Senior Director, Creative

Braze•Chicago, IL

3d•$137,000 - $205,000•Hybrid

About The Position

At Braze, we have found our people. We’re a genuinely approachable, exceptionally kind, and intensely passionate crew. We seek to ignite that passion by setting high standards, championing teamwork, and creating work-life harmony as we collectively navigate rapid growth on a global scale while striving for greater equity and opportunity – inside and outside our organization. To flourish here, you must be prepared to set a high bar for yourself and those around you. There is always a way to contribute: Acting with autonomy, having accountability and being open to new perspectives are essential to our continued success. Our deep curiosity to learn and our eagerness to share diverse passions with others gives us balance and injects a one-of-a-kind vibrancy into our culture. If you are driven to solve exhilarating challenges and have a bias toward action in the face of change, you will be empowered to make a real impact here, with a sharp and passionate team at your back. If Braze sounds like a place where you can thrive, we can’t wait to meet you. We’re looking for a Senior Director, Creative to lead and scale our design function as a conceptual, strategic, and operational pillar of the Creative and Brand organization. This role is responsible not only for visual excellence, but for building, developing, and maintaining a high-performing design team grounded in strong conceptual thinking. Success in this role depends on the ability to set a clear creative bar, move decisively when standards aren’t met, and actively mentor emerging leaders so responsibility and ownership can be pushed downward—freeing this role to operate up, out, and across the organization. The Senior Director, Creative partners closely with strategy, brand, and creative leadership to ensure our visual systems are insight-led, scalable, and emotionally resonant.

Requirements

15+ years of professional design experience, with senior leadership responsibility
5+ years of people management experience, including building and evolving teams
Proven ability to build conceptually strong, high-performing creative teams
Strong strategic thinker who connects design decisions to brand and business outcomes
Comfortable making difficult people decisions in the service of quality and scale
Experienced in both agency and client-side environments
Deep expertise across design tools and systems (Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, motion fundamentals)
Confident partnering with developers, strategists, and senior stakeholders

Responsibilities

Lead and scale a high-performing, conceptually strong design team spanning brand, motion, and multi-disciplinary creative
Build teams intentionally—prioritizing conceptual thinking, taste, and strategic fluency, not just executional skill
Establish and uphold a clear, non-negotiable quality bar for design, craft, and thinking
Act decisively when performance does not meet expectations—making changes quickly, thoughtfully, and in service of the team’s long-term health
Mentor and develop junior leaders so they are prepared to take on delegated ownership, responsibilities, and team leadership
Push leadership downward, enabling designers and emerging leads to operate with confidence and autonomy
Create clear growth paths, expectations, and feedback mechanisms for all levels of the team
Design and implement repeatable design systems, workflows, and processes that allow the team to deliver consistently high-quality work at scale
Identify inefficiencies in briefing, reviews, production, and delivery—and proactively solve for them
Partner with Creative Ops and Marketing Ops to ensure design processes scale with organizational growth
Build templates, frameworks, and visual systems that reduce friction and increase speed without compromising quality
Balance craft excellence with operational rigor, making “great work, done efficiently” the standard
Partner deeply with the strategy function within the Creative and Brand team to ensure design is rooted in clear strategic intent
Translate insights, positioning, and brand frameworks into compelling, scalable visual systems
Pressure-test strategy through a design lens—helping refine ideas into clear, emotionally resonant expressions
Ensure design work ladders back to brand and business objectives, not just aesthetic goals
Champion conceptual thinking across the design team, ensuring ideas drive visuals—not the other way around
Act as a creative counterpart to strategy leadership, collaborating early to shape creative direction and success criteria
Ensure the design team operates from shared strategic frameworks, not isolated project briefs
Help codify the strategy into clear visual guidance that enables faster, more confident execution
Establish strong working rhythms with strategy partners through working sessions, reviews, and planning checkpoints
Proactively surface and resolve misalignment between strategy and execution
Operate upward by partnering with senior leadership and executives to align design strategy with business priorities
Operate across marketing by building trusted relationships with Brand, Product Marketing, Demand, Events, Content, and Comms teams
Serve as the final decision-maker on visual direction for the brand
Anticipate cross-functional needs and creative risks before they arise—and build processes to address them
Represent the design function as a strategic partner, not just a service function
Own and evolve the visual identity and design systems for the brand across all touchpoints
Provide creative direction across: Brand and campaign design, Website and digital experiences, Event and experiential marketing, Paid media, OOH, and motion, Internal-facing brand materials and presentations
Partner closely with motion designers to integrate movement into the brand system
Oversee freelancers, vendors, and production partners to ensure consistency and quality
Step into hands-on design selectively when strategic or conceptual leadership is required

Benefits

Competitive compensation that may include equity
Retirement and Employee Stock Purchase Plans
Flexible paid time off
Comprehensive benefit plans covering medical, dental, vision, life, and disability
Family services that include fertility benefits and equal paid parental leave
Professional development supported by formal career pathing, learning platforms, and a yearly learning stipend
A curated in-office employee experience, designed to foster community, team connections, and innovation
Opportunities to give back to your community, including an annual company-wide Volunteer Week and donation matching
Employee Resource Groups that provide supportive communities within Braze
Collaborative, transparent, and fun culture recognized as a Great Place to Work®