VP, Creative Director

Noodle

23h • Remote

About The Position

Noodle is a leading strategy, services, and technology partner in higher education, focused on developing infrastructure, providing learning experiences, and growing awareness and enrollment for academic institutions. Their vision is to empower universities to change the world by offering products and services that enhance resilience, responsiveness, efficiency, and interconnectedness. The VP-level Creative Director will lead all creative functions for higher education clients, defining and elevating creative vision while building a modern, high-performing creative function. This role is a unique hybrid, combining the strengths of a traditional Creative Director in defining vision and crafting compelling ideas with the rigor of a performance-oriented creative leader focused on speed, iteration, and measurable outcomes. The director will be expected to sell bold, differentiated creative concepts to university partners and ensure that creative output is optimized for performance, produced at scale, and continuously improved based on data. This position oversees all creative disciplines, including design, art direction, video, creative strategy, and content production, and will establish the systems, standards, and workflows for both exceptional brand work and efficient, high-throughput execution across various channels. The scope of work spans the full marketing ecosystem, from research, brand strategy, and institutional positioning to integrated campaign development and execution across digital and traditional channels, including advertising, websites, email, social, video, TV/CTV, audio, print, and out-of-home.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in creative roles, with significant experience in a leadership capacity
• Proven ability to lead creative across both brand campaigns and performance marketing environments
• Experience overseeing both written and visual creative disciplines
• Strong track record of client-facing leadership, including pitching and selling creative concepts
• Portfolio demonstrating work across multiple channels and formats, including digital, web, email, social, video, print, out-of-home, and traditional media
• Experience building and managing multidisciplinary teams, including mentoring senior talent
• Deep understanding of how creative drives engagement, conversion, and growth
• Ability to operate at both a strategic and hands-on levelfrom vision-setting to concepting to critique
• Strong communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to influence internal and external stakeholders
• Must reside in the continental US, within close proximity to a major airport to facilitate travel to partner universities
• Reliable, high-speed internet connection is essential, along with a quiet, organized workspace for participating in camera-on, partner-facing meetings
• Available during core hours from 9am-5pm. Start and end times may flex slightly based on your time zone
• Applicants must be legally authorized to live and work in the United States
• Employees are required to reside within the United States for the duration of their employment

Nice To Haves

• You can move seamlessly between big, conceptual thinking and fast, iterative execution
• You understand that effective creative is not just well-craftedit is measurable, adaptable, and scalable across channels
• You are comfortable operating in a performance-driven environment where speed, testing, and throughput matter
• You bring a modern perspective on creative production, including how AI and emerging tools can enhance output
• You know how to elevate both message and design without slowing teams down
• You can translate brand and positioning strategy into clear, compelling creative systems that scale across touchpoints
• You bring a strong point of view and can guide teams and stakeholders toward better, more effective creative outcomes

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the creative vision across all client engagements, spanning brand campaigns and performance marketing initiatives
• Develop new, or translate existing, institutional and program-level positioning into compelling, differentiated creative concepts that resonate with prospective students
• Ensure all creative workvisual and writtenbalances clarity, effectiveness, and craft across channels
• Serve as the senior creative lead in high-stakes moments, including new business pitches and strategic client presentations
• Articulate and sell visionary, insight-driven creative concepts to university partners
• Partner with sales and account teams to expand relationships through new creative opportunities and directions
• Build and lead a creative function that delivers high-volume, high-quality performance marketing assets across digital channels
• Manage systems for rapid iteration and continuous improvement based on performance insights
• Partner closely with performance marketing and analytics teams, ensuring creative is responsive to data and campaign needs
• Ensure performance creative is brand-informed but not constrained by perfectionism, prioritizing effectiveness and speed
• Own the development of content across the funnel, helping to shape and enhance brand positioning while ensuring alignment with performance goals
• Oversee production of content across formats, including web copy, email campaigns, long-form articles, landing pages, and ad copy
• Lead and oversee all location-based photo and video productions, ensuring the capture of high-quality, brand-aligned content while managing logistical coordination, securing necessary location permits, and obtaining all required releases
• Ensure messaging is clear, differentiated, and tailored to both audience and channel
• Integrate content and design into cohesive, high-performing creative systems
• Design and implement workflows that enable speed, scalability, and consistency across creative output
• Drive adoption and thoughtful use of modern creative tools, including AI, to improve throughput and quality
• Continuously evaluate and evolve production models to eliminate bottlenecks and increase efficiency
• Lead, mentor, and grow a multidisciplinary team across design, art direction, video, content strategy, editorial, and freelance talent
• Create a culture that values both creative excellence and operational discipline
• Provide clear direction, feedback, and coaching to elevate team performance and output
• Assess and evolve team structure to support current needs and future growth
• Partner with project management and marketing teams to ensure work is delivered on time, on brief/strategy, and aligned with business objectives
• Balance creative ambition with practical constraints (e.g. budgets and timelines), ensuring reliable and predictable delivery
• Stay current on trends in higher education marketing, brand strategy, and performance advertising
• Bring forward new approaches that improve both creative effectiveness and client outcomes

Benefits

• Noodle is committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyone.
• We value and celebrate our differences because those differences are what make our team shine.
• We hire great people from different backgrounds, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes us stronger as a whole.
• Women, people of color, LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, and members of other underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Noodle is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against candidates on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, or veteran status.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed