Director, Creative

8116 - Midtown Office - 2220 W. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, 23220

CarMax, the way your career should be!

Creative Director, Growth

The Creative Director will be responsible for managing multiple creative teams, effectively driving the creative disciplines in the Digital Media space and owning content with a focus on attracting, converting, and retaining customers in the digital channel. They will be primarily focused on leading CarMax content to boost paid and organic channels with close partnerships with internal partners. The Creative Director, Growth, is responsible for the on-brand, on-strategy execution of digital media creative across all channels. This strong team leader will deliver world-class digital-first CarMax content ideas and creative direction to SEO, Social, Paid and organic, and full-funnel digital/dynamic creative. The position requires a strategic, creative thinker with brand and agency experience in the digital marketing space, specifically, with a deep understanding retail sector.

About this job

Creative Director requires expressing the creative strategy across a range of marketing channels, strategically multitasking, proactively solving problems, and inspiring the best possible experience for our customers. The Creative Director will oversee the team of designers, art directors, and copywriters to develop quality experiences that dovetail business units' performance and brand/product messaging goals. As a digital innovation leader, this person will be instrumental in leading the business' evolution into a digital-optimized, mobile-first global presence. This position will collaborate with Marketing, Product, and various internal and external partners, including agencies. The Creative Director role is for a competent design lead who can direct internal and external creative resources and has the composure and communication skills to present to senior executives effectively. This position will also require challenging partners in all the best ways, as one inspires and informs the brand vision and raises the quality and consistency of all creative and marketing work for CarMax Brand.

The ideal candidate would possess the following skills:

• Able to navigate ambiguity and challenges to find data-driven, customer centric solutions with no obvious path.
• Confident and versatile people leader, excited to design, train, and implement best practices for a team to achieve consistency- and ultimately, business success.
• In search/pursuit of personal growth and challenge and have a track record of doing the same with how you guide your creative teams and partners.
• Able to traverse complex workstreams with an eye for detail and vision for the bigger picture.
• Champion of the creative work and the people are executing it.

The core responsibilities for the role are as follows:

Lead the creative vision and own creative strategy

• Develop and own the creative strategy as an expert in the responsible area (brand, growth, and production), and lead a creative team and agencies to develop further the strategy and innovate process and outputs.
• Provide high-level concepts and guidance to elevate creative work. As a final reviewer for creative outputs of their expert areas, have a deep understanding of trades offs on each creative decision and communicate to the creative team, marketing, product, agency, and other business partners. Traverse complex workstreams, with an eye for detail and vision for the bigger picture with the fast change management approach
• Confidence in working in fast-paced and changing environments
• Drive the achievement of creative goals and strategic solutions to meet brand, marketing, and sales objectives, working closely with partners and your team
• Champion of the creative work and the people executing it
• Foster ongoing improvements to creative processes and methodologies
• Act as primary creative partner and leader for agency partners
• Develop and maintain teamwork with all areas of marketing and product to enhance the brand and ensure integration of messaging overall touchpoints
• Run presentation and large-scale production efforts and changes

Build and grow next-gen of creative leadership

• Organize and grow the team of leaders and expertise in team structure, staff scoping, and business agilely.
• Confident and versatile people leader, excited to design, train, and implement best practices for a team to achieve consistency- and ultimately, business success
• A direct source of guidance and leadership in the department
• Bring outside influence to within, and encourage us to think beyond the expected requirements.

Foster collaborative culture to achieve a better creative and business result

• Motivate marketing, product, agencies, and other business partners including, but not limited to directors, AVP, VP +, to embrace and pursue work that is impactful beyond initial requests/goals.
• Inspire and empower others to solve business problems creatively, ensuring scalability and sustainability.
• Ability to prompt and promote collaboration; both interdepartmental and with external
• Proven ability to foster new and additional growth to any relationships
• Confidence in working in fast-paced environments.

Qualifications and Requirements

• 15+ years creative management experience across a combination of agency, retail, or in-house brand
• Must have strong managerial/leadership competencies and experience, and a proven ability to inspire and nurture individual talents within a collaborative environment
• Extensive experience working with designers, writers, front-end developers, motion artists/animators, analysts/digital marketers and product owners in a creative-driven culture
• Bachelor's degree in a business-related field or equivalent experience
• Must be driven by responsive, digital-first design philosophy and have an expansive knowledge of implementing future forwarding and functional content in all platforms.
• Must be a strategic thinker and creative problem solver, with an ability to create outstanding work with high energy and maintain positive morale
• Extraordinary attention to detail and understanding of the brand guide.
• Must be a good listener and have the ability to influence others. Ability to lead, inspire and manage teams
• Must have a strong desire to bring creative and cultural innovation to the process continually
• Must have the ability to multitask and delegate creative projects in a fast-paced and ambitious work environment
• Ability to navigate complexity and change management. Flexibility to adjust quickly to changes and deliver on tight deadlines, and effectively manage department budget
• Team player, flexible and fast thinker, especially during critical or stressful times
• The ability to communicate clearly and persuasively with your team, leadership and partners.
• The ability to work in a logical, systematic manner
• Experts in Adobe Creative Suites, Figma, Microsoft Office. Motion design and video skills are a plus.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion:

CarMax is committed to bringing together people from different backgrounds and perspectives, providing employees with a safe, welcoming, and inclusive work environment.

CarMax is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, and any other characteristics protected by law.

Upon an applicant's request, CarMax will consider reasonable accommodation to complete the CarMax Job Application.