Director, Creative and Brand

Merlin Group•McLean, VA

22h•Onsite

About The Position

Merlin is seeking a Director, Creative and Brand to lead the evolution of our brand across all touchpoints—visual, digital, and experiential. This leader will own the creative vision and execution, ensuring a cohesive, differentiated brand that resonates with our audience and supports business growth. This role requires a rare blend of hands-on creative expertise and strategic leadership—someone who can set direction, inspire teams, and execute at a high level across design, digital, and brand systems.

Requirements

10 –12+ years in brand, creative, or design roles (with leadership experience)
Deep experience in graphic design, visual design, and brand systems
Strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality, modern, and scalable design work
Hands-on senior design skills across a variety of content formats and channels
Proven experience managing both internal creative teams and external partners/contractors
Track record of mentoring creatives and elevating team performance
Ability to balance hands-on work with strategic oversight
Strong experience leading web design and digital experiences
Fluency in UX/UI principles and modern web best practices
Experience collaborating with product and engineering teams
Ability to connect brand and design decisions to business outcomes
Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
Comfortable operating in fast-paced, high-growth environments

Nice To Haves

Experience in Cybersecurity, B2B, SaaS, or tech environments
Background in designing brand identity systems and B2B content development
Experience scaling a brand through periods of rapid growth and transformational change

Responsibilities

Define, evolve, and operationalize Merlin’s brand strategy, identity, and visual systems across all touchpoints
Translate business, product, and marketing objectives into clear, differentiated, and high-impact creative
Establish and uphold brand standards to ensure consistency and coherence across web, product, campaigns, and content
Shape how Merlin communicates complex concepts into accessible, compelling narratives that build trust with key audiences
Lead end-to-end creative direction across brand, digital, campaigns, and product marketing initiatives
Partner cross-functionally with marketing, product, and leadership to concept and deliver effective design solutions
Set and maintain a high bar for craft, storytelling, and innovation across all outputs
Provide hands-on creative direction and feedback, ensuring alignment from concept through execution
Be up-to-date on design trends and the cyber market, including cybersecurity brand design trends
Experience using AI platforms for design generation and execution at scale (IE, Claude, ChatGPT, etc)
Build, mentor, and scale a high-performing in-house creative team as the company grows and scales
Manage and direct external agencies, freelancers, and production partners
Develop scalable processes, systems, and workflows to support efficient, high-quality creative output
Foster a culture of collaboration, critique, and continuous improvement
Build and manage a robust content system of record for design work, digital and marketing assets, and other content deliverables
Own the vision, design, and continuous visual optimization of Merlin’s website and digital ecosystem
Drive conversion-focused design informed by user behavior, analytics, and experimentation
Ensure digital brand experiences can be effectively consumed and interacted with across a variety of audience channels and touchpoints
Act as a key partner to executive leadership on brand strategy and positioning
Use insights and performance data to continuously refine creative direction
Champion the role of design as a core driver of business value