Creative Strategist

VIVA Creative; Rockville (MD); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

VIVA Creative in the Washington, D.C. metro area is seeking seasoned Creative Strategists to join our award-winning experiential agency.

You will work directly with VIVA executives to win new business, retain clients, and shape proposals, pitch concepts, and marketing initiatives across events, content, and immersive experiences. This in-office role requires 6+ years as a creative, marketer, or strategist, a portfolio of exceptional work, fluency with AI tools, and the ability to translate

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience producing or strategizing for live events.
• A degree in Marketing, Communications, Media, or related field.
• 6+ years as a creative, marketer, or strategist; agency experience is a plus.
• Active fluency in AI tools as part of daily creative and strategic workflow.
• A portfolio of exceptional samples showing critical thinking and creative range.
• Strategic instincts to plan, organize, and prioritize across multiple deadlines.
• Experience translating complex business information into clear messages for colleagues, leadership, and clients.

Responsibilities

Skills

Live events experience

AI tools fluency

Portfolio of work

Strategic planning

Deadline management

Storytelling

Education

Marketing/Communications/Media degree

Tools

AI tools

Job description

We're an award-winning experiential agency looking for multi-talented, passionate people. Every team member at VIVA is a thinker, a dreamer, a storyteller, and a "get-it-done-whatever-it-takes" doer.

We're seeking stellar Creative Strategists to support our team, working directly with VIVA executives to win new business and retain existing clients. This is a high-profile chance to flex your skills in research, strategy, storytelling, leadership, and creativity to produce industry-leading proposals, pitch concepts, and contribute to marketing initiatives and client projects.

This is an in-office role based in the Washington, D.C. metro area, 4-5 days per week. Local candidates or actively involved in relocating only, please.

Your days move between digging into what's new in events, content, and immersive experiences, reading between the lines of industry research, RFPs, and budgets to surface the insights and ideas that win. You'll do it through creative lookbooks, smart questions, and in-person working sessions with creatives, designers, producers, directors, technical innovators, account managers, executives, and clients.

You'll write everything from concept briefs and speaker remarks to guest journey narratives and full-length proposals. AI is an essential part of your toolkit, but writing is one of your top human skills, and you take pride in your voice. You're collaborative. You want the work to be great, take feedback openly, and don't get too attached to your own ideas.

You understand how to scope projects so your ideas, mood boards, and words land within fiscal and venue-based reality. You're flexible enough to change direction and resourceful enough to make the next version stronger.

If you're looking for a 9-to-5 and that's it, this job is not for you. We're a project-based, deadline-driven agency, and when deadlines hit, our team digs in together. Sometimes that includes late nights and weekends.

What We're Looking For

• Hands-on experience producing or strategizing for live events
• A degree in Marketing, Communications, Media, or a related field, plus the superpowers you picked up along the way
• 6+ years as a creative, marketer, or strategist. Agency experience is a major plus but not a deal-breaker. Different but relevant path? Tell us why
• Active, practiced fluency in AI tools as part of your daily creative and strategic workflow
• A portfolio of exceptional samples showing your critical thinking and creative range
• Strategic instincts to plan, organize, and prioritize across multiple deadlines
• Demonstrated experience leading live brainstorms, then going heads-down solo to deliver a polished draft under pressure
• A track record of translating complex business information into clear messages for colleagues, leadership, and clients

Our Story

VIVA Creative is a global experiential agency working in content creation, live experiences, design, and production. We fuse creativity with technology to help organizations engage audiences, build brand loyalty, and drive results.

Consider this your brief. Show us what you've got.