Director of Creative

Organic Valley

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Creative is responsible for leading and evolving the creative vision and expression of the Organic Valley brand across all touchpoints, with a primary focus on brand identity, packaging, and integrated marketing experiences. As both a creative leader and people leader, this role balances hands-on creative direction with business acumen to ensure the brand shows up with integrity, consistency, and relevance to deliver against the cooperative’s goals while empowering a high performing in-house creative team. This role requires a dynamic creative who can translate strategy into compelling visual systems and communications. The creative leader will steward a genuinely mission driven brand and will need to lead with courage and trust in a collaborative, cooperative culture.

Requirements

Demonstrated creative expertise gained through formal education and 5+ years of progressive senior-level experience, or 10+ years of relevant professional experience, in integrated marketing, brand identity systems, and packaging design
Ability to inspire and mentor creatives, and create a strong, positive creative culture.
Experience with video production workflow, from development to final edit with the ability to evaluate and elevate work.
Strong storytelling instincts grounded in consumer insight, brand strategy, and relevance to our intended audience(s).
Understanding of print production, packaging workflows, and digital execution
Fluency in collaborative creative tools including Asana preferred
Skilled at giving and receiving feedback in ways that strengthen work and relationships
Comfortable making decisions and standing behind them, including managing priorities and problem solving
Ability to navigate ambiguity without passing it on to the team
Strong storytelling instincts grounded in consumer insight and brand strategy
Alignment with mission driven, values based organizations
Ability to communicate ideas succinctly and present creative work with clarity, confidence, and strategic intent to senior leaders and cross functional partners
Working knowledge of AI best practices in creative work, with strong judgment on appropriate, brand safe application.
Collaborative mindset with the courage to challenge respectfully

Nice To Haves

Fluency in collaborative creative tools including Asana preferred

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop an in-house creative team with clear expectations, regular feedback, and growth opportunities
Foster a culture of trust, accountability, and constructive creative debate
Set priorities, manage workload, and ensure the team can do its best work without burnout
Encourage learning, experimentation, and craft development while maintaining brand discipline
Own and evolve the brand’s expression and visual identity system across packaging, campaigns, digital, retail, and experiential touchpoints
Serve as the final creative decision maker on brand expression/visuals and packaging design
Ensure packaging design balances brand storytelling, regulatory requirements, shelf impact, and operational realities
Establish and maintain brand and packaging guidelines that enable consistency without stifling creativity
Champion creative excellence while ensuring work reflects the cooperative’s mission, values, and farmer owned roots
Lead creative direction for all packaging initiatives, including new product launches, renovations, and line extensions
Partner closely with Category, Legal, Operations, QA, and Supply Chain teams to ensure packaging solutions are creative, feasible, and compliant
Supervise Packaging Manager, external partners (agencies, illustrators, photographers), and agency to deliver packaging work aligned with brand standards
Ensure packaging tells a clear, human, differentiated story at shelf and online
Champion visionary thinking with a “solve it” approach to navigate the packaging process
Own the brand’s packaging architecture and lead ongoing optimizations grounded in consumer research
Partner with Integrated Marketing and Category teams to translate strategy into creative briefs and visual solutions
Clearly articulate creative rationale to stakeholders and leadership
Act as a creative problem solver, not just an order taker
Balance collaboration with decisive leadership to keep work moving forward
Model collaborative partnership as a leader in Integrated Marketing and as a member of the cooperative’s Senior Leadership Team
Stay current on design, packaging, digital, social media, content and cultural trends relevant to mission driven and consumer brands.
Continuously improve creative processes to increase efficiency, clarity, and quality.
Support cooperative initiatives that strengthen culture and shared purpose.
Other duties as assigned by supervisor.

Benefits

Comprehensive Health Insurance - Choice of plans for you and your family, including some that can be paired with an HSA (which CROPP contributes to on your behalf)
Supplemental insurances: we offer accidental insurance, critical illness insurance, and hospital indemnity insurance.
Time Off – 136 hours in the 1st year of employment prorated by start date. Plus 9 paid holidays, plus one floating holiday to use at will.
6 Weeks Paid Parental Leave – For all gendered partners in childbirth or adoption.
Vision & Dental Insurance – Free annual eye exam, discounts on glasses/contacts, flexible dental network, adult ortho.
401k – We match 100% up to the first 3% of an employee’s contribution, and then 50% for 3.1%-5.0% of employee contributions.
Free services at five local Neighborhood Family Clinics.
Tuition Reimbursement – Up to $1,500 per year to support continuing higher education.
Life Insurance - $50,000 policy funded by CROPP for each employee. Supplemental voluntary coverage available for employees, spouses, and children.
Short-Term & Long-Term Disability/AD&D Insurance - $50,000 of life insurance coverage of $50,000 of AD&D coverage funded by CROPP for each employee.
Employee Assistance Program - Free and Confidential for employees, spouses, and dependents.
Free biometric screenings (cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure) and health coaching.
Financial advisors and seminars
Annual $360 Lifestyle Spending Account
On-site all-organic cafeterias