Creative Director - University Communications and Marketing

The Office of University Communications and Marketing (UCM) has overall responsibility for marketing and brand management, media relations and content producing various print and web publications and communications for the university. The office optimizes the coordination of strategies and programs for these areas. The Marketing and Branding group reports up to the VP of Communications and Marketing and produces a wide range of print and digital marketing - from event invitations to integrated marketing campaigns - across all schools and university-wide campaigns. The group comprises Marketing Strategy, Creative Services, and Digital Services and oversees the university's marketing strategy, brand messaging, visual identity, and directs marketing and lead-generation campaigns to support awareness, enrollment, and fundraising efforts.

Candidates will be required to submit a portfolio that includes print and digital work.

The Creative Director translates marketing goals into creative deliverables that support business objectives and align with established brand strategy, promoting the Tufts brand across a range of print and digital media. Balances leadership and hands-on execution-managing a team of four through a high volume of shifting priorities while also maintaining a personal portfolio of creative work. Communicates, presents, and pitches creative concepts clearly to a variety of stakeholders. Partners closely with the Chief Marketing Officer to uphold and evolve brand standards and visual identity.

Essential Functions:

Creative Direction:

• Collaborates with the creative team, marketing strategists and business partners to translate marketing and communications objectives into creative strategies.
• Provides creative direction of print, digital and broadcast advertising and promotional efforts and provides art direction and oversight for internal and external creative resources.
• Provides constructive and thoughtful feedback during the creative design and development stages.
• Presents creative with enthusiasm to business partners - articulates rationale, builds consensus, and manages challenges.
• Stays current on emerging trends in design, multimedia, and branding, including inspiration from outside higher education, and regularly shares relevant insights with the team. Pursues ongoing professional development through software and technology training, design webinars, and industry events.
• Establishes and enforces brand and identity standards.
• Fosters key partnerships within UCM and university-wide business planning partners to maintain a high level of understanding of audience and business priorities.
• Collaborates closely with the marketing project managers on creative resource availability, timelines, and prioritization using shared systems for tracking and project coordination.
  
  

Team Leadership:

• Cultivates a high performing creative team in alignment with design best practices and procedures, quality standards, marketing strategy and creative brief requirements.
• Prioritizes customer satisfaction, by aligning design solutions to customer needs and goals.
• Upholds Tuft's core values of diversity, inclusion, equity and justice.
• Hires, mentors, and develops staff, focusing on continuous learning, addressing skills gaps, and retaining & elevating talent; source and manage freelancers.
• Serves in an advisory role to creative partner agencies and vendors to ensure that all creative deliverables are on brand and of high quality.
• Sets annual performance goals for direct reports, provides consistent feedback and conducts performance reviews.
• Fosters a culture of curiosity, problem-solving and innovation.
• Ensures department procedures are followed.

Individual Creative Portfolio:

• Maintains a portfolio of high priority creative projects.

Basic Requirements:

• Knowledge and skills as typically acquired through completion of a Bachelor's degree or equivalent
• 8-10 years of experience in a creative role, with at least 5 years in a leadership capacity
• Superior written and oral communications skills
• Mastery of core design software, including the Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop) and strong working knowledge of PowerPoint and Word. Familiarity with motion graphics software (e.g., After Effects), HTML, and/or CMS platforms (e.g., Drupal) is a plus.
• Agency or In-house experience preferred.
• Experience guiding creative execution and contributing to brand-aligned solutions within collaborative, cross functional organizations, institutions and/or brands.

Additional Qualities:

• Strong influencing and interpersonal skills
• Excellent judgment and discernment
• Flexible, adaptable, resourceful, and sense of humor
• Passion for marketing communications
• Team player
• Ability to work comfortably in a fast-paced environment, effectively prioritizing and managing multiple projects at once, while setting and meeting deadlines. Flexibility and creativity under pressure are a must.