Creative Director

Job Description

Free Range Studios is a creative agency with a mission to change minds, behavior and the media landscape in service of creating a better world. Our clients are comprised primarily of corporations, foundations and advocacy organizations that offer breakthrough solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.

Free Range is looking for a Creative Director for its Washington D.C. studio.

This is a full-time, salaried position, with compensation commensurate with qualifications and experience. We offer a generous benefits package including health and dental insurance and a matching Simple IRA.

POSITION OVERVIEW

Each Free Range office (Oakland, C.A. and Washington, D.C.) consists of one Creative Director (CD) charged with leading the design organization in their respective location. The two CDs work collaboratively to ensure excellence in execution across all aspects of the Company’s creative leadership. The D.C. CD works in partnership with the Company’s Chief Strategist who leads the Company’s D.C. studio. The CD will preside over all activities listed below for his/her location.

• The CD is responsible for ensuring creative excellence across all digital design disciplines as well as video, print and brand development. She or he ensures creative solutions that deliver on our approach to storytelling and social impact at the highest levels of quality, based on goal-driven collaboration between clients and internal teams.

• Is a key business partner to the Co-Founder/CEO. Proactively creates opportunities to work with CEO in the ongoing defining and redefining of the role of and execution of design in storytelling and all project work. Instills the understanding of and execution of that vision into Free Range’s design disciplines.

• Is a guardian for the Free Range brand, and for the "brand" of the design discipline within Free Range itself.

• Translates Free Range’s values within and across all design practices.

• Local operational team management.

• Performance strength in all practice areas of core discipline.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

Content Creation

• Deliver and lead practice expertise within a local office.
• Lead the content creation and supporting resources for multiple priorities, projects and initiatives for a functional discipline.
• Develop and communicate broad POVs leading to future business value.
• Actively engage in attracting new talent to Free Range and demonstrate excellent judgment around new hires.

Culture

• Demonstrates excellent judgment around cultural issues, works with leadership to prevent/resolve team friction.
• Supports senior leadership in minimizing employee attrition.
• Nurtures the Free Range community across offices, e.g. demonstrates solutions-oriented behavior; handles conflict with maturity and calm; facilitates tough discussions with diplomacy and empathy; rallies troops as needed; demonstrably inspires passion and great work.
• Sets an example for effective and positive collaboration between disciplines and roles across the organization.

Clients

• Plays a lead role in winning new projects from existing or new clients with budgets of $75K+
• Recognized as a trusted advisor and inspirational leader.
• Demonstrates a strong understanding and respect for Free Range's business and brand, working to identify future opportunities to grow Free Range's business in collaboration with marketing and business development functions.
• Demonstrates service-oriented behavior: e.g. respects internal review process, meets deadlines, handles negative internal/client feedback with professionalism and grace, produces professional-quality deliverables, etc.

Commerce

• Proven ability to operate and lead work teams efficiently and effectively.
• Demonstrates excellent judgment about business constraints and balancing the goals of Free Range, internal teams and clients.
• Demonstrates a strong understanding for Free Range’s business: respects resourcing allocations, registers time sheets and expenses accurately and in a timely manner, balances multiple demands effectively. Ensures the same across all designers.

Coaching

• Along with inspiring passion and great work, the CD emphasizes inspiration and play. CD inspires and reinforces camaraderie, trust, and fun. (Group outings to museums, supporting individual passions, encouraging designers to blog post, participate on relevant social networking channels, group training sessions around new technology and practices, etc…)
• Provides simultaneous leadership to multiple teams or individuals.
• Manages a functional team in a local office (with other Directors if applicable), e.g. nurture individual and team skill sets and processes; facilitate professional development for studio designers; mentor career development; lead team meetings; guide resource allocation decisions; recruit, interview and select new talent.

Free Range is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

NOTE: International candidates must hold a valid US working permit.