Director, Creative Services

📋 Description

• • As the Director of Creative Services at Navient, you will be instrumental in shaping the visual and verbal identity of our brand, guiding high-impact marketing and brand initiatives from their initial conceptualization through to their final, polished execution.
• • This pivotal role demands a leader who can set a clear creative direction, ensuring that all brand communications are compelling, consistent, and aligned with strategic business objectives.
• • You will be responsible for leading and nurturing a talented network of freelance designers and copywriters, fostering an environment of creativity, collaboration, and high performance.
• • Building and maintaining strong, productive partnerships with external agencies and vendors will be a key aspect of your role, ensuring we leverage external expertise effectively to achieve our goals.
• • You will play a central role in defining how the Navient brand is perceived and experienced across every customer touchpoint, from large-scale marketing campaigns to the most minute, pixel-perfect details of our digital presence.
• • This position is ideally suited for a creative leader who possesses an exceptional eye for design, coupled with sharp business acumen and a strategic mindset.
• • You will demonstrate a deep understanding of design systems, brand architecture, and the ability to translate complex business goals into visually engaging narratives that drive tangible results.
• • Thriving in a highly collaborative setting, you will work closely with writers, producers, marketers, researchers, and other cross-functional teams to bring innovative ideas to life.
• • Your comfort level will span from presenting creative visions and strategic rationales to senior leadership to actively engaging in hands-on design exploration using tools like Figma, showcasing a blend of strategic thinking and practical execution.
• • You will be tasked with developing cohesive visual systems and integrated campaigns that resonate powerfully across all marketing channels, ensuring a unified brand experience.
• • Your leadership will drive the creation of innovative design and copy solutions that significantly enhance consumer engagement, bolster brand consistency, and reinforce a distinctive brand point of view, consistently pushing creative boundaries in fresh and meaningful ways.
• • A core responsibility involves driving the evolution of our visual identity and systems, establishing clear design principles and brand standards that are intrinsically aligned with overarching business goals.
• • You will implement and enforce rigorous quality control measures across all creative outputs, encompassing everything from major campaigns to ongoing evergreen assets, thereby maintaining both creative excellence and unwavering brand consistency.
• • You will meticulously review creative work produced by both internal teams and external partners, providing strategic, actionable feedback designed to elevate ideas, amplify creative impact, and ensure timely delivery against key project milestones.
• • Presenting creative concepts and strategic rationales to senior leadership and cross-functional partners will be a regular requirement, demanding clear communication and persuasive articulation.
• • Staying ahead of the curve, you will continuously monitor design trends and emerging technologies, identifying opportunities to innovate and enhance our brand expression, ensuring Navient remains creatively competitive.
• • You will actively execute standout design and copy work on priority projects, recognizing that this is a hands-on role where stepping in to support smaller, quick-turn, or less visible initiatives is crucial for maintaining momentum and quality across the board.
• • Providing constructive, developmental feedback to designers and copywriters will be essential for their professional growth and for enhancing the overall quality of the team's output.
• • You will continuously assess and experiment with new tools, including AI and automation technologies, to expand the team's capabilities, improve efficiency, and broaden the creative range, ensuring smart scaling without compromising quality.
• • Championing creative rigor and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and craft excellence within the team will be a hallmark of your leadership.
• • You will forge strong partnerships with cross-functional teams, including Product, Sales, Research, and Marketing, to deliver creative solutions that are not only aesthetically compelling but also technically sound and aligned with critical business objectives.
• • Ensuring design consistency and cohesion across campaigns, product interfaces, and user journeys will require close alignment with content strategy and overall business strategy.
• • You will oversee the intake, scoping, and prioritization of agency work, ensuring that external resources are strategically deployed against the highest impact initiatives and that expectations are clearly aligned.
• • Managing day-to-day partner relationships with clarity, accountability, and effective communication will be paramount, serving as the primary point of contact for creative partners, setting communication rhythms, resolving blockers, and ensuring seamless collaboration.
• • You will maintain and grow a vetted roster of creative partners, actively identifying, evaluating, and onboarding new agencies, freelancers, and specialists to expand our creative capabilities and address evolving skill gaps.
• • Ensuring seamless integration between internal and external teams will involve facilitating knowledge sharing, brand onboarding, and workflow alignment, enabling agencies and contractors to function as a true extension of the in-house team.
• • You will oversee the Marketing Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, ensuring all creative assets are meticulously tagged, organized, and kept up-to-date.
• • Collaborating with Production Operations to establish and maintain best practices for asset management will be a key function.
• • Implementing and owning regular audits, archiving outdated assets, and maintaining strict version control will be essential for efficient asset governance.