Creative Director

Robert Half•San Ramon, CA

3d•$176,000 - $230,000

About The Position

The Creative Director leads Robert Half's Brand Design Studio and is responsible for elevating strategic thinking, concept development, visual identity, design quality, and creative execution across marketing, communications, and brand experiences. The role translates brand and marketing strategies into compelling creative work across channels while ensuring the studio delivers high-quality creative services, production, and execution at scale. The Creative Director owns the evolution, governance, implementation, and adoption of Robert Half's visual identity system in partnership with Brand Marketing. This leader guides a multidisciplinary creative team and collaborates with marketing, communications, corporate services, business stakeholders, and external creative partners to develop strategically aligned, distinctive, and operationally achievable concepts, design systems, campaign assets, and production solutions. As the senior internal creative leader for major creative initiatives, including agency-led work when appropriate, the Creative Director ensures creative output reflects Robert Half standards, supports business objectives, improves stakeholder confidence, and raises the organization's creative maturity. The role also leads creative operations, production delivery, resource management, and team development.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, Advertising, Fine Arts, Marketing, or a related discipline.
15+ years of progressive experience in creative, design, advertising, creative services, or brand-related roles.
7+ years leading creative teams, agencies, studios, or design organizations.
Experience leading multidisciplinary creative teams responsible for concept development and production delivery.
Experience owning or leading visual identity systems, design standards, design systems, or creative guidelines.
Experience developing integrated creative concepts and production-ready creative across digital, social, web, presentation, event, campaign, video, motion, and print channels.
Experience partnering with brand, marketing, communications, content, digital, UX, production, agency, and business stakeholders.
Expert knowledge of modern design tools and creative platforms.
Expertise in visual identity systems, design systems, brand governance, and creative guidelines.
Experience with digital, social, web, presentation, event, motion, video, and print design workflows.
Understanding of creative production, photography, video, motion, and agency production processes.
Familiarity with AI-enabled creative tools and workflows.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and Copilot.
Executive presence and strong presentation skills.
Exceptional written, verbal, and visual communication skills.
Ability to influence without authority in a matrixed environment.
Ability to articulate and defend creative direction, design rationale, and production recommendations.
Ability to provide constructive creative feedback and lead productive critique processes.
Strong relationship-building skills across marketing, communications, creative, digital, agency, vendor, and business stakeholders.
Ability to coach, inspire, and raise expectations for creative thinking and execution quality.

Nice To Haves

B2B, professional services, consulting, technology, staffing, or related experience.

Responsibilities

Establish and communicate the creative vision for Robert Half marketing, communications, and brand experiences, balancing strategic thinking with strong execution.
Lead or guide creative concepts, campaign ideas, visual approaches, and design solutions across channels and touchpoints.
Own the evolution, governance, implementation, and adoption of the visual identity system in partnership with Brand Marketing.
Define and maintain design standards, visual frameworks, creative guidelines, and best practices for consistent, flexible, scalable work.
Translate brand strategy, messaging, and audience insights into distinctive visual expression for campaigns, content, communications, digital experiences, presentations, events, and customer-facing materials.
Review and direct creative work for quality, consistency, audience relevance, craftsmanship, effectiveness, and brand integrity.
Serve as the senior internal creative leader for major agency-led initiatives and ensure alignment with brand standards, business objectives, audience needs, and creative expectations.
Partner with marketing, communications, corporate services, and business stakeholders to support marketing and communications objectives.
Translate briefs, messaging, and audience insights into creative strategies, concepts, design approaches, production plans, and deliverables.
Advise strategically during campaign planning, creative development, agency collaboration, and production planning.
Guide collaboration with external agencies, freelancers, production partners, and internal teams, selecting appropriate resource models.
Build organizational partnerships that improve collaboration, alignment, stakeholder confidence, and creative outcomes.
Partner with UX, Media Design Studio, marketing channel teams, Communications, and Corporate Services to ensure solutions are effective, feasible, and consistent.
Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team of designers, art directors, production specialists, and other creative professionals.
Ensure the Brand Design Studio efficiently and consistently delivers creative production, visual design, digital, presentation, event, campaign, and internal assets.
Partner with the PMO leader to define intake, prioritization, briefing, review, production, workflow, and delivery standards.
Manage creative resources, agencies, freelancers, vendors, production partners, and creative technology investments as needed.
Build capabilities in concept development, design systems, digital experiences, motion design, AI-enabled creativity, presentation design, and emerging technologies.
Foster a high-performance creative culture grounded in accountability, collaboration, constructive critique, curiosity, innovation, production excellence, and continuous improvement.
Coach and inspire the team to improve creative thinking, design quality, storytelling, execution standards, and output.
Provide timely feedback, address concerns, and manage difficult conversations with emotional intelligence, fairness, and consistency.
Improve creative quality, concept development, visual storytelling, and design craftsmanship.
Drive consistent adoption and application of visual identity standards across major touchpoints.
Support stakeholder satisfaction and confidence in creative partnership, quality, and delivery.
Deliver effective creative support for integrated marketing, content marketing, communications, events, internal initiatives, and digital experiences.
Improve on-time delivery, project cycle time, resource utilization, and production efficiency.
Collaborate effectively with agencies, freelancers, vendors, and production partners when appropriate.
Grow team capability, employee engagement, talent development, and creative maturity.

Benefits

Group health insurance benefits, including medical, vision, and dental.
FSA and HSA healthcare accounts.
Life and accident insurance.
Adoption and fertility assistance.
Paid parental leave of up to 6 weeks.
Short- and long-term disability.
Paid time off for vacation, personal needs, and sick time; Choice Time Off varies by years of service and is prorated based on hours worked. New hires earn up to 17 days per calendar year.
Up to 11 paid holidays per calendar year.
Company 401(k) savings and investment plan or deferred compensation plan, if eligible, with a 100% employer match on the first 3% of eligible employee contributions.
Eligibility for a discretionary annual bonus.