Freelance Animation Jobs in Michigan (NOW HIRING)

Position Description: About the RoleAt DACUT Cannabis, we are building more than cannabis brands. We are building products, retail environments, and experiences that customers remember. Every package, promotion, store display, campaign, and product launch begins with exceptional creative.This is not a traditional graphic design position, and it is not a traditional Creative Director role either. We have an in-house design team, multiple brands, an active retail footprint, and a growing wholesale business. What we need is the person who turns creative demand into a system—clear ownership, clear priorities, clear deadlines, and consistently excellent work that ships on time.The role is roughly 60% creative and 40% operational. You will set the quality bar and protect brand consistency across DACUT retail and Gramazon wholesale. You will also own the calendar, the request queue, designer workloads, the approval path, and the vendor relationships that make the work actually happen.Cannabis experience is welcomed but not required. We will teach you our products, our compliance requirements, and our industry. What we cannot teach is how to run a creative department that delivers at volume without chaos. That is what we are hiring for.What Makes This Role DifferentThis role has clear lanes, and they are worth understanding before you apply.Marketing owns strategy: campaigns, media, digital performance, analytics, SEO, web development, paid advertising, and marketing ROI. Marketing answers what we should be putting into the market and why.You own execution.You answer how the work gets made, how good it is, and whether it ships on time. The studio is yours—the people, the standard, the throughput, and the brand integrity of everything that leaves the building. You are not here to be the bottleneck. You are here to remove it.Essential ResponsibilitiesCreative LeadershipLead the creative vision for DACUT and Gramazon.Set the creative standard and quality bar across all brands.Review and approve creative work before release.Provide daily direction, coaching, and mentorship to designers.Remain hands-on creatively and capable of producing work at the same level expected of the team.Brand Development & StewardshipOwn and maintain comprehensive brand guidelines.Protect brand identity across packaging, retail environments, digital assets, wholesale materials, and licensing.Develop retail marketing collateral, sales materials, and licensing assets.Serve as the final creative quality control before any project is printed, produced, or released.Packaging, Print & Vendor ProductionOwn packaging design and production from concept through release.Manage packaging systems, templates, dielines, and production-ready artwork across all SKUs.Coordinate packaging timelines with product launch schedules.Partner closely with Compliance to ensure regulatory reviews become part of the process rather than a last-minute obstacle.Manage printers, freelancers, animators, production vendors, and outside creative partners.Hold vendors accountable for quality, deadlines, and budget.Creative Operations & ThroughputOwn the creative request queue from intake through final delivery.Lead daily stand-up meetings and weekly production meetings.Build and maintain creative calendars, launch schedules, and production timelines.Develop SOPs, workflows, and approval processes that create predictable, scalable creative output.Always know what is due, what is behind schedule, and where resources need to be shifted.Team Leadership & SpecializationManage, coach, and develop the in-house creative team.Create clearly defined ownership within the department, including packaging, compliance, retail marketing, promotions, digital assets, wholesale, licensing, and production.Balance workloads across designers.Provide direct feedback while maintaining accountability for quality and deadlines.Build a collaborative, high-performing creative culture.Asset Management & SystemsBuild and maintain an organized creative asset library.Develop templates and creative toolkits that allow retail, wholesale, and licensing partners to self-serve when appropriate.Leverage AI and automation tools to improve creative throughput and operational efficiency.Cross-Functional CollaborationPartner closely with Marketing, Retail Operations, Sales, Procurement, Manufacturing, Licensing, and Executive Leadership.Ensure creative execution aligns with business priorities, product launches, retail initiatives, and wholesale growth.What Success Looks LikeCreative output becomes faster, more organized, and more scalable.Packaging quality reaches a best-in-class standard.Projects launch on time.Designers have clearly defined ownership and accountability.Creative becomes a strategic business partner that enables growth rather than creating bottlenecks.Success in this role will be measured by:Throughput: Requests completed per week, average turnaround time, and age of the open request queue.On-Time Delivery: Product launch schedules, packaging timelines, and print production deadlines.Quality: Revision cycles, rework after approval, and brand consistency across all creative assets.Team Health: Designer utilization, workload balance, specialization coverage, retention, and professional development.Cost Control: Print production, vendor spending, freelance budgets, and overall production costs.Department Development: Within your first 90 days, present a data-backed recommendation for the future size, structure, and specialization of the creative department.QualificationsRequired5+ years of graphic design experience with a strong branding and packaging portfolio.3+ years leading creative teams, including assigning work, reviewing creative output, coaching employees, and managing deadlines.Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite with exceptional hands-on design skills.Experience designing packaging for consumer products or regulated industries, including dielines, print specifications, and production-ready files.Experience managing print vendors, production timelines, and production quality.Experience managing creative request queues or traffic management systems.Demonstrated success creating workflows, SOPs, and approval processes from the ground up.Experience directing motion graphics, animation, 3D rendering, or video production through internal teams or external vendors.Excellent organizational skills with experience managing budgets, reporting, and operational metrics.Must be at least 21 years of age and able to obtain and maintain all required state cannabis credentials.PreferredExperience in consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, cannabis, or another regulated industry.Experience managing multiple brands within a brand-house environment.Experience developing retail marketing materials, point-of-sale displays, wholesale collateral, and B2B sales assets.Experience supporting licensing programs, brand toolkits, and partner-facing asset systems.Experience with Figma, project management platforms, WordPress, Meta Ads, SEO, UX/UI principles, AI-assisted creative workflows, and creative automation tools.Who Will Thrive HereYou are an operator with taste.You wake up thinking about what is due today, what is behind schedule, which designer needs support, and whether packaging has cleared compliance. You find satisfaction in a clean request queue and an on-time product launch. You believe process is what allows great creative to happen consistently at scale—not what gets in the way.This role is not the right fit if you want to spend your days creating concepts while handing execution to others, if you require a producer beneath you to stay organized, or if you're looking for a title without measurable accountability.What We OfferCompetitive salary based on experience plus performance incentives.Medical, dental, and vision insurance.Paid Time Off.Employee discount program.Career advancement opportunities within a rapidly growing organization.Collaborative executive leadership team.The opportunity to build and lead the creative department for one of Michigan's fastest-growing cannabis companies.Real ownership over brands, creative systems, team structure, and department strategy.Apply TodayThis is a build. You are inheriting real brands, real volume, real budget, and a talented team that has never had a conductor. You will have the authority to design how this department works and the mandate to prove what it should become.If you want to point at a creative operation a year from now and say, "I built that," we'd love to meet you.