Creative Director

McAfee • San Jose, CA

12d • Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Creative Director to join our team to lead our Brand Creative Services team inclusive of Design. As we embark on a brand and consumer-first marketing transformation, this role will play a critical role in driving our marketing efforts and in redefining McAfee to consumers. This role reports to the CMO.

This is a Hybrid position located in either San Jose, CA, New York or Frisco, TX. You will be required to be onsite on an as-needed basis, typically 1 to 6 times a month. We are only considering candidates within a commutable distance to one of the three locations and are not offering relocation assistance at this time.
Alongside the VP of Brand and Creative, provide creative leadership and craft-led objectivity to the McAfee brand - applying our new brand strategy into all the creative frameworks it needs to live and keeping the organization true to remaining on-brand.
Elevate our creative output as a company by engaging on product-brand experience application, delivering elevated top and mid-funnel campaigns and bringing excellence to every creative touchpoint.
Own McAfee’s visual identity, partnering with Brand Marketing to translate our brand promise to consumers into a powerful core logo and overall design system
Ensure that our design framework and architecture is comprehensive and cohesive to enable activation across all touchpoints both consistently and uniquely based on the audience/platform
Develop award-winning creative campaigns for McAfee with internal teams and agency partners, bringing the brand to life in new and powerful ways to our consumers
Develop 360° upper funnel, mid funnel, and lower funnel video and digital marketing campaigns, considering stakeholder briefs and insights
Optimize McAfee’s in‑house, agency, AI, and agentic model to build a world‑class creative function: Tailor team structure and strategy to an understanding of format and functional needs to drive the greatest impact across a variety of marketing channels and audiences, encompassing social, communications, email, campaign and partner needs
Build and nurture a team of diverse creatives (concept, copy, design, motion, editing etc.) and video producers who can bring the brand and stakeholder vision and strategy to life
Act as a brand steward to ensure our brand identity and creative platform is properly understood and implemented across and outside of the organization- including existing and prospective employee branding, across our partner ecosystem, and throughout our communication channels
Demonstrate thought leadership and early adoption of AI and other efficiency tools to enable greater productivity and more agile and expansive testing and optimization
Balance a creative and brand led point of view with the flexibility to deliver against stakeholder needs that may require creative solutions
Prioritize creative resourcing and initiatives based on impact to the business, consistently testing and revising as core organization prioritize shift

Requirements

• 12+ years leading powerful creative campaigns and design work
• Craft creative background in creative – attended advertising or design school, experience in conceptual creative leadership spanning both agency and in-house background
• Proven track record leading and building creative function and working with stakeholders in-house, on the brand side.
• Excellence without ego – strong collaboration skills. Able to work well with stakeholders across different disciplines and backgrounds and to understand the complex creative requirements of product teams.
• Strong point of view on optimizing in-house vs agency model, inclusive of scaling creative execution using AI tools.
• Deep experience in creative strategy, creative direction, concept development and execution across upper, mid and lower funnel campaigns
• Ability to direct photography and video shoots, with prior onsite and post-production experience.
• Growth mindset eager to embrace new tools and platforms to enable a strategy vs. production-oriented team culture and operating mode
• Experience managing creative agency partners and freelancers to ramp up and down based on seasonality and campaign cycles
• Ability to assess and communicate the impact of operational and structural improvements
• Experience within scaled cross channel, global businesses
• Portfolio demonstrating award winning campaigns across brand, performance (retention is a nice to have). Portfolios will be reviewed for both strength in creativity and effectiveness.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working on/with digital products and services a plus

Responsibilities

• Provide creative leadership and craft-led objectivity to the McAfee brand
• Elevate our creative output as a company by engaging on product-brand experience application, delivering elevated top and mid-funnel campaigns and bringing excellence to every creative touchpoint.
• Own McAfee’s visual identity, partnering with Brand Marketing to translate our brand promise to consumers into a powerful core logo and overall design system
• Ensure that our design framework and architecture is comprehensive and cohesive to enable activation across all touchpoints both consistently and uniquely based on the audience/platform
• Develop award-winning creative campaigns for McAfee with internal teams and agency partners, bringing the brand to life in new and powerful ways to our consumers
• Develop 360° upper funnel, mid funnel, and lower funnel video and digital marketing campaigns, considering stakeholder briefs and insights
• Optimize McAfee’s in‑house, agency, AI, and agentic model to build a world‑class creative function
• Build and nurture a team of diverse creatives (concept, copy, design, motion, editing etc.) and video producers who can bring the brand and stakeholder vision and strategy to life
• Act as a brand steward to ensure our brand identity and creative platform is properly understood and implemented across and outside of the organization
• Demonstrate thought leadership and early adoption of AI and other efficiency tools to enable greater productivity and more agile and expansive testing and optimization
• Balance a creative and brand led point of view with the flexibility to deliver against stakeholder needs that may require creative solutions
• Prioritize creative resourcing and initiatives based on impact to the business, consistently testing and revising as core organization prioritize shift

Benefits

• Bonus Program
• 401k Retirement Plan
• Medical, Dental, Vision, Basic Life, Short Term Disability and Long-Term Disability Coverage
• Paid Parental Leave
• Support for Community Involvement
• 14 Paid Company Holidays
• Unlimited Paid Time Off for Exempt Employees
• 96 Hours of Sick Time and 120 Hours of Vacation for Non-Exempt Employees Accrued Each Year

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees