Creative Director| Director, Design (Hybrid)

Rewardsnetwork

Chicago (IL)

Hybrid

USD 140,000 - 160,000

Full time

8 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus program

PTO & holidays

Dining reimbursement

401(k) plan

Job summary

Rewards Network is seeking an In-House Creative Director to lead an internal team of designers and external content teams. You will ensure differentiated, sophisticated brand experiences across marketing, product, service, digital and physical spaces, supporting nearly 20 white-label programs.

You will guide cross-functional teams to maintain brand integrity, scale design systems, and translate complex value propositions into compelling narratives for restaurants, loyalty partners, and investors.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in art, design, marketing, business.
6+ years of experience in creative, marketing, or design.
Demonstrated experience leading a portfolio of multiple concurrent programs.

Responsibilities

Brand Stewardship: evolve and protect the visual identity and design standards across assets.
Experiential & spatial direction: translate brand pillars into physical touchpoints.
Campaign execution: support multi-channel marketing campaigns from concept to execution.
Product & brand storytelling: create visuals for restaurant offers across customer segments and partners.
Translate new product features and AI innovations into clear creative narratives.
Design system & brand governance: maintain design systems and guidelines across functions.
Interactive & digital craft leadership: direct cutting-edge digital experiences and promotions.
Creative operations: manage workflows, tooling, and resources (e.g., Figma, Adobe CC, AI pipelines).
Cross-functional collaboration: work with Marketing, Product, Partnerships, Engineering, Service.
Content production: oversee photography, videography, campaigns for all channels.
Team cultivation & mentorship: lead designers and copywriters with a high-performance culture.
Company values: embody openness, customer focus, integrity and ownership.

Skills

Brand identity governance

Creative leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Storytelling & narrative design

Education

Bachelor's degree in art, design, marketing, business

6+ years experience in creative/marketing/design

Tools

Figma

Adobe CC

PowerPoint

AI tools

Job description

About Rewards Network

For 41 years, Rewards Network has been helping restaurants grow revenue, increase traffic, and boost customer engagement through innovative financial, marketing services, and premier dining rewards programs. By offering unique card-linked offers, we introduce diners to fantastic restaurant experiences, leveraging advanced technology and data analytics to deliver value to restaurants, diners, and our strategic partners' loyalty programs.

Our Culture

At Rewards Network, you'll be part of a driven and diverse team that excels in collaboration, issue resolution, and taking ownership of both personal growth and the company's success. We take pride in partnering with the world's most powerful loyalty programs to drive full-price paying customers to local restaurants through marketing services and flexible funding options. Our engaging and rewarding environment is designed to help you gain your full potential.

Job Overview

The In-House Creative Director is the guardian of the visual representation of our brand. You will lead an internal team of designers, and external content teams to build differentiated, consistent, sophisticated, recognizable, and engaging brand experiences across every instance where Rewards Network is present: marketing, product, service, digital and physical spaces.

The scope extends well beyond our own brand. Rewards Network powers nearly 20 white label, well established loyalty programs, giving you the opportunity to represent and bring to life some of the most recognized brands globally while ensuring each experience is distinctive, engaging, and true to the partner’s brand.

By working cross-functionally across every team, you ensure that brand identity and integrity shines consistently for our restaurant customers, our loyalty partners, our dining members, our investors, and broadly across our industry. By deeply understanding the competitive landscape, you ensure that our brand is recognized amongst our competitors by differentiated, sophisticated design that communicates thought leadership and success.

This is a hybrid position and requires in-office presence Tuesday through Thursday each week in Chicago.

What you'll bring to the table: (Responsibilities)

Brand Stewardship: Evolve and protect the overarching visual identity, tone of voice, and design standards across all corporate assets and deliverables.
Experiential & Spatial Direction: Partner with events and field teams to translate brand pillars into physical touchpoints.
Campaign Execution: Support multi-channel marketing campaigns and offer strategies from concept to execution across Rewards Network brand and all personalized partner brands.
Product & Brand Storytelling: Create compelling visuals for different restaurant offer types across many different customer segments and partners.
Translate new product and technical features, AI innovations, and complex ecosystem value propositions into clear, emotionally resonant, and accessible creative narratives.
Design System & Brand Governance: Scale, evolve, and maintain comprehensive design systems and brand guidelines that operate effectively across every touchpoint and communication vehicle across all functions (marketing, product, sales, service).
Interactive & Digital Craft Leadership: Direct the creation of cutting-edge digital experiences, including immersive web animations and videos, sales enablement materials, product explanations / demonstrations / tutorials, customer testimonials, and leadership thought pieces.
Creative Operations & Scaling: Build and optimize agile creative workflows, determine tooling/technology needs (such as Figma, Adobe CC, and emerging AI-assisted pipelines), and efficiently allocate internal team resources or external agency partners.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Marketing, Product Management, Product Marketing, Partnerships, Engineering, Field and Service teams to co-create and support go-to-market (GTM) strategies.
Content Production: Oversee production, use, and implementation of high-volume, photography, videography, and promotional campaigns for all channels.
Team Cultivation & Mentorship: Lead and inspire an internal team of designers and copywriters, fostering a high-performance culture of experimentation and craft.
Company Values: Exude Rewards Network’s company values: be open, honest and direct; put customers at the center of everything we do, set a high bar and achieve it, think and act like an owner and always with integrity, presume trust, celebrate others, and have fun.

Do you have the right mix of ingredients: (Requirements)

Ability to build and govern brand identity systems to ensure a more cohesive and thoughtful brand.
Balancing Rewards Network innovation with partner brand standards. Produces distinctive co-branded creative while staying compliant with an airline or hotel partner's brand book and approvals.

Multi-channel experience in email, paid social, display, landing pages, app UI, print and event. Performance driven creative that drives leads, sales, spend in marketplace.
Team leadership and development. critique that raises work without crushing it, career pathing, workload tri-age across 2 to 6 designers.
Expert in Figma, Adobe CC, project management software, presentation tools like PowerPoint, AI tools.
Creative operations. Intake, briefing, routing, review cycles, version control, asset classification.
Stakeholder navigation and presentation with the ability to defend work and thought process to leadership, partner teams, and executives in the business.
Vendor and freelance management with the ability to source, scope, brief, budget, and QC for photographers, videographers, animators, and overflow capacity.

Education, Certifications and Experience:

Bachelor's degree in art, design, marketing, business, or related field.
6+ years of experience in creative, marketing, or design with at least 2 years of leadership experience.
Demonstrated experience leading a portfolio of multiple concurrent, related programs from inception to launch.
Experience working with creative tools, systems and technologies.
Experience presenting program-level status to executives and senior-leaders.

What you'll love about us:

Comprehensive benefits package, which includes:

This is a full-time, exempt position and the base compensation for this opening in Chicago is expected to be $140,000-$160,000 annualized, depending on level, candidate experience, skills, and other factors. This position will be eligible for an annual bonus program with a 15% bonus target for total at target of $161,000-$195,500.
Competitive Paid Time Off and company holidays
Generous dining reimbursement when you dine with our restaurant clients
401(k) plan with a company match
Two medical plan options- Standard PPO or High Deductible Health Plan (HSA with company match for HDHP participants)
Partnership with Rx n Go, offering certain prescriptions for free
Two dental plan options and a vision plan
Flexible Spending Accounts and a pre-tax commuter benefit program
Accident, Critical Illness, and Hospital Indemnity Insurance Plans
Short Term and Long Term disability
Company-paid life insurance and AD&D insurance, supplemental employee, spouse, and child life insurance
Employee Life Assistance Program
Hybrid working space in our state of the art office downtown located by the Metra and Ogilvie train stations
Catered lunches provided on Tuesday's in our Chicago office