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

Marriott

Director, Global Casting

Bethesda, MD

The Director, Global Casting serves as architect of the brand's talent identity, curating and ... Strong creative instincts paired with operational rigor, contract and rights-management negotiation ...

Marriott

Director, Global Casting

Bethesda, MD · On-site

The Director, Global Casting serves as architect of the brand's talent identity, curating and ... Strong creative instincts paired with operational rigor, contract and rights-management negotiation ...

Marriott

Director, Global Casting

Bethesda, MD · On-site

The Director, Global Casting serves as architect of the brand's talent identity, curating and ... Strong creative instincts paired with operational rigor, contract and rights-management negotiation ...

Marriott

Director, Global Casting

Bethesda, MD · On-site

The Director, Global Casting serves as architect of the brand's talent identity, curating and ... Strong creative instincts paired with operational rigor, contract and rights-management negotiation ...

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Showing results 21-40

All JobsContract Creative JobsContract Creative Director JobsContract Creative Director Jobs in Reston, VA

Contract Creative Director information

See Reston, VA salary details

$44.7K

$134.5K

$225.2K

How much do contract creative director jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 7, 2026, the average yearly pay for contract creative director in Reston, VA is $134,549.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $103,500.00 and $158,100.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

Do contract creative directors make a lot of money?

Contract creative directors typically earn higher hourly rates than full-time employees, with salaries ranging from $50,000 to over $150,000 annually depending on experience, industry, and project scope. Their income can vary significantly based on the complexity of projects, reputation, and client budgets, and they often work on a freelance or project basis requiring strong portfolio and negotiation skills.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a contract creative director, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Contract Creative Director, you need expertise in creative strategy, visual design, and project leadership, often supported by a relevant degree and a strong professional portfolio. Familiarity with industry-standard design software (such as Adobe Creative Suite), project management tools, and sometimes certifications like PMP or Agile can be advantageous. Exceptional communication, adaptability, and the ability to inspire teams are standout soft skills in this position. These competencies are crucial for delivering innovative campaigns, meeting client goals, and leading creative teams effectively within tight deadlines.

How does a contract creative director typically collaborate with in-house teams and external clients during a project?

As a Contract Creative Director, you’ll often act as a bridge between in-house creative teams and external clients. This involves leading brainstorming sessions, translating client briefs into actionable creative concepts, and providing clear feedback and direction to designers, copywriters, and other team members. You’ll frequently attend client meetings to present ideas and gather feedback, ensuring deliverables align with both client expectations and brand guidelines. Strong communication and adaptability are key, as you may work across multiple projects and industries, often requiring quick onboarding and rapport-building with new teams.

What is a contract creative director?

A Contract Creative Director is a senior-level creative professional hired on a temporary or project basis to oversee the creative direction of campaigns, branding, or design projects. Unlike full-time creative directors, they typically work for a set period or on specific assignments, lending their expertise to guide teams and ensure the creative vision aligns with the client's goals. Contract Creative Directors often collaborate with designers, copywriters, and other team members to deliver high-quality results within tight deadlines. This role is common in advertising, marketing, design agencies, and companies seeking fresh perspectives or specialized skills for particular projects.

What is the difference between Contract Creative Director vs Contract Art Director?

AspectContract Creative DirectorContract Art Director
CredentialsPortfolio, relevant design/creative experience, sometimes a degree in design or related fieldPortfolio, design experience, often a degree in design or visual arts
Work EnvironmentLeads creative teams, oversees overall vision, collaborates with clients and stakeholdersFocuses on visual concepts, manages design teams, works closely with creative directors and clients
Industry UsageAdvertising, marketing, branding agencies, media companiesAdvertising agencies, media, publishing, branding firms

Contract Creative Directors and Contract Art Directors both require strong portfolios and relevant experience. The main difference lies in scope: Creative Directors oversee the entire creative process and team, while Art Directors focus on visual design and execution. Both roles are vital in creative industries, but their responsibilities and leadership levels differ.

How much do you get paid as a contract creative director?

Contract creative directors typically earn between $50 and $150 per hour, depending on experience, industry, and project scope. Annual equivalent compensation can range from $100,000 to $300,000 for full-time project durations, with rates often higher for specialized skills or high-profile clients.
What are the most commonly searched types of Creative Director jobs in Reston, VA? The most popular types of Creative Director jobs in Reston, VA are:
What job categories do people searching Contract Creative Director jobs in Reston, VA look for? The top searched job categories for Contract Creative Director jobs in Reston, VA are:
What cities near Reston, VA are hiring for Contract Creative Director jobs? Cities near Reston, VA with the most Contract Creative Director job openings:
Contract Creative Director jobs near you

Head of Marketing and Creative

Montage Marketing Group

Rockville, MD • On-site, Remote

$115K - $125K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Re-posted 19 days ago

