AVP, Associate Creative Strategy Director

About the role

Goldmind, Synchrony’s full-service in-house agency, is looking for a strategic, relationship-driven creative strategist to partner closely with our Health and Wellness business and marketing teams. This role sits upstream with our business clients, helping connect marketing priorities, customer insights, and organizational goals into integrated solutions that drive impact. We’re seeking someone who is equal parts strategist, consultant, collaborator, and builder—someone who thrives in ambiguity, spots opportunities others miss, and knows how to bring cross-functional teams together around a shared vision.

You’ll help shape positioning, messaging, customer journeys, campaign approaches, and creative ideation across channels, ensuring the work is grounded in real audience understanding, clear business objectives, and meaningful strategic thinking. If you love turning complexity into clarity, translating insights into action, and helping creative teams produce smarter, more effective work, we’d love to meet you.

Responsibilities

• Build trusted relationships with marketing and business partners to understand priorities, goals, and upcoming initiatives.
• Operate upstream within planning conversations to identify opportunities before projects formally enter agency workflow.
• Partner closely with Account Management, Creative, Production, and Project Management teams to align solutions against business needs.
• Help turn enterprise initiatives, customer insights, campaign goals, and channel strategies into cohesive creative opportunities.
• Serve as a strategic thought partner to internal stakeholders by helping shape marketing approaches, engagement opportunities, and creative solutions.
• Leverage consumer insights, data, trends, research, and market intelligence to inform strategic recommendations and support creative direction.
• Provide insights and strategic thinking that guide positioning, messaging approaches, customer journeys, and communications strategies across channels.
• Support creative work with clear business objectives and audience clarity.
• Partner with creative teams throughout development to maintain strategic alignment and effectiveness.
• Translate ambiguous business challenges into actionable strategic direction that informs campaign creative approaches.
• Facilitate strategic discussions, workshops, and collaborative planning sessions with stakeholders and internal agency teams.
• Foster collaboration across Strategy, Account, Creative, PM, and partner teams to improve alignment, clarity, and execution.
• Serve as a connector across disciplines, helping teams navigate complexity and move initiatives forward effectively.
• Guide teams toward solutions that balance customer needs, business goals, speed, scalability, and creative excellence.
• Support a culture of curiosity, collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree or, in lieu of degree, High School Diploma/GED and 8+ years’ experience in marketing, creative business, or agency.
• Proven ability to build relationships and influence cross-functional stakeholders within complex organizations.
• Strong strategic thinking, presentation, storytelling, and communication skills.
• Experience translating business needs and customer insights into actionable creative and marketing solutions.
• Experience working closely with account management, creative, and marketing teams in fast-paced agency or in-house environments.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, prioritize effectively, and proactively identify opportunities for impact.
• Experience developing strategy for social media, digital advertising, websites, web applications, and mobile apps.
• Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting healthcare, wellness, financial services, or other highly regulated industries.
• Familiarity with customer journey development, audience segmentation, and experience strategy.
• Experience facilitating workshops, stakeholder alignment sessions, or strategic planning engagements.
• Strong understanding of creative development processes and integrated agency workflows.
• Working knowledge of CX, UX, and integrated marketing strategy principles.
• Experience using GenAI to support strategic thinking and creative development.
• Familiarity with Figma, FigJam, Adobe Workfront, or similar collaboration tools.
• Portfolio and/or case studies demonstrating strategic thinking and business impact preferred.

Pay

The salary range for this position is $90,000 – $155,000 USD annually and is eligible for an annual bonus based on individual and company performance. Actual compensation offered within the posted salary range will be based on work experience, skill level, or knowledge. Salaries are adjusted according to market in CA, NY Metro, and Seattle.

Schedule

This role offers flexibility with the option to work from home near one of Synchrony’s Hubs or come into one of their offices. You will be required to commute to your nearest Hub (either virtual or physical) for in-person engagement activities such as regular business or team meetings, training, and culture events. Field Sales and some Commercial team roles may have varied location requirements based on partner obligations or preferences.

Eligibility Requirements

• You must be 18 years or older.
• You must have a high school diploma or equivalent.
• You must be willing to take a drug test, submit to a background investigation, and submit fingerprints as part of the onboarding process.
• You must be able to satisfy the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
• New hires (Level 4-7) must have 9 months of continuous service with the company before they are eligible to post on other roles. Once this requirement is met, the associate will have a minimum 6 months’ time in position before they can post for future non-exempt roles.
• Employees, level 8 or greater, must have at least 18 months’ time in position before they can post.
• All internal employees must consistently meet performance expectations and have approval from your manager to post (or the approval of your manager and HR if you don’t meet the time in position or performance expectations).
• Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required. We will not sponsor individuals for employment visas, now or in the future, for this job opening.