Visuals Director

The Banner•Baltimore, MD

2d•$115,000 - $135,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Banner is seeking a Visuals Director to lead our newsroom’s visual storytelling across photography, illustration, design, multimedia, and digital presentation across the state. Reporting to the Banner Manager Editor, this person will manage a team of visual journalists and creative contributors, including staff photographers, designers, illustrators, and freelance talent. The Visuals Director will work closely with editors, reporters, audience, product, digital, and social teams to ensure that our journalism is visually compelling, accurate, accessible, ethical, and optimized across platforms. The ideal candidate is an experienced creative leader with strong newsroom judgment, a sharp eye for visual narrative, and a deep understanding of how visuals can strengthen journalism. They should be equally comfortable managing daily photo and design workflows, art directing ambitious enterprise projects, mentoring creative staff, and helping define visual standards for a growing digital newsroom.

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience in visual journalism, photography, photo editing, design, illustration direction, art direction, multimedia storytelling, or a closely related field.
Experience managing people, freelancers, projects, creative workflows, or cross-functional editorial work.
A strong portfolio that demonstrates excellent visual judgment, storytelling range, creative direction, and digital presentation.
Experience working in or closely with a newsroom, editorial organization, documentary environment, or public-interest storytelling organization.
An outstanding eye for visual narrative and a demonstrated ability to use photography, illustration, design, and other visual formats to make journalism more compelling and understandable.
Strong understanding of journalistic ethics, visual accuracy, consent, context, representation, and responsible image use.
Experience creating or directing visual storyboards, creative briefs, project plans, or visual concepts.
Familiarity with visual and design tools such as Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, Figma, Sketch, or similar platforms.
Comfort working across digital platforms, including websites, mobile experiences, newsletters, social media, and multimedia story formats.
Strong communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills.
Ability to give and receive thoughtful, constructive creative feedback.
Strong organizational and project management skills, with the ability to balance daily deadlines and long-term priorities.
Curiosity, sound editorial judgment, attention to detail, and a commitment to continuous learning.
Willingness to work some evenings, weekends, holidays, or irregular hours as news requires.
A commitment to The Banner’s mission and to upholding the highest standards of independent journalism.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading visual coverage in a local, regional, or metro newsroom.
Experience managing photographers, designers, illustrators, photo editors, or visual journalists.
Experience directing enterprise, investigative, or special-project visual journalism.
Familiarity with Baltimore, Maryland, and the region’s communities, history, culture, and civic life.
Experience developing visual standards, brand guidance, or digital storytelling systems.
Experience with accessibility best practices, including alt text, mobile readability, inclusive design, and visual clarity.
Experience using audience insights or analytics to inform digital presentation while maintaining editorial standards.

Responsibilities

Lead the day-to-day visual journalism workflow for The Banner’s newsroom, including photography, illustration, design, multimedia, and freelance visual work.
Manage, coach, and support staff photographers, designers, illustrators, and other visual contributors.
Oversee assignment and edit visual work for daily news, breaking news, enterprise stories, investigations, features, service journalism, special projects, and audience-facing platforms.
Art direct ambitious editorial projects, including photo essays, visual explainers, illustrations, comics, special packages, and multimedia storytelling.
Collaborate with editors and reporters early in the story-planning process to identify the strongest visual approach for each piece of journalism.
Develop creative briefs, visual storyboards, shot lists, mood boards, and project plans for major visual work.
Oversee the commission and direct freelance photographers, illustrators, designers, and other creative contributors.
Partner with audience, social, digital, and product teams to optimize visuals for article pages, homepage, newsletters, social platforms, mobile experiences, and emerging formats.
Help set, document, and maintain editorial visual standards across The Banner’s journalism.
Ensure all visual work meets high standards for accuracy, fairness, representation, captioning, crediting, accessibility, and journalistic ethics.
Manage visual resources, including freelance budgets, assignment planning, deadlines, workflow systems, tools, and production priorities.
Stay current with visual journalism trends, digital storytelling formats, design tools, audience habits, and platform best practices.
Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and creative team culture rooted in trust, experimentation, accountability, and constructive feedback.

Benefits

Flexible Paid Time Off
Retirement savings - 401K plan offered through Human Interest, with a company match
Student Loan Debt Repayment Assistance for qualified employees
Full health benefits - medical, dental, vision, prescription, FSA/HSA., and coverage for family/dependents
Sick Leave eligible for rollover
Commuter Benefits
11 Paid National Holidays
Employee Assistance Program
Generous Parental Leave
Company paid access to a wellness platform to support mental, financial and physical wellbeing