Creative Development Manager Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Role Summary/Purpose:

Are you a hungry, curious strategist who loves connecting insights, trends, customer understanding and business goals into creative that actually matters? Goldmind, Synchrony's full-service in-house agency, is looking for a strategic, relationship-driven creative strategist to partner closely with our Health and Wellness business and marketing teams.

This role sits upstream with our business clients helping connect marketing priorities, customer insights and organizational goals into integrated solutions that drive impact.

We're looking for someone who is equal parts strategist, consultant, collaborator and builder. Someone who thrives in ambiguity, spots opportunities others miss, and knows how to bring cross-functional teams together around a shared vision.

You'll help shape positioning, messaging, customer journeys, campaign approaches and creative ideation across channels, ensuring the work is grounded in real audience understanding, clear business objectives and meaningful strategic thinking.

If you love turning complexity into clarity, translating insights into action and helping creative teams produce smarter, more effective work, we'd love to meet you.

Essential Responsibilities:

Strategic partnership and business integration:

• Build trusted relationships with marketing and business partners to understand priorities, goals and upcoming initiatives.

• Operate upstream within planning conversations to identify opportunities before projects formally enter agency workflow.

• Partner closely with Account Management, Creative, Production and Project Management teams to align solutions against business needs.

• Help turn enterprise initiatives, customer insights, campaign goals and channel strategies into cohesive creative opportunities.

• Serve as a strategic thought partner to internal stakeholders by helping shape marketing approaches, engagement opportunities and creative solutions.

Creative and customer strategy:

• Leverage consumer insights, data, trends, research and market intelligence to inform strategic recommendations and support creative direction.

• Provide insights and strategic thinking that guide positioning, messaging approaches, customer journeys and communications strategies across channels.

• Support creative work with clear business objectives and audience clarity.

• Partner with creative teams throughout development to maintain strategic alignment and effectiveness.

• Translate ambiguous business challenges into actionable strategic direction that informs the campaign creative approaches

Collaboration and strategic leadership:

• Facilitate strategic discussions, workshops and collaborative planning sessions with stakeholders and internal agency teams.

• Foster collaboration across Strategy, Account, Creative, PM and partner teams to improve alignment, clarity and execution.

• Serve as a connector across disciplines, helping teams navigate complexity and move indicatives forward effectively.

• Guide teams toward solutions that balance customer needs, business goals, speed, scalability and creative excellence.

• Support a culture of curiosity, collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement.

• Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree or in lieu of degree, High School Diploma/GED and 8+ years' experience in marketing, creative business or agency.

• Proven ability to build relationships and influence cross-functional stakeholders within complex organizations.

• Strong strategic thinking, presentation, storytelling and communication skills.

• Experience translating business needs and customer insights into actionable creative and marketing solutions.

• Experience working closely with account management, creative and marketing teams in fast-paced agency or in-house environments.

• Ability to navigate ambiguity, prioritize effectively and proactively identify opportunities for impact.

• Experience developing strategy for social media, digital advertising, websites, web applications and mobile apps.

• Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience supporting healthcare, wellness, financial services or other highly regulated industries.

• Familiarity with customer journey development, audience segmentation and experience strategy.

• Experience facilitating workshops, stakeholder alignment sessions or strategic planning engagements.

• Strong understanding of creative development processes and integrated agency workflows.

• Working knowledge of CX, UX and integrated marketing strategy principles.

• Experience using GenAI to support strategic thinking and creative development.

• Familiarity with Figma, FigJam, Adobe Workfront, or similar collaboration tools.

• Portfolio and/or case studies demonstrating strategic thinking and business impact preferred.

Our Way of Working:

We're proud to offer you flexibility. At Synchrony, our way of working allows you to have the option to work from home near one of our Hubs or come into one of our offices.You will be required to commute to your nearestHub (either virtual or physical) for in-person engagement activities such as regularbusiness or team meetings, training and culture events.

*Field Sales and some Commercial team roles may have varied location requirements based upon partner obligations or preferences.

Eligibility Requirements:

• You must be 18 years or older

• You must have a high school diploma or equivalent

• You must be willing to take a drug test, submit to a background investigation and submit fingerprints as part of the onboarding process

• You must be able to satisfy the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.

• New hires (Level 4-7) must have 9 months of continuous service with the company before they are eligible to post on other roles. Once this new hire time in position requirement is met, the associate will have a minimum 6 months' time in position before they can post for future non-exempt roles. Employees, level 8 or greater, must have at least 18 months' time in position before they can post. All internal employees must consistently meet performance expectations and have approval from your manager to post (or the approval of your manager and HR if you don't meet the time in position or performance expectations).

Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required. We will not sponsor individuals for employment visas, now or in the future, for this job opening.All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

Our Commitment:

When you join us, you'll be part of an inclusive culture where your individual skills, experience, and voice are not only heard - but valued. Together, we're building a future where we can all belong, connect, and turn ideals into action. More than 50% of our workforce is engaged in our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), where community and passion intersect to offer a safe space to learn and grow.

This starts when you choose to apply for a role at Synchrony. We ensure all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. We're proud to have an award-winning culture for all.

Reasonable Accommodation Notice:

• Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform your job. Examples of reasonable accommodation include making a change to the application process or work procedures, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.

• If you need special accommodations, please call our Career Support Line so that we can discuss your specific situation. We can be reached at 1-866-301-5627. Representatives are available from 8am - 5pm Monday to Friday, Central Standard Time

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