Sr. Director, Retail Marketing Brand, Visual & Creative

Chicago, IL (Hybrid)

$170K/yr – $180K/yrSenior LevelFull time

Posted 2 months ago

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Job Summary

Owns brand strategy and cross-functional delivery for a multi-unit retail cannabis business, aligning brand systems across stores, design, e-commerce, and operations to drive acquisition, retention, and revenue growth.

  • Growth Infrastructure: Build scalable brand systems and performance tracking to inform decisions and ensure consistency across markets.
  • Execution & Alignment: Coordinate with regional teams and field operations to translate goals into cohesive, measurable branding initiatives.

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Owns the end-to-end brand marketing strategy for the retail business, driving customer acquisition, retention, and brand affinity at scale.
  • Architects retail brand marketing budget, in service of the broader P&L, accountable for delivering measurable results that are accretive to the business.
  • Partners closely with regional P&L owners to align marketing strategy and spend, translating goals into clear business outcomes. Educates cross-functional stakeholders on the impact of marketing levers, driving understanding, trust, and shared accountability for results.
  • Sets and leads the retail brand vision, positioning and identity, ensuring cohesion across store design, visual merchandising, content, e-commerce, and Sunnyside owned brand.
  • Builds and scales marketing programs that can be executed with nuance locally and are effectively implemented across stores in partnership with field operations and store teams.
  • Leads the in-house creative agency, delivering exceptional creative and production output on brief and on time, balancing the needs of high quality and high quantity work.
  • Provides dotted-line leadership to a regional marketing team that supports day-to-day execution and cross-functional alignment across markets, ensuring continuity of brand expression and consistency with national commercial strategies.
  • Establishes a culture of accountability and ownership within the marketing team, setting clear expectations and delivering results with operational excellence.
  • Partners cross-functionally across Retail Operations, Merchandising & Planning, Finance, HR, Wholesale Marketing etc. to ensure unified execution of initiatives and proactive communication of plans.
  • Champions a strong feedback and testing culture, leveraging performance data to continually iterate and improve marketing programs.

Requirements

  • A bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of marketing leadership experience in high-growth, multi-unit retail environments; cannabis experience is a plus but not required.
  • Best suited for someone who is Chicago-based and can participate in our hybrid work environment (office in Fulton Market 2-3 days per week). Quarterly travel in market.
  • Experience building and evolving brand systems across all physical and digital retail touchpoints, including store concept and design.
  • Experience assessing and integrating M&A is a plus but not required.
  • Strong analytical mindset and comfort with KPIs spanning both customer behavior and commercial metrics (e.g., CLV, NPS, frequency, retention, ATV, CAC, ROAS, loyalty engagement).
  • Outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills, with a proactive and transparent approach to cross-functional collaboration.
  • A builder and leader of high-performing teams, who sets a high bar, offers strong support, and develops future leaders.
  • Operates with an ownership mindset — delivers with excellence, follows through on commitments, and proactively solves problems.

Preferred

  • Cannabis experience is a plus but not required.
  • Experience assessing and integrating M&A is a plus but not required.

Benefits

  • Cresco Labs is proud to offer eligible employees a robust offering of benefits including, major medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(K)-match program, FSA/HSA programs, LTD/STD options, life insurance and AD&D. We also offer eligible employees paid holidays and paid time off. Other rewards may include annual discretionary bonuses, stock options as well as participation in our employee discount program. Benefits eligibility for permanent positions may vary by full-time or part-time roles, location, or position.
  • In accordance with any local and state compensation laws, the compensation listed is the current estimated range for the position. Final offer details and future compensation may be determined by multiple factors including but not limited to, geographic location, market compensation data, skills, experience, and other relevant factors. For questions about this please discuss with your recruiter during the interview process.
Cresco Labs logo

Cresco Labs

2.5 Glassdoor

Cresco Labs is one of the largest public, vertically integrated, multistate operators in the cannabis industry. Our portfolio of in-house cultivated and manufactured brands features some of the highest quality, most awarded and most popular cannabis products in America. With dozens of locations nationwide, our owned and operated Sunnyside® dispensaries provide a welcoming, positive, judgement-free place to shop for anyone at any point on their cannabis journey. Founded in 2013, Cresco Labs’ mission is to normalize and professionalize cannabis through our passionate employees. As stewards of the cannabis industry, our teams are constantly focused on supporting the needs of our fellow colleagues, consumers, customers, and communities alike. With a focus on Social Equity and Educational Development, our SEEDTM initiative ensures that our company reflects the communities in which we serve, ensuring equal opportunity for all to have the knowledge and resources to work in and own businesses in cannabis. At Cresco Labs, we aim to revolutionize and lead the nation’s cannabis industry with a focus on quality and consistency of product, and to bring legitimacy to the industry with the highest level of integrity and professionalism.

Founded in 2013
Chicago, Illinois, USA
1.3K employees (58 in marketing)
24% recommend to a friend
22% CEO approval

Traffic Signals

Monthly Visitors
32.9K
Traffic Source Mix
Search
47.3%
Direct
42.5%
Referral
6.4%
Social
2%
Paid
1.6%

Headcount Trend

Current headcount: ~1.3K

Marketing Team

Marketing Team Size
38 (3% of company)

Funding

Total Funding
$747.5M
Last Raise
$325M
Post IPO Debt, 7 months ago

Funding History

  • Aug 2025
    Post IPO Debt • $325M
  • Jan 2021
    Post IPO Equity • $125M
  • Feb 2020
    Post IPO Debt • $100M

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