Associate Creative Director, Visual Design

San Francisco, CA (Hybrid)

$215K/yr – $225K/yrMid LevelFull time

Posted 20 hrs ago

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Job Summary

Own the visual design direction for brand campaigns and product marketing, guiding multi-format systems and leading a small design team while partnering with agencies to translate strategy into impactful visuals.

  • Own visual design direction across campaigns and tentpole activations from concept to delivery.
  • Lead vision with the ECD, build scalable design systems, and manage a small team and external partners.

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Own visual design ideation and direction on brand campaigns, paid and organic social, GTMs and product marketing campaigns, and tentpole activations, from concept through final delivery, ensuring every output ladders up to Strava's brand strategy and business goals
  • Partner with the ECD on creative strategy, bringing a sharp visual POV to early concepting and a detail-obsessed eye to execution, maintaining craft quality and visual cohesion across every format and collaborator
  • Build and evolve multi-format design systems and visual frameworks that scale across digital, social, and experiential touchpoints
  • Shape how Strava's brand expression evolves over time: visual identity, typography, photography, video, color systems, seasonal design language, and how we show up in culture
  • Translate cultural signals, sport moments, and campaign insights into visual ideas that earn attention, not just impression, drive business goals
  • Present work to cross-functional partners and leadership with clarity and conviction, connecting creative decisions to strategy and business outcomes
  • Directly manage 2–3 experienced designers: regular 1:1s, career development, direct feedback on craft and creative direction, and performance conversations
  • Partner and manage external agencies, freelancers and vendors to bring the right talent and expertise to the right work

Requirements

  • 10+ years of experience in visual design with deep command of typography, layout, color theory, photography, motion, video and visual hierarchy; background spanning both agency and in-house environments
  • A portfolio with exceptional craft across brand, campaign, digital, and multi-format work, the kind of output that stops scrolling and earns cultural attention
  • Proven experience upleveling a creative team, you've managed experienced designers with a genuine standard for what great looks like, and you enable your teams to grow and develop through successful mentorship
  • A strategic mindset: you can concept and pitch an idea as convincingly as you can execute it, and you connect creative decisions to brand and business impact
  • Experience designing for paid and organic social (TikTok, Meta, YouTube) with a clear understanding of how creative choices affect performance
  • Comfort with ambiguity and scale: you've built in fast-moving, high-growth environments and you're energized by the challenge of doing great work quickly
  • Motion sensibility, whether you create it yourself or direct it, you think in movement and know how to push static ideas into dynamic formats
  • Experience working within and contributing to cohesive brand systems; global brand and international campaign experience is a plus

Preferred

  • global brand and international campaign experience is a plus
Strava logo

Strava

4.0 Glassdoor

Strava is Swedish for “strive,” which epitomizes who we are and what we do. We’re a passionate and committed team, unified by our mission to connect athletes to what motivates them and help them find their personal best. And with billions of activity uploads from all over the world, we have a humbling and audacious vision: to be the record of the world’s athletic activities and the technology that makes every effort count. Strava builds software that makes the best part of our athletes’ days even better. And just as we’re deeply committed to unlocking their potential, we’re dedicated to providing a world-class, inclusive workplace where our employees can grow and thrive, too. We’re backed by Sequoia Capital, Madrone Partners and Jackson Square Ventures, and we’re expanding in order to exceed the needs of our growing community of global athletes. Our culture reflects our community – we are continuously striving to hire and engage diverse teammates from all backgrounds, experiences and perspectives because we know we are a stronger team together. When you’re ready for a challenge and a team that will support you along the way, join us!

Founded in 2009
San Francisco, California, USA
668 employees (100 in marketing)
73% recommend to a friend

Traffic Signals

Monthly Visitors
35.2M
Monthly Google Ads Budget
$1.5K
Traffic Source Mix
Search
18.3%
Direct
77.1%
Referral
3.4%
Social
1%
Paid
0.1%

Headcount Trend

Current headcount: ~671

Marketing Team

Marketing Team Size
63 (9% of company)
Median Career Experience
11 years
Median Tenure
1.2 years
Marketing Roles Posted (Last 30 Days)
4

Funding

Total Funding
$151.9M
Last Raise
$110M
Debt Financing, 10 months ago

Funding History

  • May 2025
    Debt Financing
  • May 2025
    Series Unknown
  • Nov 2020
    Series F • $110M

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