Creative Director

Fort West; Portland (OR); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage (

Voluntary benefits program

Six weeks paid time off

401(k) plan with employer matching

Job summary

Fort West in Portland is seeking a Creative Director to set the creative bar across brand, marketing, and product work. You will be hands-on with big ideas and lead the team through concepting, writing, and presenting, especially on new business and early engagements.

You will guide the Design Director and partner with our CEO and EVP on go-to-market strategy. You will own creative direction, ensure brand integrity, and shape campaign systems across channels while mentoring designers, writers,

Qualifications

• 10+ years in creative leadership roles across agency, consultancy, or in-house studios.
• Experience mentoring senior design leaders and growing teams.

Responsibilities

• Translate audience insights into clear briefs and platforms.
• Lead brand creative and design systems across touchpoints.
• Direct campaigns and content from concept to final cut across channels.
• Collaborate with CX, research, and product to align brand and product experiences.
• Lead new business pitches with the CEO and EVP, shaping proposals.

Skills

Creative leadership

Brand identity

Campaign strategy

Team mentorship

AI in creative

Verbal & visual craft

Job description

Fort West is hiring a Creative Director to set the creative bar across brand, marketing, and product work. At the core, your job is to make sure the thinking and the making never drift apart.

We're looking for someone who leads with creative vision and energy, and still wants to play a meaningful role in the work. You'll be hands-on where the big ideas take shape, including concepting, writing, and presenting, especially on new business and early in engagements. From there, you'll direct the team through design, production, and delivery.

You'll join an established team that includes our Design Director, who leads design strategy and execution today. You'll manage and mentor the Design Director as your primary creative partner. They'll continue to own day-to-day design delivery while you set the overall creative direction.

You'll also partner with our CEO and EVP of Client Strategy on go-to-market strategy and new business, and work alongside our research, CX, and technology leads to bring one point of view to everything Fort West does.

What you'll do

• Partner with research and strategy leads to translate audience insights and positioning into clear creative briefs and platforms.
• Bring a creative point of view to the strategy team’s category and the trend research, and spot where creative can break from the pack before competitors do.
• Hold every concept to the strategy, and push back on work that plays to internal stakeholders instead of the market.

Lead brand creative

• Build brand identity and design systems, including motion principles, that hold up across every touchpoint.
• Champion AI-ready brand systems built for discoverability, adaptability, and agentic experiences.
• Guide naming and verbal identity so the brand's strategic intent carries into every word.
• Shape how brand architecture shows up so portfolio brands strengthen each other rather than compete.

Set the bar for marketing and campaigns

• Own creative guidelines that give client teams clear direction and a high bar.
• Build campaign systems that scale across channels and initiatives.
• Direct creative that is purpose built for each channel.
• Oversee content creation, from concept through final cut.
• Lead creative for website design, from landing pages to full editorial platforms.

Carry the brand into product and experience

• Work with research, CX, and engineering leads to ensure the brand promise and the product reality are the same thing.
• Make sure product design systems keep the brand intact as products launch and evolve.
• Partner with CX on prototyping and concept testing, so what gets tested carries the brand before investment scales.
• Help define how AI shows up in interfaces and experiences so it advances the brand rather than dilutes it.

Help win new business

• Partner with the CEO and EVP on new business, from first conversation through final pitch.
• Lead the creative side of pitches and proposals, including concept development, narrative, visual direction, and case study selection.
• Develop a point of view and spec creative (when appropriate) that show prospects how Fort West can address their needs.
• Help scope creative work in proposals so timelines, team, and deliverables are realistic and winnable.
• Present creative in pitch meetings alongside the CEO and EVP.
• Keep Fort West's credentials, case studies, and capabilities materials current and compelling.

Lead the team

• Manage and mentor the Design Director through regular one-on-ones, candid feedback on craft and leadership, and a shared development plan that expands their scope and visibility.
• Hire, mentor, and grow designers, writers, and makers alongside the Design Director, and build a culture of conviction and craft.
• Shape and grow Fort West's creative team as the company's needs evolve, recommending roles, structure, and hiring plans for approval by the CEO and EVP.
• Measure what changed, not what shipped, and hold the team accountable to outcomes.

How you'll work with the team

You own the creative outcome on every engagement, including final sign-off before work goes to a client or to market. Strategy, research, customer experience, and development each have their own lead, and you work alongside them as a peer. Our CEO and EVP of Client Strategy own new business and client relationships, and you own the creative that helps win and keep them. When priorities conflict, you hold the line on creative quality and brand integrity, and the relevant lead holds the line on their discipline.

The Design Director is your closest creative partner and a direct report. You set the creative vision, direction, and quality bar. The Design Director leads design execution, design systems, and the team's day-to-day work. Together you'll agree on how work is staffed, reviewed, and presented, so clients see one creative point of view.

What you bring

Experience

• 10+ years in creative roles, with at least 3 years leading creative teams at an agency, consultancy, or in-house brand studio.
• Experience managing senior design leaders, such as design directors or associate creative directors, and helping them grow in their careers..
• A portfolio of strategy-led work across brand identity, campaigns, and digital experiences, with evidence of market results.
• Fluency in visual and verbal craft. You can direct a designer, a writer, and a motion artist with equal clarity.
• Experience building scalable design systems and campaign platforms, not just one-off executions.
• Comfort working from research. You use audience, positioning, and perception data to sharpen ideas, not decorate them.
• Strong client presence and a record of earning trust from senior executives.
• A track record of leading creative on new business pitches and helping win work at an agency or consultancy.
• Hands-on experience with AI tools in the creative process, and a clear view of where they add value and where they don't.

How you think and work

• Outside-in. You start with what the market has already decided, not what the room believes.
• Candid. You'd rather name the real gap than flatter a client.
• Strategist and maker. You're as comfortable in the brief as in the final cut.

What success looks like

First 90 days:

Learn every active engagement, build a strong working relationship with the Design Director, agree on how you divide ownership, and set shared standards for briefs and critique.

First 6 months:

Lead creative on at least one full engagement from research through launch, established a repeatable creative process across brand, marketing, and product,, and lead creative on at least two new business pitches alongside the CEO and EVP.

First year:

Grow the creative team, raise new business win rates through stronger pitch creative and proposals, show measurable client outcomes tied to the work, and see the Design Director take on expanded scope and client visibility.

• 100% paid medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Access to additional voluntary benefits, including term life insurance, accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, FSA, and HSA (depending on elected plan).
• Six weeks of paid time off annually, including three weeks of discretionary PTO, up to ten paid holidays, and the week between December 25 and January 1.
• 401(k) plan with employer matching.