Creative Director (San Francisco) at Justworks San Francisco, CA

Downtown Boulder Partnership; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 225,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Justworks is seeking a Creative Director (Brand Design) to lead our in-house Brand Design team in a high-growth environment. You will shape brand strategy, elevate design craft, and mentor designers across campaigns, identity systems, and events.

You will work with Brand Marketing, Product Marketing, Lifecycle, and Sales to drive unified storytelling across the buyer and customer journey, ensuring a human, memorable, and effective brand experience.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in brand design, creative direction, or art direction.
• Minimum of 5 years leading designers, with a track record of growing teams.
• Portfolio of high-impact campaigns, identity systems, and multi-channel marketing work.
• Experience overseeing external creatives and production vendors.
• Strong communication skills and executive presence; ability to articulate the why behind the work.
• Proficiency in Figma and Adobe Creative Suite; familiarity with motion design, photography, and video workflows.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of large-scale brand campaigns and evergreen assets in partnership with Brand Marketing, Growth, and Communications teams.
• Set the vision and standards for all creative work within the Brand Design team across channels.
• Oversee creative strategy, ensuring high-impact storytelling and brand consistency across formats.
• Collaborate with external agencies and internal teams to evolve brand design and identity, scaling across use cases.
• Mentor and develop a team of designers, providing clear direction and feedback to improve work.
• Evolve the visual identity system and guidelines to support growth while maintaining brand integrity.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Brand systems

Mentoring/design leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Storytelling

Tools

Figma

Adobe Creative Suite

Job description

Creative Director (San Francisco) job at Justworks. San Francisco, CA.

Who We Are

At Justworks, youll enjoy a welcoming and casual environment, great benefits, wellness program offerings, company retreats, and the ability to interact with and learn from leaders in the startup community. We work hard and care about our most prized asset - our people.

Were helping businesses get off the ground by enabling them to focus on running their business. We solve HR issues. Were data-driven and never stop iterating. If youd like to work in a supportive, entrepreneurial environment, are interested in building something meaningful and having fun while doing it, wed love to hear from you.

We're united by shared goals and shared motivations at Justworks. These are best summed up in our company values, which are reflected in our product and in our team.

Our Values

If this sounds like you, youll fit right in.

Who You Are

You are a bold creative leader and thoughtful design leader who sees brand as more than just a look; its a point of view, a way of showing up, and a powerful driver of business impact. You bring strategic thinking and executional excellence to every project. Youre fluent in both storytelling and systems, and you know when to lead from the front and when to coach from the side. Youve delivered work that breaks through across campaigns, visual identity, brand events. and digital experiences, and youve led teams that take pride in their craft.

You excel in a busy team environment and have a strong passion for supporting small businesses. You bring creative rigor and calm confidence to the table, and youre energized by mentoring designers and scaling teams. Youre excited to help Justworks stand out in a crowded landscape by making work that is human, memorable, and effective.

Your Success Profile

As Director of Brand Design, Success Looks Like:

• Translating Justworks brand strategy into high-impact creative work that builds awareness, relevance, and preference.
• Raising the standards for design craft and consistency across all brand and marketing channels.
• Partnering with the Director of Brand Marketing to advance Justworks visual identity, evolving our design system and brand guidelines while enabling scale across internal and external teams.
• Translating long-term strategic goals into actionable roadmaps, scoping initiatives, and ensuring the right problems are being solved at the right level.
• Inspiring excellence in visual storytelling while raising the bar for creative and strategic outcomes across the organization.
• Collaborating with peers across Experience Design and leaders in Product, Marketing, Engineering, Sales, Events, and Support to define a shared vision.
• Developing and mentoring a team of designers, enabling them to refine their craft and grow their skills.
• Leading complex, multi-channel projects with clarity, speed, and excellence.
• Balancing bold conceptual thinking with strong execution and follow-through.
• Bringing external inspiration, cultural awareness, and original thinking to our brand.

