Senior Director, Creative Services

NXTThing RPO; United States; On-site; USD 165,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

NXTThing RPO is seeking a seasoned Creative Leader to evolve its Creative Services into a strategic, design-led organization that partners with business leaders across the company.

The role focuses on elevating brand storytelling, developing scalable processes, and modernizing workflows with an emphasis on AI and automation to deliver high-impact work at scale.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in creative leadership or agency leadership.
• Experience building, restructuring or scaling a creative services organization.
• Strong combination of creative vision and operational leadership.
• Deep expertise in brand, design, visual storytelling and concept development.
• Experience developing creative processes, service models and pricing frameworks.
• Proven ability to lead and develop multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong executive presence and cross-functional influence.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous, evolving environments.
• Familiarity with modern creative technology, AI and workflow automation.
• Experience in B2B, brand experience or professional services preferred.

Responsibilities

• Define the operating model and elevate the Creative Services function.
• Lead and evolve the team into a strategic, design-led agency style.
• Provide senior creative direction on high-impact opportunities.
• Build agency-style service and engagement models.
• Develop intake, briefing, scoping and delivery processes.
• Establish resource planning, capacity metrics and performance KPIs.
• Partner with commercial and functional leaders across the business.
• Translate business challenges into compelling creative opportunities.
• Drive collaboration, accountability and scalable workflows.

Skills

Creative leadership

Agency leadership

Brand design

Concept development

Executive presence

Ambiguity navigation

Tools

AI tools awareness

Workflow automation

Job description

Our client is a global, client-service organization that helps companies build and express their brands through products, programs, and experiences for customers and employees. Creative services sit alongside technology, logistics, and sourcing as a core capability. They serve a mix of Fortune 500 enterprises and mid-sized and smaller organizations.

We are looking for a talented individual to lead and evolve our client’s creative team into a more strategic, design-led, agency-style organization. This leader will own creative excellence (evolution of the function, raising the bar for brand storytelling, concept development and design) while building the structure, services, processes, and talent model needed to deliver exceptional work at scale.

You will help define the future of the Creative Services organization establishing the operating model, elevating creative quality, developing talent, and creating scalable processes that enable the team to deliver exceptional work at scale.

This role is ideal for someone who can move comfortably between big-picture creative strategies and operational execution.

Key Areas of Focus

• Establish the creative vision, standards and point of view
• Elevate brand storytelling, concept development, visual expression and presentation
• Provide senior creative direction on high-impact opportunities

Agency Model & Operations

• Build an agency-style service and engagement model
• Develop intake, briefing, prioritization, scoping and delivery processes
• Establish resource planning, capacity management and performance metrics

Business Partnership

• Position Creative Services as a strategic partner to commercial and functional leaders
• Help teams translate business challenges into compelling creative opportunities
• Strengthen collaboration and accountability across the organization

Organization & Talent

• Assess and evolve the organizational structure and capabilities
• Develop talent, career paths and leadership capabilities
• Build a culture of creativity, accountability and continuous improvement
• Modernize creative workflows and technology
• Identify opportunities to leverage AI and automation
• Increase efficiency and capacity while maintaining creative quality

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in creative leadership, agency leadership, studio leadership, brand design or a related field
• Experience building, restructuring or scaling an agency, in-house agency or creative services organization
• Strong combination of creative vision and operational leadership
• Deep expertise in brand, design, visual storytelling and concept development
• Experience developing creative processes, service models, resource plans and/or pricing frameworks
• Proven ability to lead and develop multidisciplinary teams
• Strong executive presence and cross-functional influence
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous, evolving environments
• Familiarity with modern creative technology, AI and workflow automation
• Experience in B2B, brand experience, professional services or another client-service environment highly preferred

This is a unique opportunity to build, transform and elevate a creative organization while having significant influence on how the function partners with the broader business.

The base salary range for this role is $165,000 - $200,000 per year plus bonus opportunity. Actual pay will depend on experience, skills, and qualifications.