Senior Director, Creative

The Knot Worldwide; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 80,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Senior Creative Director to lead their in-house Creative Team. This role is pivotal in shaping the creative strategy and brand identity across various platforms. The ideal candidate will possess a wealth of experience in creative direction, team leadership, and brand strategy, with a proven ability to innovate and inspire. You will oversee the development of compelling marketing assets, ensuring alignment with business objectives while fostering a culture of excellence and collaboration. Join a dynamic organization that values creativity and teamwork, and make a meaningful impact in a role that celebrates innovation and connection.

Benefits

Flexible vacation

Generous parental leave

Mental wellbeing support

Physical health support

Financial planning assistance

Engaging perks and discounts

Qualifications

• 9+ years of experience in a creative director role, preferably in-house or at an agency.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating strategically-led creative across multiple channels.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the holistic creative vision and strategy across all US consumer brands.
• Lead and mentor a high-performing internal creative team, fostering a culture of collaboration.

Skills

Creative Direction

Brand Strategy

Team Leadership

Storytelling

Digital Advertising

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Design or Related Field

Master's Degree (Preferred)

Tools

Figma

Job description

Austin, Texas, USA; New York City; Washington, D.C.

WHAT WE DO MATTERS:

At The Knot Worldwide, we champion celebration - and that starts with celebrating our people. Our employees are passionate dreamers, thoughtful doers, and lifelong learners who power meaningful moments for millions around the world. We’re united by authentic connection, shared purpose, and a deep commitment to the global community we serve. Here, flexibility and belonging go hand in hand with high performance. We believe the best ideas come from empowered teams: those who consistently collaborate with intention to design solutions, spark ideas, and drive impact. We inspire, we build, and we celebrate. We dream big, love our users, hustle every day, and always do the right thing to win - together. Our people are at the heart of our success.

ABOUT THE ROLE AND THE TEAM:

The Knot Worldwide is looking for a seasoned Senior Creative Director to lead our in-house Creative Team (Internal agency). This leader will own our creative strategy, brand(s) identity and style guide governance, creative production, operations & execution across our suite of US consumer brands. Reporting directly to our VP of Consumer Marketing, this person will work closely with key stakeholders across the organization (Marketing, Product, Editorial, Finance, and Channel Leads) to innovate and deliver on our creative needs across all platforms. We are looking for a truly well-rounded creative department leader, who believes in innovation, upleveling aesthetic sophistication, and taking on complex creative challenges while getting their hands dirty on operational effectiveness. A natural storyteller, strategist, and leader, this candidate will be refining the development of creative materials, from concept to production, getting us to a best-in-class creative group.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Define and own the holistic creative vision and strategy across all US consumer brands, ensuring consistency, innovation, and emotional resonance.
• Serve as the chief brand steward, evolving and enforcing brand identity, voice, and style guidelines across all consumer touchpoints.
• Translate complex business goals and user needs into breakthrough creative concepts that drive performance and elevate brand equity.
• Evolve our creative strategy from a primarily lifestyle brand into a tech, product-focused brand designed to change consumer behavior and grow product familiarity and usage.
• Drive an evolution towards native creative in each of the platforms we invest in and ensure we are building creative learning strategies to determine what is effective in changing consumer mindsets in those platforms.
• Lead, mentor, and inspire a high-performing internal creative team (design, copy, art direction, video, etc.), fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and growth.
• Build a scalable in-house agency model, including defining team structure, roles, and workflows that optimize output and efficiency.
• Cultivate an environment that supports innovation, inclusion, and continuous learning.
• Understand the creative and aesthetic bar and how to raise it.

Operational Effectiveness:

• Oversee creative operations, prioritization, budgeting and resource management, ensuring projects are delivered on time, on brand, and on budget.
• Build and evolve creative processes, tools, and frameworks to improve collaboration, speed, and quality across cross-functional teams. Develop and explore an AI strategy for the department.
• Implement performance and quality benchmarks to continually improve creative execution.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Partner closely with leaders across Marketing, Product, Editorial, Channels, and Finance teams to understand strategic objectives and translate them into compelling creative solutions.
• Act as a strategic thought partner to the VP of Consumer Marketing and key stakeholders, aligning creative output with company vision and KPIs.
• Advocate for the role of creativity in driving business results and customer experience.

Creative Execution & Production Oversight:

• Guide your team through end-to-end development of marketing assets across channels — from digital campaigns, CRM, paid media, onsite, video, product launches, social, and experiential events.
• Lead and review major campaigns and key initiatives, ensuring best-in-class creative from concept through execution.
• Oversee the effective execution of creative productions, shoots, events and ensure maximum usage, creative asset production, and value is extracted from productions.
• Manage relationships with external creative vendors, freelancers, and production partners, agencies as needed.

SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES HAVE:

• 9+ years of experience working in a CD role in-house or at a creative agency.
• 5+ years of management experience; leading a team of creatives is a must, leading a team of multidisciplinary creatives virtually is a plus.
• Ideally has had creative agency experience and understands the nuanced differences in creative orgs, skill sets, and specific disciplines.
• Experience working in a fast-paced environment, especially on multiple brands at one time.
• Detailed understanding of design, copy, video, and digital best-practice guidelines. Working knowledge of Figma is desired.
• Social Media and Digital first advertising expertise is highly desired.
• A strong portfolio that demonstrates your ability to produce strategically-led creative across multiple channels and integrated campaigns.
• The desire to build strong relationships across the organization and with external partners/agencies; demonstrates solid interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.
• Proven history of motivating and directing a team of creatives to “level-up” and identify opportunities areas.
• Leads as a team player, with the ability to manage projects aligned with cross-functional departmental goals.
• Fun attitude and sense of humor—you can’t take the job too seriously!

At The Knot Worldwide, we believe you are more than a resume and invite you to go for it, take the leap of faith, and apply for this job if it sparks your passion to join TKWW and make a difference!

WHAT WE LOVE ABOUT YOU:

You Dream Big. You iterate and experiment to drive innovation.

You Love Our Users. You keep our global community at the center of everything you do.

You Do the Right Thing. You strengthen your team through respect, fairness, and inclusion.

You Hustle Every Day. You favor urgency and own your outcomes.

You Win Together. People are at the heart of our success and you play as a team.

WHAT YOU LOVE ABOUT US:

We believe in a wide range of holistic offerings to support our employees so that they can live our values day in and day out. From mental wellbeing, physical health and financial planning, to engaging perks and discounts, we are in the business of celebrating and supporting the Moments that Matter both in and out of the “office”. We offer flexible vacation, generous parental leave and prioritize initiatives that support the growth, development, and happiness of our people.

To facilitate in-person collaboration, we have office spaces in Barcelona, Spain; Delhi, India; Galway, Ireland; London, England; New York, NY; and Washington, D.C.