What Youll Work On:

• Lead the development of large-scale brand campaigns, always-on marketing assets, and key seasonal moments in partnership with Brand Marketing, Growth, and Communications teams.
• Set the vision and standard for all creative work across the in-house Brand Design team, ensuring cohesion, clarity, and creative excellence across channels (digital, social, OOH, events, experiential).
• Oversees creative strategy, ensuring high-impact visual storytelling and brand consistency, with deep expertise in storytelling and tone of voice across formats.
• Partners with agencies and internal teams to evolve brand design and identity, amplifying Justworks presence in the market.
• Collaborate with external creative and media agencies to align on creative strategy, review work, and maintain brand integrity.
• Strong leadership skills, with a track record of mentoring and developing talent, building pathways for growth while maintaining a strong feedback and QA culture.
• Evolve our visual identity system and playbooks/guidelines in line with our strategy, helping us scale our brand consistently across use cases and teams.
• Partner with stakeholders across Experience Design, Product Marketing, Lifecycle, Content, and Sales to bring unified storytelling to life across the buyer and customer journey.
• Develop compelling presentations and narratives to communicate design concepts to senior stakeholders.
• Ensure that all work reflects our brand promise: to give small businesses the boost they need to stay in motion.

How will you do Your Work:

At Justworks, how results are achieved is just as important as what gets done. You will embody the following core competencies:

• Strategic Mindset See the big picture and connect brand goals with company priorities. Confidently lead creative direction in service of business outcomes.
• Creative Excellence Hold a high bar for craft across campaigns, systems, and storytelling. Balance conceptual thinking with flawless execution.
• Brand Stewardship - Protect and strengthen the Justworks brand at every touchpoint. Ensure consistency of voice, design, and experience across channels, while evolving the brand responsibly to meet new opportunities.
• Influence and Leadership Inspire confidence, build alignment, and lead creative reviews with cross-functional peers and senior leaders.
• Team Development Mentor with clarity and empathy. Help team members grow their craft while delivering strong business impact.
• Customer Focus Understand the mindset of small business owners and reflect it through our creative work.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration Thrive in a matrixed environment, building strong partnerships across Marketing, Sales, Product, and external agencies.
• Adaptability Be flexible in how you approach new problems, and navigate change with optimism and steadiness.
• Openness & Integrity Operate with transparency and directness. Welcome feedback, and model the values of Justworks brand.

In addition, all Justworkers focus on aligning their behaviors to our core values known as COGIS. It stands for:

• Camaraderie - Day to day you can be seen working together toward a higher purpose. You like to have fun. Youre an active listener, treat people respectfully, and have a strong desire to know and help others.
• Openness - Your default is to be open. You're willing to share information, understand other perspectives, and consider new possibilities. Youre curious, ask open questions, and are receptive to thoughts and feedback from others.
• Grit - You demonstrate grit by having the courage to commit and persevere. Youre committed, earnest, and dive in to get the job done well with a positive attitude.
• Integrity - Simply put, do what you say and say what you'll do. Youre honest and forthright, have a strong moral compass, and strive to match your words with your actions while leading by example.
• Simplicity - Be like Einstein: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in brand design, creative direction, or art direction, ideally within B2B SaaS or growth-stage tech.
• Minimum of 5 years leading or managing designers, with a track record of developing talent and scaling creative output.
• A portfolio of high-impact campaigns, identity systems, and multi-channel marketing work.
• Expertise in visual storytelling, typography, color, and layoutplus a sharp eye for detail and a passion for craft.
• Experience working with or overseeing external creative agencies and production vendors.
• Deep understanding of brand systems and the discipline to rebrand & scale them across an organization.
• Experience partnering with UX / Product Design teams to extend the brand system into product design systems and user experiences.
• Strong communication skills and executive presence; you can clearly articulate the why behind the work.
• Proficiency in Figma, Adobe Creative Suite.
• Familiarity with motion design, photography, and video production workflows is a plus.
• A love of small businesses and a belief in the power of design to support them.
• Strong ability to provide clear creative direction to both internal and external teams with timely, helpful feedback to improve creative work.
• Not just as a translator of strategy but a co-owner and shaper of strategy, ensuring voice and visuals work together.

The base wage range for this position based in our New York City Office is targeted at $225,000.00 - $270,000.00 per year.

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Actual compensation is based on multiple factors that are unique to each candidate, including and not limited to skill set, level of relevant experience, and specific work location. Salary ranges for positions based in other locations may differ based on the cost of labor in that location.

For more information about Justworks Total Reward Philosophy, including all of the perks and benefits we are proud to offer our team members, please visit Total Rewards @ Justworks.

Diversity At Justworks

Justworks is committed to maintaining a workplace where diversity of identity, culture, and life experience is the norm and is celebrated authentically and respected consistently. Diversity in our work, our people, and our product drives creativity and innovation, entrepreneurial leadership.