Art and Design Manager, In-House Agency

About the role

We’re building a strong, modern in-house agency, and we’re looking for an Art and Design Manager who can help lead that evolution. This is not a traditional design role. It’s a hands-on creative leadership position responsible for elevating the quality, consistency, usability, and performance of visual work across the full customer experience, from brand campaigns to lifecycle communications to digital experiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead Creative Direction and Execution
• Own design direction across marketing and customer-facing communications
• Concept development for integrated campaigns, lifecycle programs, digital experiences, and performance marketing assets
• Define the visual and art direction for campaigns across channels, ensuring work balances brand standards, usability, accessibility, compliance needs, and performance goals
• Stay hands-on by designing, reviewing, refining, and improving work across channels
• Raise the quality of everyday communications as well as larger campaign and brand work
• Turn creative strategy into visual systems that can scale across teams and touchpoints
• Manage and Develop a High-Performing Design Team
• Lead, coach, and develop designers and art directors
• Build a culture of accountability, collaboration, critique, and continuous improvement
• Step in as a senior individual contributor on complex or high-visibility projects
• Assess staffing needs and make the case for freelance, agency, or overflow support when needed
• Partner Across the Business
• Act as a trusted creative partner to marketing, brand, product, copy, legal, compliance, analytics, and other teams
• Translate business goals, audience insights, and performance data into strong visual creative approaches
• Persuasively present ideas, explain design decisions, navigate feedback, and influence decision-making
• Help internal partners understand how design supports business goals
• Drive Systems, Scale, and Quality
• Improve how design work is briefed, developed, reviewed, delivered, and optimized
• Strengthen design systems, templates, component libraries, and visual standards
• Keep the work consistent across customer touchpoints without making it feel generic
• Support workflow improvement, asset management, resource planning, and scalable production practices
• Manage agencies, freelancers, production partners, and vendors as needed
• Explore practical uses of AI and emerging tools to improve speed, consistency, versioning, and creative effectiveness
• Connect Creative to Performance
• Evaluate design performance using data, testing results, customer behavior, and campaign insights
• Apply learnings to improve engagement, conversion, usability, clarity, and campaign effectiveness
• Partner with marketing and analytics teams on testing and optimization
• Use performance feedback to improve individual assets as well as broader design systems
• Bring a UX mindset to marketing design, including hierarchy, journey stage, device, accessibility, and customer action

Requirements

• 7 to 10+ years of design, art direction, or creative leadership experience, including team leadership
• Proven ability to lead concept development and integrated campaigns, backed by a strong portfolio demonstrating conceptual thinking, art direction, campaign development, design craft, and cross-channel execution
• Strong understanding of UX principles, customer journey thinking, responsive design, and digital best practices
• Foundational knowledge of HTML/CSS or email and digital production constraints is a plus

Qualifications

• High School Diploma or equivalent required
• Bachelor's degree in related field preferred