Associate Creative Director Consumer Products

Citizens•Westwood, MA

7h•$125,000 - $158,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Creative Director, serving as the Creative Squad Lead for Consumer Banking, reports to the Executive Creative Director. This role leads a team of creatives and delivers integrated marketing and communications for Citizens checking and deposit products, supporting awareness, consideration, acquisition, engagement, and retention. It combines strategic creative leadership with consumer banking, performance marketing, and product storytelling in a regulated industry. The role emphasizes copywriting, concepting, and content creation leadership over visual communication, translating complex product features into clear, motivating customer-focused creative while protecting brand integrity. The position partners with Checking & Deposits marketing, product, strategy, media, analytics, compliance, channel, production, and other stakeholders. It leads work across acquisition campaigns, product launches, promotional offers, onboarding, lifecycle communications, cross-sell initiatives, and always-on marketing. The role manages and mentors a squad of designers and copywriters, including 4–6 direct reports, and balances creative quality, performance, customer experience, compliance, delivery, and resource needs across channels. The schedule is 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with four days in the Westwood, Massachusetts office and one day remote. The stated annual salary range is $125,000–$158,000, plus the opportunity to earn an annual discretionary bonus. Actual pay depends on factors including budget, work location, and relevant skills and experience.

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience in creative leadership, advertising, brand marketing, performance marketing, financial services marketing, consumer products, retail, or a related field.
At least 5 years of experience leading creative teams, managing senior stakeholders, and balancing multiple concurrent, high-priority initiatives.
Emphasis on copywriting, concepting, and content creation over visual communication.
A strong portfolio demonstrating integrated campaign thinking, product storytelling, brand stewardship, and measurable marketing creativity across digital and physical channels.
Experience creating customer acquisition, lifecycle, promotional, or product marketing communications.
Ability to make complex products and offers feel simple, relevant, differentiated, and human.
Strong understanding of channel strategy, customer journeys, direct-response principles, testing, optimization, and modular content systems.
Excellent concepting, copy, design judgment, presentation, and communication skills.
Collaborative and strategic leadership, sound judgment, high standards, and keen attention to detail.

Nice To Haves

Experience in banking or another regulated category is preferred.

Responsibilities

Participate in developing, reviewing, and approving creative briefs to align work with business objectives, product strategies, audience insights, channel roles, and measurable outcomes.
Lead creative development for integrated acquisition campaigns, product launches, promotional offers, customer onboarding, lifecycle communications, cross-sell initiatives, and always-on marketing.
Guide teams in turning checking and deposit propositions into simple, differentiated, customer-centered stories with clear value and compelling next steps.
Balance brand-building ambition with direct-response discipline and performance objectives.
Champion connected customer experiences across paid, owned, branch, digital, social, email, direct mail, landing pages, video, and in-app or authenticated channels.
Use customer insights, competitive context, testing, and performance signals to improve creative work.
Lead a squad of designers and copywriters supporting Consumer Banking acquisition, engagement, and retention priorities.
Manage and mentor 4–6 direct reports; provide creative direction, constructive feedback, and timely approvals.
Balance resources across strategic campaigns, high-velocity offers, product updates, testing roadmaps, and ongoing business needs.
Mentor creative talent in product storytelling, performance creative, integrated campaign development, and regulated communications.
Partner with Account Management and Operations to anticipate demand, manage capacity, clarify priorities, and deliver work on time.
Foster craftsmanship, accountability, curiosity, creative excellence, and continuous improvement.
Serve as the primary creative partner for Consumer Banking marketing and product stakeholders.
Collaborate with strategy, media, analytics, UX, channel, compliance, legal, production, and external partners to develop effective, compliant creative solutions.
Advocate for clarity, relevance, accessibility, and a frictionless customer journey in cross-functional discussions.
Clarify the customer problem, single-minded proposition, proof points, offer hierarchy, and desired action early in the process.
Support modular creative systems, templates, and toolkits that increase speed and scale while preserving brand quality.
Maintain consistency across channels while adapting ideas and messages to each touchpoint.
Maintain high standards for concept, copy, design, information hierarchy, accessibility, production quality, and customer experience.
Review work across paid media, social, email, direct mail, web and landing pages, branch materials, digital signage, video, presentations, and sales enablement materials.
Ensure rates, offers, rewards, disclosures, and product details are clear, accurate, and compliant with brand, legal, regulatory, and compliance requirements.
Protect creative ideas through versioning, localization, channel adaptation, and production.
Anticipate and resolve challenges involving business priorities, offer complexity, approval cycles, testing, production timelines, stakeholder expectations, and capacity planning.
Identify opportunities to improve performance and customer understanding through sharper messaging, stronger design systems, and purposeful experimentation.

Benefits

Competitive pay
Comprehensive medical coverage
Dental coverage
Vision coverage
Retirement benefits
Maternity leave
Paternity leave
Flexible work arrangements
Education reimbursement
Wellness programs
Paid time off policy exceeding mandatory paid sick or paid time-away policies of U.S. local and state jurisdictions
Opportunity to earn an annual discretionary bonus