Associate Creative Director

Thesis•Portland, OR

1h•$105,000 - $135,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Thesis is an independent agency working at the intersection of creativity, strategy, and technology. The Associate Creative Director is a foundational member of the agency’s Growth team, helping identify opportunities, build relationships, develop ideas, and win business. The role combines creative vision, strategic thinking, strong craft, and hands-on execution to develop work that connects with audiences and supports business goals. The Associate Creative Director leads creative development for prospective clients across B2C and B2B brands. Work may include integrated campaigns, digital experiences, lifecycle marketing programs, CRM ecosystems, and pitch concepts. The role establishes creative visions that translate complex products and business challenges into clear, distinctive, emotionally resonant work. It also helps shape the creative standards and culture of a growing team, partners across disciplines, and experiments with AI, technology, and emerging tools to broaden creative possibilities.

Requirements

6–8 years of experience in creative, design, or art direction.
An outstanding portfolio demonstrating exceptional craft, original thinking, and design excellence across B2C and B2B brands.
Deep expertise in digital-first creative, with meaningful experience across integrated campaigns, lifecycle marketing, CRM, email, digital experiences, and social platforms.
Strong foundation in art direction, typography, design systems, visual storytelling, and brand expression.
Ability to combine visionary creative judgment with hands-on execution and build the work independently.
Proven ability to turn a loose brief, blank page, or ambiguous business challenge into a compelling creative direction.
Strong storytelling and presentation skills, including the ability to defend and evolve creative work in high-stakes pitches and client collaborations.
Fluency with contemporary design tools and curiosity about emerging AI-powered creative workflows.
Optimistic, competitive, collaborative, low-ego approach, with a drive to help colleagues do their best work.
Ability to use standard office equipment, computers, and related technology.
Ability to perform extended periods of sitting, keyboarding, and using a computer mouse.
Ability to bend, reach, lift, push, and pull up to 25 pounds.
Ability to travel up to 25% of the time.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a digitally focused agency or dynamic environment.
Candidates based in the Portland Metro area are prioritized to support the hybrid work arrangement.

Responsibilities

Lead creative development for new business pitches, translating business challenges and audience insights into creative platforms, concepts, and experiences.
Develop strategically grounded creative across digital, social, CRM, lifecycle, brand, and integrated campaigns.
Develop creative approaches for both B2C and B2B audiences, including consumers, customers, and business decision-makers.
Create pitch presentations, visual storytelling, campaign concepts, and prototypes that make ideas tangible and build belief with prospective clients.
Translate complex products, services, and business challenges into clear, distinctive, emotionally resonant creative.
Partner with strategy, lifecycle, performance, and technology teams to create solutions to business problems.
Connect creative decisions to business impact across acquisition, engagement, conversion, retention, loyalty, and growth.
Apply knowledge of digital customer journeys, CRM, personalization, and omnichannel experiences.
Balance ambitious creative thinking with commercial realities, ensuring ideas are relevant, executable, and measurable.
Develop connected experiences that create lasting value beyond individual campaigns.
Help establish the creative standard, culture, and ambition of a growing team.
Move between creative direction and hands-on design, concepting, and execution.
Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, external partners, and freelance talent to deliver work.
Present creative thinking persuasively to internal leadership, prospective clients, and senior stakeholders.
Contribute ideas and concepts to strengthen Thesis’s positioning, marketing, and go-to-market efforts.
Champion experimentation, emerging technologies, AI-enabled workflows, and new ways of working while maintaining creative quality.
Use AI and contemporary design tools to expand exploration, rapidly prototype concepts, and accelerate learning.
Partner with multidisciplinary leads to explore modern ways of developing and presenting pitch ideas.