Associate, Marketing Operations

Principal Financial Group • Des Moines, IA

1d • Remote

About The Position

We are looking for a detail-oriented digital designer to join Principal’s Marketing Operations & Technology team. This role sits at the intersection of visual design, brand systems, accessibility, and marketing technology. In this role, you will help design, build, test, and refine high-quality digital communications, with a focus on Salesforce Marketing Cloud email experiences. You will work across B2B and B2C marketing communications, supporting emails, templates, content blocks, animated assets, social, web, app and programmatic creative, and other digital design needs. This is a hands-on production and craft role for someone who understands that strong digital design is both visual and technical. The right candidate should care about layout, typography, hierarchy, accessibility, responsive behavior, platform constraints, and the small details that make a marketing communication accurate, usable, and on brand. Operating at the intersection of financial services and technology, Principal builds financial tools that help our customers live better lives. We take pride in being a purpose-led firm, motivated by our mission to make financial security accessible to all. Our mission, integrity, and customer focus have made us a trusted leader for more than 145 years!

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in graphic design, digital design, visual communication, human-computer interaction, marketing, or equivalent work experience.
• 2+ years of professional design experience, with demonstrated strength in visual design fundamentals, production accuracy, and multi-channel execution.
• Working knowledge of HTML and CSS, preferably with experience building or editing marketing emails.
• Experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, email design, email production, Content Builder, or similar email marketing platforms.
• High attention to detail, with an emphasis on content accuracy, brand consistency, technical quality, and production readiness.
• Ability to follow creative direction, interpret feedback, solve execution-level design problems, and improve work through review cycles.
• Ability to manage multiple assignments, prioritize work, meet deadlines, and communicate clearly in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong collaboration skills and comfort working with designers, project managers, marketers, developers, data partners, and deployment teams.
• Curiosity and willingness to learn new tools, workflows, automation capabilities, AI-assisted production practices, and evolving digital design methods. Comfort balancing creative quality with operational speed, compliance needs, and platform limitations.

Nice To Haves

• Proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite, especially Photoshop and Illustrator. InDesign, After Effects, or animation experience is a plus.
• Portfolio showing strong command of layout, typography, composition, visual hierarchy, image use, and digital design craft a plus.
• Experience creating or editing animated GIFs, digital banners, social creative, programmatic ads, charts, or other digital marketing assets.
• Familiarity with AMPscript, personalization logic, dynamic content, data-driven email modules, or reusable SFMC components.
• Working awareness of accessible design standards and ability to apply WCAG 2.2 AA practices to digital communications.
• Experience testing emails in Litmus or similar tools.

Responsibilities

• Design and build branded digital communications in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, with a focus on enterprise email design and development.
• Translate creative briefs, source documents, and partner direction into clear, on-brand, accessible email and digital design executions.
• Use layout, typography, hierarchy, color, image selection, and composition to create communications that are clear, readable, and aligned to Principal’s brand.
• Create and refine supporting digital assets, including Web/app banners, graphics, charts, animated GIFs, social assets, and programmatic ad creative.
• Use Adobe Creative Suite, including Photoshop and Illustrator, to create, edit, resize, optimize, and export production-ready creative assets.
• Test email designs for accuracy, accessibility, responsiveness, rendering behavior, dark mode, links, images, and overall quality before final delivery.
• Apply accessible design practices, including WCAG 2.2 AA expectations, to help create inclusive digital communications.
• Work within established brand standards, design systems, templates, and reusable components to improve consistency, speed, and scalability.
• Collaborate with designers, project managers, marketing partners, data and deployment teams, and other stakeholders to clarify requirements and resolve issues.

Benefits

• Flexible Time Off (FTO) is provided to salaried (exempt) employees and provides the opportunity to take time away from the office with pay for vacation, personal or short-term illness. Employees don’t accrue a bank of time off under FTO and there is no set number of days provided.
• Pension Eligible

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level