Sr. Manager, Brand Style Management

Mazda

Irvine (CA)

On-site

USD 142,000 - 216,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

Mazda in North America seeks a Senior Manager, Brand Style Management to define and direct the Mazda brand’s visual expression across the region. You will translate strategy into customer-centric experiences and ensure a cohesive brand presence across touchpoints.

You will lead creative development, oversee photography and video projects, and mentor a multidisciplinary team to sustain premium brand standards. Travel 30% is required.

Qualifications

10+ years in creative/design/art direction (brand-related)
10+ years collaborating with photographers, agencies, production partners
5+ years leading multidisciplinary creative projects
5+ years mentoring designers and creatives
Experience in automotive/luxury or premium brand preferred

Responsibilities

Define, evolve and communicate North American Brand Style Ideal State
Provide strategic creative leadership across customer-facing touchpoints
Direct development of visual narratives and brand storytelling
Oversee photography, film, digital and experiential projects from concept to delivery
Lead and mentor Brand Style design team and collaborators

Skills

Brand strategy

Creative leadership

Visual storytelling

Project management

Leadership

Education

BA Graphic Design

BA Digital Communications and Media

Equivalent mix of education/training

Tools

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe InDesign

Adobe After Effects

HTML/CSS

Job description

Job Description

The Senior Manager, Brand Style Management serves as the strategic creative leader responsible for defining, developing, and directing the visual expression of the Mazda brand across North America. This role champions Mazda's Brand Style Ideal State by translating brand strategy into compelling, customer‑centric experiences that foster emotional connection, strengthen brand, and ensure a cohesive, distinctive brand presence across all touchpoints.

Major Responsibilities

(50%) Mazda Brand Style Strategy and Creative Vision
- Partner with the Senior Director to define, evolve, and communicate the North American Brand Style Ideal State.
- Provide strategic creative leadership across all customer-facing touchpoints, ensuring seamless alignment with Mazda's brand strategy and visual identity and business objectives.
- Direct the development of compelling visual narratives, distinctive storytelling approaches, innovative creative frameworks that elevate and amplify Mazda's brand DNA.
- Lead the identification, analysis, and integration of emerging design, cultural, and consumer trends, translating insights into brand expression and future‑facing creative strategies.
- Oversee and provide direction for photography, film, digital, experiential, environmental, and presentation‑based projects, ensuring execution from concept through delivery.
- Collaborate with MC Design Brand Style Management Department and regional stakeholders to ensure cohesive, globally aligned, and local brand experience.
- Provide leadership throughout the creative development process including review, refinement, and approval of creative work to ensure exceptional design excellence, quality and craftsmanship.

(20%) Visual Identity Stewardship
- Develop and advance scalable creative frameworks, visual references, and brand expression tools that translate Mazda's Brand Style Ideal State into clear, actionable guidance for internal teams, agency partners, and vendors.
- Oversee the development of customer-facing brand assets, presentations, storytelling materials, and visual examples that reinforce and elevate Mazda's visual and experiential standards.
- Partner closely with the Brand Style Program Manager to identify opportunities for additional guidance, training, and brand resources, to improve consistency, alignment, and brand adoption.
- Lead the strategy and development of brand education materials, workshops, and creative resources that strengthen understanding of Mazda's design philosophy, visual identity, and Brand Style principles.

(15%) Brand Expression Development and Brand Education
- Serve as the leading creative authority for visual identity application across MNAO.
- Provide strategic direction, review, and final approval of creative work, ensuring alignment with Mazda's design standards, brand objectives, and quality expectations.
- Cultivate strong partnerships with internal teams, agency partners, and vendors to elevate the quality and effectiveness of brand communications.
- Partner closely with the Brand Style Program Manager to align creative vision with governance, processes, and organizational execution, ensuring seamless implementation of Brand Style standards.
- Identify recurring visual identity challenges and drive the development of scalable tools, guidance, and training that strengthen brand adoption and consistency.
- Lead and execute high‑impact projects that shape customer perception of the Mazda brand.
- Ensure all creative outputs demonstrate exceptional attention to detail, craftsmanship, and fidelity to Mazda's distinctive visual expression and premium brand positioning.

(15%) Leadership and Team Development
- Provide leadership and mentorship to Brand Style design team members and creative contributors.
- Guide concept development, creative reviews, and design critiques that strengthen overall creative output and professional growth.
- Foster collaboration across multidisciplinary teams and external partners.
- Foster a culture of innovation and creative excellence while upholding Mazda’s brand strategy and quality standards, mentoring and developing creative talent to strengthen organizational capabilities.
- Coach and manage performance and promote a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, quality, and accountability.
- Responsible for employment decision, salary and promotional recommendations, training and appraising performance, promptly and appropriately addressing deficient performance and/or inappropriate behaviors by working with upper management and Human Resources.

Perform other duties as assigned

Comply with all policies and standards

The preceding functions have been provided as examples of the types of work performed by employees assigned to this job classification. Management reserves the right to add, modify, change or rescind the work assignments of different positions and to make reasonable accommodations so that qualified employees can perform the essential functions of the job

Work Experience

10+ years experience of progressively responsible creative, design, or art direction experience. required
10+ years experience collaborating with agencies, photographers, filmmakers, writers, and production partners. required
10+ years strong portfolio demonstrating excellence in visual design, brand development, storytelling, and creative leadership. required
5+ years experience leading multidisciplinary creative projects from concept through execution. required
5+ years experience mentoring designers and creative professionals. required
5+ years experience art directing photography, video, digital, environmental, and experiential projects. preferred
5+ years automotive, luxury, premium, or lifestyle brand experience preferred

Education

Bachelor of Arts (BA) Graphic Design Preferred
Bachelor of Arts (BA) Digital Communications and Media/Multimedia Preferred
An equivalent mix of education, training, and/or work experience may be considered in place of a degree Required

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities

Knowledge and skills of a sound technical understanding to ensure the smooth progress of a variety of projects from concept to delivery – Including but not limited to: typography, print, packaging, digital, web, video/film, photography, environment required (Advanced-Authority)
Ability to lead and work on multiple projects while providing timely status reports on self/team performance, quality assurance of all creative deliverables, and cost effective and on schedule work required (Advanced-Authority)
Strong knowledge of and proven experience in the creative development process around brand image creation required (Advanced-Authority)
Expert ability to develop well‑conceived innovative creative work that implements a brand image/strategy required (Advanced-Authority)
Excellent conceptual and problem-solving skills required (Intermediate-Advanced)
Excellent design skills accompanied by the ability to guide and evaluate, and if necessary, redirect creative development required (Advanced-Authority)
Highly knowledgeable about emerging design, branding, social and technology trend required (Advanced-Authority)
Expert with Adobe Creative Suite software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign required (Advanced-Authority)
Expert with video/photography hardware, Adobe AfterEffects & video editing preferred (Intermediate-Advanced)
Advanced skills of Microsoft Office required (Intermediate-Advanced)
Knowledge of HTML, CSS and social media development software preferred (Developing-Intermediate)
Ability to coach and train employees to be successful professionals as well as to contribute to the business success required (Intermediate-Advanced)
Excellent communication, planning, time-management and follow-through skills required (Intermediate-Advanced)
Excellent interpersonal skills to communicate effectively with creative and project management staff, engendering leadership, trust and respect required (Intermediate-Advanced)
Ability to lead and manage diversified employees with multicultural backgrounds required (Intermediate-Advanced)
A can-do mindset where the solution to any problem lies in combination of creative thinking, collaboration and hard work required (Advanced-Authority)

Physical Demands