Director Creative Operations Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

We're looking for a Senior Director, Creative to lead and scale our design function as a conceptual, strategic, and operational pillar of the Creative and Brand organization.

This role is responsible not only for visual excellence, but for building, developing, and maintaining a high-performing design team grounded in strong conceptual thinking. Success in this role depends on the ability to set a clear creative bar, move decisively when standards aren't met, and actively mentor emerging leaders so responsibility and ownership can be pushed downward-freeing this role to operate up, out, and across the organization.

The Senior Director, Creative partners closely with strategy, brand, and creative leadership to ensure our visual systems are insight-led, scalable, and emotionally resonant.

Leadership, Team Building & Talent Development

• Lead and scale a high-performing, conceptually strong design team spanning brand, motion, and multi-disciplinary creative
• Build teams intentionally-prioritizing conceptual thinking, taste, and strategic fluency, not just executional skill
• Establish and uphold a clear, non-negotiable quality bar for design, craft, and thinking
• Act decisively when performance does not meet expectations-making changes quickly, thoughtfully, and in service of the team's long-term health
• Mentor and develop junior leaders so they are prepared to take on delegated ownership, responsibilities, and team leadership
• Push leadership downward, enabling designers and emerging leads to operate with confidence and autonomy
• Create clear growth paths, expectations, and feedback mechanisms for all levels of the team

Systems, Process & Operational Scale

• Design and implement repeatable design systems, workflows, and processes that allow the team to deliver consistently high-quality work at scale
• Identify inefficiencies in briefing, reviews, production, and delivery-and proactively solve for them
• Partner with Creative Ops and Marketing Ops to ensure design processes scale with organizational growth
• Build templates, frameworks, and visual systems that reduce friction and increase speed without compromising quality
• Balance craft excellence with operational rigor, making "great work, done efficiently" the standard

Strategic & Conceptual Leadership

• Partner deeply with the strategy function within the Creative and Brand team to ensure design is rooted in clear strategic intent
• Translate insights, positioning, and brand frameworks into compelling, scalable visual systems
• Pressure-test strategy through a design lens-helping refine ideas into clear, emotionally resonant expressions
• Ensure design work ladders back to brand and business objectives, not just aesthetic goals
• Champion conceptual thinking across the design team, ensuring ideas drive visuals-not the other way around

Strategy Partnership & Integration

• Act as a creative counterpart to strategy leadership, collaborating early to shape creative direction and success criteria
• Ensure the design team operates from shared strategic frameworks, not isolated project briefs
• Help codify the strategy into clear visual guidance that enables faster, more confident execution
• Establish strong working rhythms with strategy partners through working sessions, reviews, and planning checkpoints
• Proactively surface and resolve misalignment between strategy and execution

Cross-Functional & Executive Leadership

• Operate upward by partnering with senior leadership and executives to align design strategy with business priorities
• Operate across marketing by building trusted relationships with Brand, Product Marketing, Demand, Events, Content, and Comms teams
• Serve as the final decision-maker on visual direction for the brand
• Anticipate cross-functional needs and creative risks before they arise-and build processes to address them
• Represent the design function as a strategic partner, not just a service function

Creative Oversight & Craft

• Own and evolve the visual identity and design systems for the brand across all touchpoints
• Provide creative direction across:
• Brand and campaign design
• Website and digital experiences
• Event and experiential marketing
• Paid media, OOH, and motion
• Internal-facing brand materials and presentations
• Partner closely with motion designers to integrate movement into the brand system
• Oversee freelancers, vendors, and production partners to ensure consistency and quality
• Step into hands-on design selectively when strategic or conceptual leadership is required

• 15+ years of professional design experience, with senior leadership responsibility
• 5+ years of people management experience, including building and evolving teams
• Proven ability to build conceptually strong, high-performing creative teams
• Strong strategic thinker who connects design decisions to brand and business outcomes
• Comfortable making difficult people decisions in the service of quality and scale
• Experienced in both agency and client-side environments
• Deep expertise across design tools and systems (Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, motion fundamentals)
• Confident partnering with developers, strategists, and senior stakeholders

• The design team consistently delivers conceptually strong, visually compelling work at scale
• Clear systems exist for how design work is conceived, executed, reviewed, and delivered
• Junior leaders are growing into meaningful ownership roles, reducing dependency on senior leadership
• Performance issues are addressed quickly and constructively
• Strategy and design are tightly integrated, with fewer downstream misalignments
• Cross-functional partners view design as a strategic thought partner, not just an execution arm
• The brand feels cohesive, intentional, and emotionally resonant across every touchpoint
• You are not waiting for guidance/direction, but proactively bringing solutions based on your deep knowledge of the business and partners

For candidates based in the United States, the pay range for this position at the start of employment is expected to be between $137,000 and $205,000/year, with an expected On Target Earnings (OTE) between $163,000 and $245,000/year (including bonus or commission). Your exact offer may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition to cash compensation, this role qualifies for a comprehensive Total Rewards package that includes equity grants of restricted stock (RSUs) so that you will own a piece of our company.

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