CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Jack In The Box•San Diego, TX

23h•$180,000 - $280,000

About The Position

The Creative Director leads the Jack Design Studio, overseeing internal creative talent and external partners to deliver distinctive, high-quality brand experiences across customer touchpoints. As steward of Jack in the Box’s visual identity and creative standards, this role shapes and evolves the brand’s design language and translates creative vision into culturally relevant work across campaigns, digital channels, packaging, merchandising and restaurant environments. The role establishes creative vision and design principles, leads a collaborative studio culture, and develops brand guidelines, toolkits, templates and scalable design systems. It oversees creative execution across restaurant merchandising and point-of-purchase materials, digital customer experiences, integrated campaigns and brand expression, while partnering with marketing, operations and agency teams. The Creative Director also supports annual marketing planning, improves speed to market, manages studio resources and external production investments, and maintains quality standards across print and digital production. The position requires significant creative leadership in a consumer-facing, fast-paced environment and experience developing or evolving a recognizable consumer brand’s visual identity. Restaurant, retail or other multi-location consumer experience is required, particularly with menu boards, merchandising, signage and point-of-purchase communication. A bachelor’s degree in a related field is preferred. The role includes travel approximately 20–25% of the time as business needs require. The stated salary range is $180,000–$280,000 for an employee located at corporate headquarters. Remote employees hired in other cities may receive a geographic pay differential based on local labor costs.

Requirements

Significant creative leadership experience within a consumer brand, restaurant, retail, entertainment, agency or similarly fast-paced marketing environment.
Experience developing or evolving visual identity systems for a recognizable consumer brand.
Restaurant, retail or other multi-location consumer experience, particularly with menu boards, merchandising, signage and point-of-purchase communication.
Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary creative teams across brand design, graphic design, copy and production.
Strong portfolio demonstrating brand identity, integrated campaign, digital and physical or retail design work.
Exceptional creative judgment and a highly developed eye for design, typography, photography, visual storytelling and craft.
Ability to build brands as systems, creating design principles that flex across many executions without losing distinctiveness.
Strong understanding of contemporary culture, design, entertainment, social and consumer trends.
Ability to move between big creative ideas and tactical execution.
Strong creative-directing skills and ability to give clear, inspiring and actionable feedback.
Strong understanding of print production, digital design, content production and asset development.
Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with overlapping marketing programs and deadlines.
Ability to challenge convention and advocate for bold ideas while remaining open to feedback and iteration.
Excellent communication, presentation and storytelling skills.
Proficient knowledge of personal computers and Microsoft Office 365, including Word and Excel.
Demonstrates integrity and ethical behavior.
Ability to communicate clearly in person and on the telephone.
Ability to operate a computer keyboard.
Ability to travel approximately 20–25% of the time as business needs require.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, Advertising, Communications, Marketing, Fine Arts or a related field is preferred.
Fosters continuous improvement, innovation and learning.
Demonstrated ability to lead through ambiguity and drive organizational alignment.
Champions cross-functional collaboration and teamwork.
Develops talent and creates an environment of inclusion, engagement and growth.
Builds trust through transparency, consistency, sound decision-making, integrity and accountability.
Strong collaborator able to influence senior stakeholders while maintaining a clear creative point of view.

Responsibilities

Own and steward Jack in the Box’s visual identity across consumer-facing touchpoints, including typography, color, graphics, photography, illustration, iconography and motion.
Establish the Design Studio’s creative vision, design principles and standards for creative excellence, craft and originality.
Develop and maintain brand guidelines, creative toolkits, templates and design systems for internal teams, agencies, franchisees and external partners.
Protect brand consistency while keeping creative fresh, culturally current and distinctive.
Build a collaborative internal creative culture and establish workflows, intake, prioritization and review standards with Marketing Operations.
Balance high-volume production requirements with brand and creative development.
Lead the creative development and production of restaurant merchandising and point-of-purchase materials, including menu boards, promotional menu panels, window clings, counter materials and signage.
Partner with Menu & Product Marketing, Operations and Marketing Operations to translate marketing programs, menu innovation and value initiatives into restaurant communications.
Develop scalable creative systems for national programs, market-level differences, tests and rapid promotional changes.
Oversee brand design across web, app, CRM, paid digital media, social content and other digital customer experiences.
Partner with Digital & Growth Marketing to translate brand identity into performance-oriented and transactional environments.
Establish flexible digital design systems that support high-volume content creation, versioning, localization and rapid optimization.
Partner with Brand Marketing and external creative agencies on integrated campaign development and production; represent the internal creative perspective throughout concepting, design, production and adaptation.
Collaborate with agency partners on photography, content production, video, digital, social, experiential and other campaign assets.
Determine which creative work should be developed internally versus externally based on capabilities, complexity, speed and business need.
Ensure agency-developed campaigns translate across restaurant, digital, CRM, merchandising and owned channels.
Oversee internal copywriting resources and collaborate with Brand Marketing and agencies to maintain Jack’s distinctive verbal identity.
Ensure headlines, merchandising copy, menu communication and tactical messaging are clear, compelling and consistent with the brand.
Partner with Public Relations, Social and Brand Marketing to maintain cohesion across visual and verbal brand expression.
Anticipate creative needs across the annual marketing calendar with Brand Marketing and Marketing Operations.
Develop modular creative assets and toolkits for faster local and franchisee execution while protecting brand consistency.
Identify process improvements that reduce unnecessary review rounds, handoffs and production complexity.
Partner with Brand Marketing, Product Marketing, Digital & Growth, Public Relations, Social, Culinary/Product Development, Consumer Insights, Operations and Marketing Operations.
Serve as the organization’s internal authority on visual brand expression and design quality, translating strategic and commercial objectives into creative solutions.
Partner with Marketing leadership and Marketing Operations to manage studio resources and external production investments.
Oversee vendor selection and management for printing, photography, design, production and specialized creative capabilities.
Maintain quality-control standards across high-volume print and digital production.
Perform other related duties, tasks and responsibilities as required, assigned and directed.