Associate Creative Director

Clearly Filtered, Inc.•Rancho Santa Margarita, CA

7d•$110,000 - $135,000•Hybrid

About The Position

At Clearly Filtered, we exist to help people, starting with the water they drink. We build high-performance filtration products backed by science and transparency, and we hold ourselves to a simple standard: every person who comes into contact with Clearly Filtered should be better off for it. We’re based in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA and we’re building out our creative function as we scale. This is a chance to own something real at a brand that takes the work seriously. We’re looking for an Associate Creative Director who leads by creating. This is a hands-on role for a senior designer with deep DTC and e-commerce experience who is ready for more ownership, greater influence, and a larger role in shaping how a brand comes to life. The ACD owns creative across every customer touchpoint and personally designs, builds, and refines work across web, paid, social, email, and other digital channels. You’ll also lead and develop a small creative team, providing direction, feedback, and mentorship while maintaining a high bar for creative excellence. This is a role for a maker, not just a manager. The right person combines strong creative instincts with strategic thinking and enjoys leading others while staying deeply involved in the work. This role is based in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA with a minimum of 3 days in office per week. Candidates should only apply if they are able to meet this requirement.

Requirements

8+ years of design experience with a portfolio that demonstrates craft and range across digital channels
Deep DTC and e-commerce digital marketing experience; you’ve designed for conversion and know what performs on web, social, paid, and email
Proven experience creating and editing social media videos as well as graphics; fluent in Premiere Pro, After Effects, or CapCut alongside expert-level Figma and Adobe Creative Suite
Experience designing content for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest with a strong understanding of what makes creative perform on each
Ability to receive a strategy and independently translate it into channel-right creative, not one asset resized four ways
Experience building, evolving, or enforcing a brand system across a growing creative output
A clear point of view: you can articulate why a piece of creative works, defend it, and change your mind when the data says to

Nice To Haves

Packaging design experience: unboxing, product packaging, inserts, and retail-ready materials
Print production knowledge including dielines, materials, and finishes
Experience in health, wellness, or consumer products where trust and substantiated claims matter

Responsibilities

Defines and continuously evolves Clearly Filtered’s creative expression, ensuring consistency and premium positioning across every customer touchpoint.
Define and own the brand’s visual identity, creative standards, tone, and aesthetic, and be its most fluent practitioner, not just its gatekeeper
Translate business strategies and marketing priorities into compelling creative concepts, then execute them personally
Build scalable design systems and creative frameworks that support iteration and cross-channel deployment
Maintain and evolve brand guidelines that keep the team aligned as output scales
Leads the creative development of all marketing initiatives from concept through final production, personally creating video, social, and campaign assets across every channel.
Lead creative development for all initiatives including seasonal campaigns, product launches, promotions, partnerships, and brand moments
Take a project strategy and translate it into a cohesive creative system across web, social, paid, and email; concept it, design it, deliver it
Personally create and edit social media videos including Reels, TikTok, and paid video ads from raw footage or UGC through final cut
Design social-first graphics, statics, and motion assets optimized for Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, and emerging platforms
Produce campaign assets end to end: photography direction, video editing, graphics, and copy-adjacent layout work
Designs conversion-focused creative across the e-commerce funnel and iterates based on performance data, treating results as creative feedback.
Design conversion-focused creative for the e-commerce funnel: landing pages, PDP assets, homepage heroes, promotional site takeovers, and CRO tests
Create and iterate paid ad creative for Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Google in static, carousel, and video formats
Design email and SMS campaign creative built for how subscribers actually read and click
Treat performance data as creative feedback: iterate on winners, eliminate losers, apply learnings to the next round
Leads and develops the creative team, owns workflow and creative operations, and partners cross-functionally to ensure creative is integrated into every initiative from the start.
Select exceptional creative talent and build a team that reflects the standard you hold
Set clear expectations, coach and develop team members, and hold the bar without holding people back
Own creative workflow, prioritization, and asset management across all projects
Manage relationships with external freelancers, photographers, videographers, and production partners
Partner closely with Marketing, Growth, and E-Commerce teams and get into the room early so creative shapes the work, not just executes it
Continuously explore new formats, tools, and storytelling approaches including AI-assisted workflows to keep the brand creatively distinctive