Dir - Creative - Senior

POSITION SUMMARY

The Senior Director of Creative will be a visionary and strategic leader responsible for shaping and executing the creative direction of the brand across all marketing channels. This role will lead and unite the Media, Design, and Copywriting teams to deliver compelling, consistent, and high-performing creative that drives brand growth, product awareness, and associate and consumer engagement.

As a senior leader in the marketing organization, this person will bring deep expertise in brand and product storytelling, visual design, and integrated campaigns—while also ensuring cross-functional collaboration with Product, eCommerce, Retail, and Executive leadership. This position will require a passion for the automotive aftermarket space, leading teams, and knows how to elevate a brand through powerful creative in today’s fast changing, AI shifting, digital first universe.  This leader must have a passion for developing teams through mentoring, coaching, and rolling up their sleeves to model success.

CORE FUNCTIONS

Creative Strategy & Brand Leadership

• Own and evolve the visual identity, voice, and storytelling across the company’s leading brands in both domestic and international markets.
• Set the long-term creative vision in alignment with company goals, global consumer insights, and product strategies.
• Guide the development and documentation of scalable brand systems that ensure consistency across all touchpoints—from packaging and social to in-store and digital – with flexibility for regional nuances and localization needs.
• Leverage global customer, market, and cultural insights to develop creative that connects authentically with target audiences and inspires action.
• Champion the role of creativity as a business driver to fuel brand awareness, engagement, and revenue growth across multiple geographies.

Team Leadership & Development

• Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing, multidisciplinary, global creative organization including Design, Copywriting, Media, and Content Production teams – spanning multiple time zones and regions.
• Establish clear goals, provide actionable feedback, and cultivate a culture that values creativity, agility, and excellence across global teams.
• Create career development plans, provide training, and maintain team structures that support long-term growth, retention, and cross-cultural collaboration.
• Inspire a bold, idea-driven culture that encourages innovation and pushes creative boundaries while respecting cultural diversity and regional perspectives.

Campaign & Content Development

• Lead the conception and execution of omni-channel marketing campaigns for product launches, seasonal moments, and brand storytelling – tailored for both global and local markets.
• Ensure creative assets are compelling, on-brand, audience-relevant, and optimized for various channels including social, video, email, web, print, and in-store, with regional adaptations as needed.
• Partner with eCommerce and Performance Marketing teams to balance brand expression with performance KPIs in both mature and emerging markets.
• Guide the development of high-impact photo and video content, both in-studio and on-location, that brings our products and lifestyle to life in culturally relevant ways across international markets.

Operational Excellence & Budget Management

• Build scalable creative workflows that accelerate speed-to-market while maintaining quality and brand consistency across global markets.
• Manage team resourcing, project intake, and capacity planning to meet evolving business needs.
• Own and manage the creative department’s annual budget—including headcount, agency/vendor costs, tools, and production using a global lens on cost-efficiency and ROI.
• Continuously evaluate the cost-effectiveness of internal vs. external resources and optimize accordingly, leveraging global talent and vendor networks.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Strategic Partnerships

• Collaborate with Marketing, Media, Product Management, Industrial Design, eCommerce, Sales, and Retail teams to align creative strategies with business objectives and regional market needs.
• Act as a trusted creative partner to stakeholders across the organization, translating business needs into breakthrough creative that resonates globally while honoring local cultures.
• Work closely with media and legal teams to ensure campaigns meet performance, compliance, and operational standards, including international regulations and localization requirements.
• Build and manage relationships with external agencies, freelancers, and production vendors to scale capabilities and creative impact cross diverse international markets.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Design, Marketing, Advertising, Communications, or related field required; Master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 12-15 years of experience in a creative leadership role, ideally within an in-house brand in consumer branded products; including 7+ years of management experience required.
• Proven track record leading and scaling global creative teams, especially across design, media (photo/video), and content development.
• Deep expertise in brand storytelling, visual design systems, and creative strategy in a digital-first landscape, with a strong understanding of performance metrics and conversion-focused creative.
• Experience in the automotive aftermarket industry or passion for vehicles and customization is strongly preferred.
• Global or international experience developing and executing creative strategies that resonate across different regions, cultures, and customer segments.

 Skills, Abilities, and Knowledge

• Exceptional creative judgment with a portfolio of successful brand campaigns and storytelling initiatives.
• Strong understanding of current creative and consumer trends, particularly in digital, video, and eCommerce environments.
• Outstanding leadership, communication, and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical teams.
• Deep knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, project management platforms (e.g., Asana, Wrike, Monday.com), and content management tools.
• Ability to balance big-picture strategy with hands-on execution.
• Familiarity with regional compliance and creative standards across North America, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM.
• Proven track record of success in leading teams, driving innovation, and delivering results.
• Assertive, adaptable and demonstrates initiative in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities.

 Travel

This position requires light to moderate travel.

COMPETENCIES

• Builds Organizational Capability: Able to develop the skills, knowledge, processes, technology, resources and organizational structure within an organization to enhance its overall performance and competitiveness in line with the overall strategy; Evaluates an organization's strengths and weaknesses, identifies gaps between the current state and the desired future state, and then develops a plan to address those gaps; Identifies the skills needed to support the desired capabilities, and provide training programs and other opportunities for employees to develop those skills.
• Brand and Business Acumen: Knows the purpose of each function and how they play a role linked to the organization’s strategy; Knows key components of how businesses work and how organizations make money; Keeps up with current brand and portfolio product/services knowledge along with possible future trends in the organization and external competition; Uses knowledge of business drivers and how strategies and tactics play out in the market to guide actions.
• Critical Thinking: Ability to interpret, evaluate, and analyze facts and information from multiple perspectives; Looks for underlying causes or thinks through the consequences of different courses of action; Breaks problems into component parts and creates solutions; Able to make connections between logical ideas to see the bigger picture.
• Situational Adaptability: Picks up on situational cues and adjusts in the moment. Readily adapts personal, interpersonal, and leadership behavior; Understands that different situations may call for different approaches; Can act differently depending on the circumstances.
• Strategic Mindset: Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
• Thought Leadership: Leverages their deep knowledge on specific areas of the business to generate alternative views, innovative ideas and insightful points to discussions that influence and inspire others; Effectively contributes to strategic discussions; Leads others in the thinking around a given topic along with influencing others to think differently about a specific topic; Has authentic curiosity and is open to listening to others and learning more; Is sought out by others in the company and/or industry for insights and advice.

SUPERVISOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Manager+: Plans, organizes, evaluates, and directs the employees within the department function. Has direct reports.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

This position is subject to Sedentary Work: Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects. Sedentary work involved sitting most of the time. Walking and standing are required only occasionally.

Physical Activities

This position is subject to the following physical activities: talking, hearing, lifting, bending, and standing.

Visual Acuity

The worker is required to have close visual acuity to perform an activity such as preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; expansive reading. 

Working Conditions

This position operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment.

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