Executive Creative Director

CONAGRA • Chicago, IL

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Conagra is building a modern, in‑house creative agency designed to create powerful, insight‑led brand ideas that drive growth, consistently across all executional touchpoints.
We’re looking for an Executive Creative Director to lead this agency—someone who can generate, shape, and execute big ideas across a diverse portfolio of iconic brands, while also building the culture, systems, and creative muscle that make great work repeatable. You will report directly to the VP / Head of Marketing and will be responsible for creative excellence, operational discipline, and the development of next‑generation creative talent inside Conagra.
This leader partners closely with Brand Management, Media, Agencies, and Enterprise stakeholders to drive growth, optimize investment, and continuously evolve how Conagra activates brands across the portfolio.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA preferred
• 10-15+ years of progressive leadership experience in marketing activation, content, production, or agency environments at a leading Creative agency (BBDO, Grey Midwest, Publicis Group or others) and/or in-house CPG creative environment.
• Track record of leading big‑idea campaigns from insight through execution, not just one‑off hits.
• Deep comfort developing consumer insight without perfect data—you know how to think, not wait.
• The ability to write, conceive, and shape work yourself, not just manage others who do.
• High emotional intelligence—people trust you, follow you, and get better working with you.
• Strong operational instincts: you respect timelines, budgets, and process without letting them neuter creativity.
• A sharp design eye, strong cultural fluency, and an instinct for what will endure—not just what’s trending.
• Proven experience operating at enterprise and portfolio scale
• Demonstrated success leading complex organizations and cross‑functional team
• Strong financial acumen with experience managing large budgets and ROI‑driven investment decisions

Responsibilities

• Lead Big‑Idea Brand Building
• Originate and lead breakthrough, insight‑driven creative platforms across the Conagra portfolio.
• Translate data into sharp consumer truths and compelling ideas.
• Work comfortably with data, performance signals, and market inputs—and turn them into human stories, truths and compelling ideas.
• Ensure ideas are on‑brand, insight‑led, and connected to real consumer tensions that drive business objectives.
• Champion work that’s both creatively ambitious and commercially effective.
• Own end‑to‑end content creation across key brands, from big‑idea platforms to high‑velocity, always‑on execution across paid, owned, retail, commerce, social, and emerging channels.
• Establish and lead a modern in‑house studio model that consistently delivers high‑quality work at speed, managing timelines, budget, production, and decision-making frameworks.
• Personally lead and/or elevate development of ideas, scripts, copy, visual systems, and creative platforms, ensuring that work is properly prioritized & resourced to minimize bottlenecks.
• Translate brand strategy, consumer insight, and performance data into clear creative direction and actionable briefs that drive better work, faster.
• Set and enforce creative standards, quality bars, and design excellence across all content types and brands, establishing a learning-oriented culture that values craft, curiosity, & constructive feedback.
• Act as both creative leader and senior “account” partner, able to manage stakeholders, expectations, and trade‑offs.
• Balance creative ambition with speed, prioritization, and operational discipline across the in-house creative team.
• Ensure high‑quality work is delivered quickly, consistently, and efficiently – in collaboration with brand leaders.
• Collaborate deeply with Brand, Media, Sales, Analytics, and external agency partners to drive ROI-led marketing.
• Represent creative thinking credibly across the organization, able to sell ideas, explain tradeoffs, and build confidence in the work.
• Own enterprise brand partnerships, studios, creators, and licensing relationships and respective GTM.
• Lead management, guardrails and performance expectations for studio, licensors, agencies and partner engagements.
• Ensure partnerships deliver measurable brand growth, ROI/ROAS, and sustained effectiveness.
• Translate Studio performance into credible investment narratives that build leadership confidence.

Benefits

• Health: Comprehensive healthcare plans, wellness incentive program, mental wellbeing support and fitness reimbursement
• Wealth: Great pay, bonus incentive opportunity, matching 401(k) and stock purchase plan
• Growth: Career development opportunities, employee resource groups, on-demand learning and tuition reimbursement
• Balance: Paid-time off, parental leave, flexible work-schedules (subject to your location and role) and volunteer opportunities

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees