Creative Director page is loaded## Creative Directorlocations:
University Systemtime type:
Full timeposted on:
Posted Yesterdayjob requisition id:
JR100295**Position**: Creative Director**Department**: Marketing
**Reports to**: VP for Marketing**Direct Reports**: Videographer, Photographer, Graphic Designers, Copywriter; dotted-line leadership of Director of Campus Creative & LicensingFor the purposes of ACU's Background Check and Self-Reporting Policy, this position is classified as security sensitive.**Position Class**: Exempt, Full-timeThe key principle of this job is to support ACU's Mission to educate students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world.**Scope**: The Creative Director serves as the university's senior creative authority, responsible for defining, evolving, and governing Abilene Christian University's creative vision and brand expression. This role ensures that all creative work – across marketing, enrollment, advancement, alumni, and institutional communications – is strategically aligned, emotionally compelling, and unmistakably ACU.This leader operates at both the strategic and executional levels: setting creative direction, guiding campaign concepting, mentoring creative leaders and practitioners, and ensuring brand consistency and quality at scale. The Creative Director partners closely with marketing strategy, enrollment marketing, content, and media teams to translate institutional priorities into powerful creative systems and campaigns.The role is part visionary, part coach, part operator – balancing high-level brand leadership with practical oversight of people, process, and creative output.**Basic Responsibilities*** Creative Vision & Brand Stewardship* Campaign Leadership & Creative Strategy* Creative Team Leadership & Development* Creative Operations & Quality Oversight* Cross-Campus Partnership & Influence# Essential Duties include the following. Other duties may be assigned. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals to perform the essential functions.Creative Vision & Brand Stewardship* Define, evolve, and champion the university's creative vision and brand expression in partnership with the Vice President for Marketing.* Translate institutional priorities – enrollment growth, academic distinction, spiritual mission, and reputation – into clear creative principles, campaign narratives, and visual direction.* Serve as the final creative authority for high-visibility and high-impact brand expressions across paid, owned, and earned channels.* Ensure creative work differentiates ACU in a competitive higher education landscape while remaining authentic to its mission and values.* Set expectations for creative excellence, innovation, and consistency across all marketing and communications efforts.Campaign Leadership & Creative Strategy* Provide strategic creative leadership for major institutional initiatives, including student recruitment, brand campaigns, advancement, and alumni engagement.* Partner with enrollment marketing, digital strategy, and content teams to ensure creative concepts are audience-centered, insight-driven, and performance-informed.* Guide concept development, storytelling approaches, and visual systems for integrated, multi-channel campaigns.* Review and approve key creative deliverables to ensure brand fidelity, quality, and strategic alignment.* Balance innovation with scalability, ensuring creative ideas can be executed effectively across channels and timelines.Creative Team Leadership & Development* Lead, mentor, and develop a multidisciplinary creative team across design, copywriting, video, and photography.* Create clarity around roles, expectations, workflows, and decision-making within the creative function.* Provide clear creative direction, constructive feedback, and coaching to elevate individual and team performance.* Empower and support the Director of Campus Creative & Licensing in executing brand systems, quality control, and campus-facing creative services.* Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, and creative confidence.Creative Operations & Quality Oversight* Oversee creative workflows, resourcing, timelines, and prioritization in partnership with project management and marketing leadership.* Ensure creative tools, processes, and systems (DAM, templates, workflows, standards) support both efficiency and excellence.* Establish and uphold quality standards across all creative output, regardless of channel or audience.* Guide decision-making around when work is produced in-house versus outsourced, ensuring the right balance of speed, quality, and cost.* Support continuous improvement through feedback loops, retrospectives, and evolving best practices.Cross-Campus Partnership & Influence* Serve as a senior creative advisor to university leadership and campus partners on major initiatives and communications.* Provide strategic creative consultation for complex or high-profile projects that require brand sensitivity and storytelling expertise.* Help elevate campus-wide understanding of brand principles, creative strategy, and audience-centered communication.* Collaborate closely with marketing, enrollment, advancement, and communications leaders to ensure cohesive brand expression.* Navigate competing priorities and stakeholder expectations while protecting creative quality and team capacity.# Professional Development Requirements:* Skills
+ Deep expertise in visual design, storytelling, and creative strategy across multiple channels.
+ Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and inspire creative teams.
+ Experience overseeing creative workflows, tools, and production processes.* Training Required
+ Mastery of Adobe Creative Cloud and familiarity with DAM systems, Canva, and project management tools (preferred).**Qualifications**:ACU is affiliated with the fellowship of the Church of Christ. This position requires the employee to be a professing Christian and to be willing to support the Christian mission of ACU.Professional* 10+ years of progressive experience in creative leadership, brand strategy, marketing, or advertising.* Demonstrated success leading creative teams and delivering integrated, brand-defining campaigns.* Comfort balancing strategic vision with practical execution and decision-making.* Bachelor's degree in design, communications, marketing, or related field.* Experience in higher education or mission-driven organizations (preferred).* Experience partnering closely with enrollment marketing, paid media, or performance marketing teams (preferred).* Degree in a related field (preferred).Personal* Brand Steward: Protects and elevates the university's visual and narrative identity.* Strategic Leader: Connects creative work to institutional goals and measurable outcomes.* Creative Coach: Develops people, not just projects.* Operator: Builds clarity, systems, and standards that enable creative excellence at scale.* Collaborator: Thrives in partnership with strategy, content, enrollment, and campus leaders.# Physical Requirements:* Work is performed in an office environment; must have the ability to sit for long periods of time* Ability to travel periodically to Abilene, Texas or work from AbileneACU does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, sex, disability, genetic information, national or ethnic origin in employment opportunities, in keeping with applicable state and federal law.ACU is committed to maintaining a safe and secure campus environment and protecting the university's financial and physical assets. Therefore, Abilene Christian University conducts background checks on all candidates for employment in security sensitive positions. As a current employee, it will be determined if you need an additional #J-18808-Ljbffr
University Systemtime type:
Full timeposted on:
Posted Yesterdayjob requisition id:
JR100295**Position**: Creative Director**Department**: Marketing
**Reports to**: VP for Marketing**Direct Reports**: Videographer, Photographer, Graphic Designers, Copywriter; dotted-line leadership of Director of Campus Creative & LicensingFor the purposes of ACU's Background Check and Self-Reporting Policy, this position is classified as security sensitive.**Position Class**: Exempt, Full-timeThe key principle of this job is to support ACU's Mission to educate students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world.**Scope**: The Creative Director serves as the university's senior creative authority, responsible for defining, evolving, and governing Abilene Christian University's creative vision and brand expression. This role ensures that all creative work – across marketing, enrollment, advancement, alumni, and institutional communications – is strategically aligned, emotionally compelling, and unmistakably ACU.This leader operates at both the strategic and executional levels: setting creative direction, guiding campaign concepting, mentoring creative leaders and practitioners, and ensuring brand consistency and quality at scale. The Creative Director partners closely with marketing strategy, enrollment marketing, content, and media teams to translate institutional priorities into powerful creative systems and campaigns.The role is part visionary, part coach, part operator – balancing high-level brand leadership with practical oversight of people, process, and creative output.**Basic Responsibilities*** Creative Vision & Brand Stewardship* Campaign Leadership & Creative Strategy* Creative Team Leadership & Development* Creative Operations & Quality Oversight* Cross-Campus Partnership & Influence# Essential Duties include the following. Other duties may be assigned. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals to perform the essential functions.Creative Vision & Brand Stewardship* Define, evolve, and champion the university's creative vision and brand expression in partnership with the Vice President for Marketing.* Translate institutional priorities – enrollment growth, academic distinction, spiritual mission, and reputation – into clear creative principles, campaign narratives, and visual direction.* Serve as the final creative authority for high-visibility and high-impact brand expressions across paid, owned, and earned channels.* Ensure creative work differentiates ACU in a competitive higher education landscape while remaining authentic to its mission and values.* Set expectations for creative excellence, innovation, and consistency across all marketing and communications efforts.Campaign Leadership & Creative Strategy* Provide strategic creative leadership for major institutional initiatives, including student recruitment, brand campaigns, advancement, and alumni engagement.* Partner with enrollment marketing, digital strategy, and content teams to ensure creative concepts are audience-centered, insight-driven, and performance-informed.* Guide concept development, storytelling approaches, and visual systems for integrated, multi-channel campaigns.* Review and approve key creative deliverables to ensure brand fidelity, quality, and strategic alignment.* Balance innovation with scalability, ensuring creative ideas can be executed effectively across channels and timelines.Creative Team Leadership & Development* Lead, mentor, and develop a multidisciplinary creative team across design, copywriting, video, and photography.* Create clarity around roles, expectations, workflows, and decision-making within the creative function.* Provide clear creative direction, constructive feedback, and coaching to elevate individual and team performance.* Empower and support the Director of Campus Creative & Licensing in executing brand systems, quality control, and campus-facing creative services.* Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, and creative confidence.Creative Operations & Quality Oversight* Oversee creative workflows, resourcing, timelines, and prioritization in partnership with project management and marketing leadership.* Ensure creative tools, processes, and systems (DAM, templates, workflows, standards) support both efficiency and excellence.* Establish and uphold quality standards across all creative output, regardless of channel or audience.* Guide decision-making around when work is produced in-house versus outsourced, ensuring the right balance of speed, quality, and cost.* Support continuous improvement through feedback loops, retrospectives, and evolving best practices.Cross-Campus Partnership & Influence* Serve as a senior creative advisor to university leadership and campus partners on major initiatives and communications.* Provide strategic creative consultation for complex or high-profile projects that require brand sensitivity and storytelling expertise.* Help elevate campus-wide understanding of brand principles, creative strategy, and audience-centered communication.* Collaborate closely with marketing, enrollment, advancement, and communications leaders to ensure cohesive brand expression.* Navigate competing priorities and stakeholder expectations while protecting creative quality and team capacity.# Professional Development Requirements:* Skills
+ Deep expertise in visual design, storytelling, and creative strategy across multiple channels.
+ Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and inspire creative teams.
+ Experience overseeing creative workflows, tools, and production processes.* Training Required
+ Mastery of Adobe Creative Cloud and familiarity with DAM systems, Canva, and project management tools (preferred).**Qualifications**:ACU is affiliated with the fellowship of the Church of Christ. This position requires the employee to be a professing Christian and to be willing to support the Christian mission of ACU.Professional* 10+ years of progressive experience in creative leadership, brand strategy, marketing, or advertising.* Demonstrated success leading creative teams and delivering integrated, brand-defining campaigns.* Comfort balancing strategic vision with practical execution and decision-making.* Bachelor's degree in design, communications, marketing, or related field.* Experience in higher education or mission-driven organizations (preferred).* Experience partnering closely with enrollment marketing, paid media, or performance marketing teams (preferred).* Degree in a related field (preferred).Personal* Brand Steward: Protects and elevates the university's visual and narrative identity.* Strategic Leader: Connects creative work to institutional goals and measurable outcomes.* Creative Coach: Develops people, not just projects.* Operator: Builds clarity, systems, and standards that enable creative excellence at scale.* Collaborator: Thrives in partnership with strategy, content, enrollment, and campus leaders.# Physical Requirements:* Work is performed in an office environment; must have the ability to sit for long periods of time* Ability to travel periodically to Abilene, Texas or work from AbileneACU does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, sex, disability, genetic information, national or ethnic origin in employment opportunities, in keeping with applicable state and federal law.ACU is committed to maintaining a safe and secure campus environment and protecting the university's financial and physical assets. Therefore, Abilene Christian University conducts background checks on all candidates for employment in security sensitive positions. As a current employee, it will be determined if you need an additional #J-18808-Ljbffr