Job description

Are you a strategic marketing creative who thrives at the intersection of bold vision and disciplined strategy? Do you excel at transforming complex organizational challenges into compelling, integrated campaigns that captivate audiences across digital, print, video, and emerging media platforms? Montage is looking for a Head of Marketing & Creative who can lead with both intellectual rigor and imaginative power - elevating ideas into distinctive, high-impact work for private and public sector clients alike.
This is a full-time, exempt position working a hybrid schedule at Montage's Rockville, MD office and the employee's home office. The anticipated annual salary for this position is $115,000-$125,000.
About the Role:
The Head of Marketing and Creative is a senior leader responsible for defining and driving the organization's strategic marketing vision while overseeing the full spectrum of creative and multimedia production services delivered to clients. This role blends high-level strategic marketing expertise with advanced conceptual leadership, guiding the development of bold, differentiated, and compelling campaigns that move audiences and achieve measurable impact.
The ideal candidate is both a strategist and a conceptual architect - capable of translating complex business objectives into cohesive, compelling, and visually powerful narratives across digital, print, video, and emerging media platforms (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence). This hands-on leader will guide, coach, and develop teams of subject matter experts to elevate creative standards, strengthen client relationships, and ensure marketing solutions are innovative, data-informed, and aligned with organizational goals.
Key Responsibilities:
Marketing and Creative Leadership
  • Define, document, and execute the organization's marketing and creative strategy across client engagements, business development initiatives, and internal brand positioning, ensuring alignment to company growth objectives and client outcomes.
  • Act as a senior strategic advisor to clients, leading discovery and strategy sessions to translate complex customer, policy, regulatory, or organizational challenges into clear marketing frameworks, campaign architectures, and actionable creative briefs.
  • Design and oversee integrated, multi-channel campaign strategies, aligning brand, messaging, audience insights, and channel selection to drive measurable performance outcomes and contract deliverables.
  • Lead long-range marketing and creative planning, developing roadmaps and phased execution plans for a diverse portfolio of engagements, including large-scale public-sector and highly regulated initiatives.
  • Set and enforce creative quality and strategic standards, reviewing and approving creative output to ensure work reflects intellectual rigor, originality, and strategic coherence, and meets or exceeds client requirements, brand guidelines, and contractual expectations.

Creative and Conceptual Direction
  • Lead the conceptual development of high-impact, differentiated campaigns, setting the creative vision for work that is strategically grounded, emotionally resonant, and clearly distinct in the market.
  • Facilitate and lead concept-generation processes, including strategy workshops, creative discovery sessions, storyboard reviews, and concept inception phases, ensuring ideas are rooted in audience insight and aligned to campaign objectives.
  • Provide executive oversight to all creative disciplines, including graphic design, brand development, copywriting, multimedia storytelling, and video production, ensuring seamless collaboration and consistent creative execution across teams.
  • Elevate creative quality and consistency by establishing and enforcing design systems, brand frameworks, and quality-control standards, ensuring creative output is scalable, repeatable, and aligned with both client and organizational brand expectations.
  • Champion a culture of experimentation and innovation, encouraging teams to test new approaches in narrative structure, visual language, and cross-platform engagement while balancing creative risk with strategic intent.
  • Serve as the final creative authority on major client deliverables, providing high-level creative direction, resolving conceptual challenges, and granting final approval to ensure work meets strategic, creative, and contractual standards.
  • Continuously monitor market, cultural, and industry trends, acting as a trusted subject-matter expert and advocate for innovative approaches that strengthen client solutions and keep the organization's creative output ahead of the curve.

Marketing Tool Integration
  • Oversee end-to-end video and multimedia production, owning storytelling strategy, scripting, visual direction, production execution, and post-production review to ensure content delivers strategic impact and creative excellence.
  • Design and produce integrated marketing tools for use across video, social media, digital platforms, traditional marketing channels, and live environments such as events and exhibits, ensuring consistency of message and brand expression.
  • Orchestrate the development of integrated marketing assets across channels, coordinating video, social, digital, and experiential elements into cohesive toolkits that support campaign objectives and client deliverables.
  • Ensure all multimedia and marketing tools are fully integrated into broader campaign strategies, reinforcing narrative continuity, audience targeting, and performance goals across touchpoints.
  • Lead the development of digital experiences and interactive content, including emerging formats and technologies, to enhance audience engagement and expand storytelling opportunities across platforms.
  • Set standards and best practices for marketing tool integration, ensuring assets are scalable, reusable, and optimized for cross-platform deployment while maintaining creative quality and operational efficiency.

Client & Stakeholder Engagement
  • Serve as the primary Marketing and Creative subject-matter expert on key client accounts, ensuring brand integrity, strategic alignment, and full compliance with contractual and regulatory requirements across all deliverables.
  • Lead the development and presentation of strategic marketing recommendations and creative concepts to internal executive leadership and external client stakeholders, clearly articulating rationale, value, and expected outcomes.
  • Facilitate and lead strategic workshops, discovery sessions, and visioning engagements with clients and internal teams to surface insights, align on objectives, and define clear creative and campaign direction.
  • Translate stakeholder input into actionable marketing and creative strategies, ensuring alignment between client priorities, business objectives, and execution plans.
  • Act as a senior escalation point for marketing and creative decisions, resolving alignment issues, managing expectations, and ensuring stakeholder confidence throughout the engagement lifecycle.

