach, community engagement, and audience-centered content development.
• Demonstrated ability to lead creative teams and supervise high-quality work across digital, print, social, multimedia, and interactive platforms.
• Ability to translate executive direction, client requirements, mission objectives, and audience needs into creative strategies and actionable production plans.
• Excellent communication, briefing, presentation, and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to present timelines, budgets, risks, and recommendations to executives and clients.
• Proficiency with creative tools and production environments such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and comparable content development platforms.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, deliverables, and production workflows simultaneously.
• Ability to maintain brand consistency, quality control, accessibility, and compliance across all creative products and communication channels.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and performance metrics to optimize creative campaigns and content products.
• Ability to think creatively, solve complex content and engagement challenges, and provide innovative recommendations in a federal mission environment.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Marketing, Communications, Digital Media, or a related field.
• Master's degree in a relevant field is preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in creative services, content strategy, strategic communications, marketing, digital media, or related roles.
• 5+ years of experience in management, supervisory, creative director, or senior creative leadership position.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating creative strategy, visual design, multimedia content, campaign development, and cross-platform content execution.
• Proven record of developing and executing successful creative strategies, brand campaigns, and content products for complex organizations or mission-driven environments.
• Experience supporting federal, defense, military community, public sector, or large-scale enterprise communications environments is preferred.
• Experience managing creative budgets, production schedules, staff development, vendor coordination, and executive-level client communications.
• DoD Secret Security Clearance.