AVP, Associate Creative Strategy Director

Synchrony • Costa Mesa, CA

5d • Hybrid

About The Position

Goldmind, Synchrony’s full-service in-house agency, is looking for a strategic, relationship-driven creative strategist to partner closely with our Health and Wellness business and marketing teams. This role sits upstream with our business clients helping connect marketing priorities, customer insights and organizational goals into integrated solutions that drive impact. We’re looking for someone who is equal parts strategist, consultant, collaborator and builder. Someone who thrives in ambiguity, spots opportunities others miss, and knows how to bring cross-functional teams together around a shared vision. You’ll help shape positioning, messaging, customer journeys, campaign approaches and creative ideation across channels, ensuring the work is grounded in real audience understanding, clear business objectives and meaningful strategic thinking. If you love turning complexity into clarity, translating insights into action and helping creative teams produce smarter, more effective work, we’d love to meet you.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree or in lieu of degree, High School Diploma/GED and 8+ years’ experience in marketing, creative business or agency.
• Proven ability to build relationships and influence cross-functional stakeholders within complex organizations.
• Strong strategic thinking, presentation, storytelling and communication skills.
• Experience translating business needs and customer insights into actionable creative and marketing solutions.
• Experience working closely with account management, creative and marketing teams in fast-paced agency or in-house environments.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, prioritize effectively and proactively identify opportunities for impact.
• Experience developing strategy for social media, digital advertising, websites, web applications and mobile apps.
• Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting healthcare, wellness, financial services or other highly regulated industries.
• Familiarity with customer journey development, audience segmentation and experience strategy.
• Experience facilitating workshops, stakeholder alignment sessions or strategic planning engagements.
• Strong understanding of creative development processes and integrated agency workflows.
• Working knowledge of CX, UX and integrated marketing strategy principles.
• Experience using GenAI to support strategic thinking and creative development.
• Familiarity with Figma, FigJam, Adobe Workfront, or similar collaboration tools.
• Portfolio and/or case studies demonstrating strategic thinking and business impact preferred.

Responsibilities

• Build trusted relationships with marketing and business partners to understand priorities, goals and upcoming initiatives.
• Operate upstream within planning conversations to identify opportunities before projects formally enter agency workflow.
• Partner closely with Account Management, Creative, Production and Project Management teams to align solutions against business needs.
• Help turn enterprise initiatives, customer insights, campaign goals and channel strategies into cohesive creative opportunities.
• Serve as a strategic thought partner to internal stakeholders by helping shape marketing approaches, engagement opportunities and creative solutions.
• Leverage consumer insights, data, trends, research and market intelligence to inform strategic recommendations and support creative direction.
• Provide insights and strategic thinking that guide positioning, messaging approaches, customer journeys and communications strategies across channels.
• Support creative work with clear business objectives and audience clarity.
• Partner with creative teams throughout development to maintain strategic alignment and effectiveness.
• Translate ambiguous business challenges into actionable strategic direction that informs the campaign creative approaches.
• Facilitate strategic discussions, workshops and collaborative planning sessions with stakeholders and internal agency teams.
• Foster collaboration across Strategy, Account, Creative, PM and partner teams to improve alignment, clarity and execution.
• Serve as a connector across disciplines, helping teams navigate complexity and move indicatives forward effectively.
• Guide teams toward solutions that balance customer needs, business goals, speed, scalability and creative excellence.
• Support a culture of curiosity, collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement.
• Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned

Benefits

• Eligible for an annual bonus based on individual and company performance.
• Option to work from home near one of our Hubs or come into one of our offices.
• In-person engagement activities such as regular business or team meetings, training and culture events.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Associate degree