VP, Creative Director

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the creative vision across all client engagements, spanning brand campaigns and performance marketing initiatives
• Develop new, or translate existing, institutional and program-level positioning into compelling, differentiated creative concepts that resonate with prospective students
• Ensure all creative work—visual and written—balances clarity, effectiveness, and craft across channels
• Serve as the senior creative lead in high-stakes moments, including new business pitches and strategic client presentations
• Articulate and sell visionary, insight-driven creative concepts to university partners
• Partner with sales and account teams to expand relationships through new creative opportunities and directions
• Build and lead a creative function that delivers high-volume, high-quality performance marketing assets across digital channels
• Manage systems for rapid iteration and continuous improvement based on performance insights
• Partner closely with performance marketing and analytics teams, ensuring creative is responsive to data and campaign needs
• Ensure performance creative is brand-informed but not constrained by perfectionism, prioritizing effectiveness and speed

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in creative roles, with significant experience in a leadership capacity
• Proven ability to lead creative across both brand campaigns and performance marketing environments
• Experience overseeing both written and visual creative disciplines
• Strong track record of client-facing leadership, including pitching and selling creative concepts
• Portfolio demonstrating work across multiple channels and formats, including digital, web, email, social, video, print, out-of-home, and traditional media.
• Experience building and managing multidisciplinary teams, including mentoring senior talent
• Deep understanding of how creative drives engagement, conversion, and growth
• Ability to operate at both a strategic and hands-on level—from vision-setting to concepting to critique
• Strong communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to influence internal and external stakeholders
• Location: Must reside in the continental US, within close proximity to a major airport to facilitate travel to partner universities, as the role requires travel up to 30% of the time

Preferred

• You can move seamlessly between big, conceptual thinking and fast, iterative execution
• You understand that effective creative is not just well-crafted—it is measurable, adaptable, and scalable across channels
• You are comfortable operating in a performance-driven environment where speed, testing, and throughput matter
• You bring a modern perspective on creative production, including how AI and emerging tools can enhance output
• You know how to elevate both message and design without slowing teams down
• You can translate brand and positioning strategy into clear, compelling creative systems that scale across touchpoints
• You bring a strong point of view and can guide teams and stakeholders toward better, more effective creative outcomes