Team & Operational Leadership
  • Build, lead, and mentor a multidisciplinary Marketing and Creative team, including strategists, designers, producers, digital specialists, and subject-matter experts, fostering high performance, collaboration, and creative excellence.
  • Establish and scale creative operating processes that balance innovation with efficiency, enabling teams to deliver high-quality work consistently while meeting timelines, budgets, and client expectations.
  • Oversee resource planning, workload distribution, and production timelines, ensuring teams are appropriately staffed, priorities are clear, and deliverables are produced on time and to defined quality standards.
  • Set and enforce quality-control standards across all marketing and creative output, proactively identifying risks related to scope, resourcing, or execution and intervening to maintain delivery excellence.
  • Collaborate closely with Business Development, Data & Analytics, Client Success, and Strategic Communications leaders, aligning creative execution with growth objectives, client strategies, and organizational priorities.
  • Partner with creative, communications, and marketing professionals to develop individualized performance and career development plans, supporting skill growth, leadership development, and long-term retention of top talent.

Performance & Growth
  • Drive revenue growth through the development and delivery of high-impact marketing and creative solutions, expanding service offerings and ensuring client work directly supports account growth, retention, and long-term value.
  • Partner with Business Development to support growth initiatives, contributing to proposal strategy, creative positioning, visual storytelling, graphics, packaging, and presentation development that strengthen win probability and differentiation.
  • Lead the creation of persuasive pitch materials and thought leadership assets, ensuring proposals and presentations clearly communicate strategic insight, creative value, and measurable outcomes.
  • Present and sell marketing and creative ideas to prospective and existing clients, delivering compelling, executive-level presentations that build confidence, align stakeholders, and advance new business opportunities.
  • Leverage analytics, performance data, and audience insights to evaluate campaign effectiveness, continuously refining creative and channel strategies to improve results and demonstrate return on investment (ROI).
  • Translate performance metrics into clear growth narratives, using data to inform optimization, support client recommendations, and reinforce the value of marketing and creative investments.

Qualifications:
  • 10-15 years of progressive leadership experience in marketing, brand strategy, integrated communications, or design.
  • Bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, visual media, graphic design or related field.
  • Demonstrated success leading complex, multi-channel campaigns for enterprise or public-sector clients.
  • Deep expertise in strategic marketing frameworks, brand architecture, and audience segmentation.
  • Strong portfolio demonstrating sophisticated conceptual thinking and creative execution.
  • Proven ability to lead and inspire high-performing, multidisciplinary teams.
  • Exceptional presentation and executive communication skills.
  • Proven experience working with a broad range of media, including digital, social, advertising, events, collateral, print, radio broadcast, tv, and video.
  • Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with tight deadlines, simultaneously managing multiple projects.
  • Applied working knowledge of ADA, 508 Compliance, WCAG, and related impacts on creative outputs and products.

Preferred Experience and Skills:
  • Experience in a marketing agency or consulting environment serving both private and public organizations.
  • Background in public-sector communications, policy communications, workforce, health, environment, science, or technology.
  • Experience in strategic communications, copywriting, earned media or public relations.
  • Master's degree in marketing, communications, business, or related field.
  • Experience supporting state, local, or federal government campaigns.
  • Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite.

About Montage Marketing Group
Montage Marketing Group is an award-winning marketing firm focused on making connections-and making a difference. Our people are innovators and co-creators, visionaries, and hard-working change makers. Our purpose is to make connections with people, to get them to stop and think, to feel and act. Proven experts in engagement, outreach, communication, event planning, and experiential design, we're a third party-certified woman business enterprise, and a member of the US Small Business Administration's 8(a) program.
Why Montage?
Because we're a caring team of collaborative creatives-people who care as deeply about each other as we do about our work. We know that true teamwork happens only when each person's voice is valued, each one's contribution is celebrated, and success is always shared. We encourage each team member to realize their full potential. And we invite people to make our agency their pathway to fulfillment.
Montage Marketing Group is an E-Verify company and a Drug-Free Workplace.
Benefits
  • Medical
  • Dental
  • Vision
  • 401K Retirement with match
  • Paid Time Off (PTO)
  • Paid Holidays
  • Paid Parental Leave for Birthing & Non-Birthing Parents
  • Paid Jury Duty, Bereavement Leave
  • Short-Term & Long-Term Disability Insurance
  • Group Term Life Insurance
  • Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
  • Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
  • Accident Insurance
  • Critical Illness Insurance
  • Hospital Indemnity Insurance
  • LegalShield
  • IDShield
  • FinFit Financial Wellness Program
  • Working Advantage Discount Program

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