Head of Creative, Athleta

New York, USA (On-site)

$320K/yr – $350K/yrSenior Level10+ years expFull time

Posted 2 months ago

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Job Summary

Drive Athleta’s creative leadership to connect women and girls through integrated, brand-consistent campaigns.

  • Must-have: 10+ years of progressive creative direction in apparel, lifestyle, or agencies.
  • Standout: Experience building diverse, high-performing teams and mentoring growth.

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Lead and evolve a creative strategy that authentically connects with women and girls, inspiring confidence, movement, and connection.
  • Champion creative concepts that build belonging and purpose across retail, digital, social, packaging, and experiential channels.
  • Ensure all creative expressions reflect Athleta’s unique brand voice, maintaining consistency and emotional resonance across every touchpoint.
  • Leverage consumer and cultural insights to inform creative decisions that drive engagement and strengthen brand connection.
  • Define and execute a holistic creative vision aligned with Athleta’s long-range brand plan and marketing strategy.
  • Drive a high-performance creative culture that values inclusivity, innovation, and results.
  • Partner with Brand Marketing, Product, and Visual Merchandising to ensure creative direction supports business goals and strengthens Athleta’s market distinction.
  • Collaborate with external agencies to deliver integrated campaigns that uphold brand integrity and inspire meaningful consumer action.
  • Build and inspire a diverse, world-class creative organization through mentorship, empowerment, and ongoing development.
  • Attract and retain exceptional creative talent with a focus on growth, curiosity, and collaboration.
  • Encourage cross-functional partnership to align creative execution with marketing and brand storytelling.
  • Celebrate the collective success of creative teams who bring Athleta’s mission and values to life.
  • Partner with creative operations and production teams to implement efficient processes that enable impactful, high-quality work.
  • Lead creative innovation by exploring emerging trends, cultural insights, and new formats that keep Athleta relevant and aspirational.
  • Measure and assess creative effectiveness, optimizing output to maximize brand and business impact.
  • Champion creative consistency across all channels—retail, digital, social, packaging, and events—to deliver a cohesive and inspiring brand experience.
Athleta logo

Athleta

We believe that being fit and active makes life richer and bigger than it could possibly be otherwise. And we’re always looking for people who share our passion for leading an active lifestyle, growing personally as well as professionally, and creating game-changing products and experiences. Collaboration is a real thing here. Because we know that individually we’re strong; but together we’re unstoppable. Athleta is a certified B Corp, which means we put people and planet right up there with profit, and we’re committed to using business as a force for good. If all this has you nodding “yes,” we’d love to hear from you.

Founded in 1998
San Francisco, California, USA
2.9K employees (445 in marketing)

Traffic Signals

Monthly Visitors
101.4K
Traffic Source Mix
Search
30.5%
Direct
51.9%
Referral
3.9%
Social
11.9%
Paid
1.7%

Headcount Trend

Current headcount: ~3K

Marketing Team

Marketing Team Size
361 (12% of company)
Median Career Experience
7 years
Median Tenure
4 years

Recent News