Creative Director

NinjaTrader•Chicago, IL

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

NinjaTrader is seeking a Creative Director to oversee the company's visual identity, sound, and feel across all marketing touchpoints. This senior role reports directly to the CMO and is responsible for elevating the brand's visual expression to match its dynamic and growing nature. The position involves operationalizing the brand identity system, extending it across various platforms, and maintaining creative standards. It is a hands-on leadership role requiring both strategic direction and active involvement in creative execution. The goal is to make NinjaTrader's brand unmistakable in a crowded market.

Requirements

8+ years of brand and creative experience.
2+ years of experience leading a team as an ACD, CD, or design lead.
A portfolio demonstrating experience with systems-based design, not just one-off projects.
Demonstrated storytelling range, capable of developing narratives and art-directing scripts.
Experience across both brand campaign work and performance creative.
A desire to remain hands-on and actively involved in creative work.
Fluency with AI tooling in the creative process.
A track record of managing designers and directing external agencies.

Nice To Haves

Experience in Fintech, brokerage, trading, crypto, or exchange industries, or a genuine curiosity about markets and retail traders.
Experience operationalizing an inherited identity system rather than solely building from scratch.
Experience running a marketing design system alongside a separately owned product design system.
Experience in a constrained or regulated environment (finance, healthcare, insurance, pharma, or gaming).
Practicing a craft outside of the day job (photography, film, writing, or illustration).
Agency background combined with in-house leadership experience.

Responsibilities

Operationalize the incoming brand identity system (typography, color, photography, illustration, motion, iconography, layout) and extend it into all marketing surfaces.
Own and build the marketing design system to scale across campaign, web, lifecycle, and partner surfaces, ensuring its integrity when used by others.
Establish governance for the design system, including standards, documentation, review processes, and the authority to enforce brand consistency.
Act as the final quality control for brand expression across all marketing initiatives.
Concept and direct integrated marketing campaigns from brief to launch, including video, social media, paid advertising, OOH, sponsorships, and events.
Develop narratives and shape the storytelling for creative assets, including art-directing production.
Own marketing web and landing page design, including those for acquisition and conversion.
Direct creative for lifecycle and product marketing to ensure a coherent brand experience.
Remain hands-on with hero projects, contributing to concepting, design, and direction.
Hire, manage, and develop an in-house design team, fostering a strong critique culture and setting creative standards.
Brief, direct, and evaluate agencies, production partners, and freelancers, ensuring the quality of outsourced creative work.
Build an efficient operating rhythm for briefs, reviews, and handoffs to enable a small team to ship high volumes of creative work.
Grow into broader creative ownership, including copy and video production.
Partner with Product Design to ensure shared brand guidelines are maintained between marketing and platform surfaces.
Collaborate with performance marketing to build testable and measurable creative assets.
Operate effectively within a regulated marketing environment, engaging with compliance early in the process.