Director - Brand & Creative Services

We are Athene. At Athene, we are driven to do more. We are a leading retirement services company that issues, reinsures and acquires retirement savings products designed for the increasing number of individuals and institutions seeking to fund retirement needs. We see every day as a new opportunity to measure ourselves against the best - and then we don't stop until we've set the bar even higher. We're ready to help you achieve more.

Purpose:
The Creative Director leads the in-house Creative Services team and is responsible for developing and aligning Athene's brand strategy to its business objectives. This individual sets the direction for the team to translate brand, marketing and communication goals into creative strategies, designs, copy and execution. This person is self-motivated, with strong design and leadership skills to elevate the performance and scalability of the team over time. Key to all deliverables is differentiating Athene among consumers, financial professionals and other audiences through design and copywriting regardless of medium. The Creative Director demonstrates an understanding of stakeholders' business challenges and leads innovative and conceptual solutions to address them, getting personally involved on high profile and complex creative challenges as appropriate.

Accountabilities:

Team Leadership

• Communicate the brand strategy and build a collective creative vision with defined goals and objectives.
• Foster a collaborative environment that supports creative development and execution.
• Develop and implement a creative marketing plan that is integrated with other parts of Athene's in-house agency, including media, content, project management and fulfillment processes and platforms.
• Identify creative and strategic options that meet the business needs of clients and stakeholders.
• Provide creative direction and coaching with staff to accomplish creative objectives.
• Confidently and diplomatically steward new ideas through the organization on behalf of the team
• Set team expectations to push new thinking and challenge cliche or rerun ideas.

Creative Direction and Execution

• Serve as brand advocate and develop brand ambassadors across the business.
• Establish, develop, and maintain design parameters and stylistic guidelines consistent with Athene's brand standards, while ensuring alignment with the Apollo Global Management brand.
• Oversee the creative execution that supports integrated online/offline marketing strategies, advertising, public relations, tradeshows and campaigns to generate demand and sales leads.
• Lead and mentor the team in the conceptual development/ideation process leveraging research, analytics and brand insights.
• Lead strategic brainstorming sessions, creative brief development, and creative execution.
• Articulate the creative rationale that drives a concept's execution and tactics.
• Collaborate to ensure an understanding of market trends, audience needs/behaviors, brand strategy and intended experience creates an integrated process in support of the business.
• Maintain knowledge of creative marketing trends and best practices.
• Provide creative quality control over concepts and execution.
• Direct creative work with partner agencies and outside vendors to ensure alignment with Athene's brand house.
• Oversee complex, large-scale project activities that include the development of sketches/prototypes and imagery selection or headlines and copy.

Staff Development

• Recruit, manage, motivate, and retain talented creative services staff.
• Develop team members to ensure ongoing new capabilities (digital, emerging platforms, etc.), diverse creative perspectives, deepening of existing skills and adequate back-up capacity.
• Pursue opportunities for continuous individual and team learning and development.
• Guide the workload, development, and growth of direct reports.
• Foster a "can-do" culture that is fun to work in and motivates associates to contribute innovative and effective work.
• Recognize team and individual successes; create a safe environment for constructive feedback.

Client Service

• Present creative concepts to executives, stakeholders and internal clients in an effective and convincing manner.
• Consult as a credible, trusted advisor to align creative solutions with Athene's brand strategy.
• Partner with clients to achieve effective outcomes in an efficient manner.
• Cultivate key relationships within Marketing & Communications and as well as other functional areas across the business.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree required. Preferably in design, advertising, or related field.
• Minimum of seven years' professional experience required; five years' experience as an art or copy/communications director, within insurance or financial services industry preferred.
• Three years' leadership experience that demonstrates maximizing team talents is required.
• Portfolio required.
• In-House agency or external agency experience required.
• Demonstrated creative conceptualization skills.
• Working knowledge in industry-standard software and tools such as the Adobe Creative Cloud, MS Office, Adobe Acrobat, project management software, and online market research.
• Experience with both digital and traditional brand management and integration, with demonstrated results.
• Hands on experience in design, video production and copy development.
• Big picture thinker.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to manage differing viewpoints so the final product remains true to the objective.
• Effective communication and persuasive presentation skills.
• Attention to detail so team deliverables are on-time, on-budget and on-strategy.

Drive. Discipline. Confidence. Focus. Commitment. Learn more about working at Athene.

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Athene celebrates diversity, is committed to inclusion and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran status or any other status protected by federal, state or local law.