Creative Director, Art

Tombras; Portland (OR); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Dog-friendly offices

Flexible PTO

Generous parental leave

Medical (employee + dependents)

Job summary

Tombras in Portland, OR is seeking a Creative Director, Art to lead the creative vision across brands and campaigns. You’ll inspire multidisciplinary teams and partner with clients to craft work that is strategically grounded, culturally relevant, and unforgettable.

The role demands a leader who mentors others, champions craft, and drives integrated campaigns across brand, digital, social, experiential, and video.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in a creative agency or equivalent
• Experience leading integrated campaigns across brand, digital, social, experiential, and content creation
• Portfolio demonstrating breakthrough creative thinking and measurable business impact
• Strong experience presenting work to senior clients and executives
• Excellent communication, storytelling, and presentation skills
• Proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite and modern creative workflows
• Collaborative leadership style that builds trust and elevates teams
• Passion for culture, creativity, design, and evolving creative landscape
• Ability to lead, coach, and develop multidisciplinary teams

Responsibilities

• Set and champion the creative vision across agency work with high standards of strategic thinking and craft
• Lead development of integrated campaigns across multiple channels
• Push teams to develop distinctive, memorable ideas that move clients' businesses forward
• Provide thoughtful creative direction throughout concept to final execution
• Inspire, coach, and develop designers, copywriters, art directors, and freelancers
• Foster a collaborative environment that values diverse perspectives and creative risk-taking
• Provide regular feedback to help creatives grow in skill and confidence
• Lead by example with curiosity, humility, and hands-on leadership
• Build strong client partnerships by presenting work and translating business challenges into creative solutions
• Partner with account and strategy teams to align creative with client objectives
• Support agency growth through marketing, pitches, and thought leadership
• Identify opportunities to improve creative processes and collaboration across teams
• Shape the agency's future through culture, talent development, and innovation

Skills

Leadership

Mentoring

Portfolio

Brand development

Adobe Creative Suite

Storytelling

Presentation skills

Cross-channel campaigns

Collaboration

Culture & creativity

Job description

Tombras, a 600+ person, full-service, national advertising agency with a digital mindset, is seeking a Creative Director, Art.

You’ll be joining one of the top independent agencies in North America.Connecting Data & Creativity for Business Results® is working for our clients and creating a flywheel affect fueling both client and agency growth. You’ll be a part of a highly creative agency that has been recognized by AdAge, Adweek, Communication Arts, Fast Company, Forbes and Fortune. Tombras was recently named 2025 AdAge Agency of the year and 2024 AdAge Independent Agency of the Year.

We are looking for a Creative Director who believes great ideas can come from anywhere and knows how to bring them to life.

As our Creative Director, you'll lead the creative vision for brands, inspire multidisciplinary teams, and partner closely with clients to create work that is strategically grounded, culturally relevant, and impossible to ignore. You'll champion creative excellence while fostering an environment where curiosity, collaboration, and experimentation thrive.

This is a highly collaborative leadership role. You'll work alongside Strategy, Account Services, Production, and fellow creatives to shape ideas from the initial brief through execution, and ensure every project reflects exceptional craft and delivers meaningful business results.

The ideal candidate is an inspiring leader, an exceptional storyteller, and an experienced creative who enjoys mentoring others as much as creating breakthrough work. You'll help grow our clients, our people, and our agency by setting a high creative standard while building a culture where people are excited to do the best work of their careers.

If you're energized by building brands, solving complex challenges, pitching new business, and rolling up your sleeves alongside a talented team, we'd love to meet you.

Where you'll be working: Portland, OR

What you'll be doing:

• Set and champion the creative vision across agency work, ensuring every project meets a high standard of strategic thinking and creative excellence.
• Lead the development of integrated campaigns across brand, digital, social, experiential, video, print, and emerging platforms.
• Push teams beyond expected solutions to develop distinctive, memorable ideas that move clients' businesses forward.
• Provide thoughtful, actionable creative direction throughout the entire creative process—from concept through final execution.
• Inspire, coach, and develop a multidisciplinary team of designers, copywriters, art directors, content creators, and freelance talent.
• Foster a collaborative environment where ideas are welcomed, diverse perspectives are valued, and creative risk-taking is encouraged.
• Provide regular feedback that helps creatives grow their skills and confidence.
• Lead by example with curiosity, humility, and a hands-on approach.
• Client Partnership
• Build trusted relationships with clients by confidently presenting work, facilitating creative conversations, and translating business challenges into compelling creative solutions.
• Partner with account and strategy teams to align creative work with client objectives and audience insights.
• Navigate feedback with professionalism while protecting the integrity of the creative work.
• Agency Growth
• Play an active role in agency marketing, new business pitches, and thought leadership.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen creative processes and improve collaboration across teams.
• Help shape the future of the agency by contributing to culture, talent development, and creative innovation.

What you bring:

You're equal parts visionary and collaborator. You care deeply about the work, but you care just as much about the people creating it. You bring strategic thinking, creative confidence, and emotional intelligence to every project. You know when to push for a stronger idea, when to coach a team member through a challenge, and when to celebrate great work. You thrive in a fast-moving agency environment where every day is different, and you're energized by building brands, solving problems, and creating work that people remember.

You also bring:

• 12+ years of experience in a creative agency, with experience leading integrated campaigns across multiple channels.
• Previous experience leading, mentoring, and developing creative teams.
• A portfolio demonstrating breakthrough creative thinking, exceptional craft, and measurable business impact.
• Strong experience presenting creative work to senior clients and executive stakeholders.
• Expertise across brand development, advertising, digital, social media, experiential, and content creation.
• Excellent communication, storytelling, and presentation skills.
• Proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite and modern creative workflows.
• A collaborative leadership style that builds trust, encourages feedback, and elevates those around you.
• A passion for culture, creativity, design, and the evolving creative landscape.

Why you'll want to work at Tombras:

• Family - It comes first, on every list. Tombras has been family-run since day 1, we strive to facilitate a family-oriented environment rooted in supporting one another.
• Dog-friendly offices
• Flexible PTO
• Generous parental leave for primary and non-primary caregivers
• Medical (PPO or High Deductible option) for employee + dependents
• A company culture of promotions from within and an atmosphere allowing for varied and rapid career development.

Tombras is proud to be an equal opportunity employer dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce.

Tombras is an E-Verify employer and participates in the E-Verify program.

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice. Job may require traveling overnight, driving long distances as required and sitting for extended periods of time with occasional walking and standing and occasionally lifting or carrying articles weighing less than 10 pounds.