Creative Director

Position: Creative Director

Department: Marketing

Reports to: VP for Marketing

Direct
Reports: Videographer, Photographer, Graphic Designers, Copywriter; dotted-line leadership of Director of Campus Creative &
Licensing

For the purposes of ACU’s Background Check and Self-Reporting Policy, this position is classified as security
sensitive.

Position Class: Exempt, Full-time

The key principle of this job is to support ACU’s Mission to educate
students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world.

Scope: The Creative Director serves as the university’s
senior creative authority, responsible for defining, evolving, and governing Abilene Christian University’s creative vision and brand
expression. This role ensures that all creative work – across marketing, enrollment, advancement, alumni, and institutional communications –
is strategically aligned, emotionally compelling, and unmistakably ACU.

This leader operates at both the strategic and executional
levels: setting creative direction, guiding campaign concepting, mentoring creative leaders and practitioners, and ensuring brand
consistency and quality at scale. The Creative Director partners closely with marketing strategy, enrollment marketing, content, and media
teams to translate institutional priorities into powerful creative systems and campaigns.

The role is part visionary, part coach,
part operator – balancing high-level brand leadership with practical oversight of people, process, and creative output.

Basic
Responsibilities

• Creative Vision & Brand Stewardship
• Campaign Leadership & Creative Strategy
• Creative Team
  Leadership & Development
• Creative Operations & Quality Oversight
• Cross-Campus Partnership &
  Influence

Essential Duties include the following. Other duties may be assigned. Reasonable accommodations may be made to
enable individuals to perform the essential functions.

Creative Vision & Brand Stewardship

• Define, evolve, and
  champion the university’s creative vision and brand expression in partnership with the Vice President for Marketing.
• Translate
  institutional priorities – enrollment growth, academic distinction, spiritual mission, and reputation – into clear creative principles,
  campaign narratives, and visual direction.
• Serve as the final creative authority for high-visibility and high-impact brand
  expressions across paid, owned, and earned channels.
• Ensure creative work differentiates ACU in a competitive higher education
  landscape while remaining authentic to its mission and values.
• Set expectations for creative excellence, innovation, and consistency
  across all marketing and communications efforts.

Campaign Leadership & Creative Strategy

• Provide strategic creative
  leadership for major institutional initiatives, including student recruitment, brand campaigns, advancement, and alumni
  engagement.
• Partner with enrollment marketing, digital strategy, and content teams to ensure creative concepts are
  audience-centered, insight-driven, and performance-informed.
• Guide concept development, storytelling approaches, and visual systems
  for integrated, multi-channel campaigns.
• Review and approve key creative deliverables to ensure brand fidelity, quality, and
  strategic alignment.
• Balance innovation with scalability, ensuring creative ideas can be executed effectively across channels and
  timelines.

Creative Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop a multidisciplinary creative team across design,
  copywriting, video, and photography.
• Create clarity around roles, expectations, workflows, and decision-making within the creative
  function.
• Provide clear creative direction, constructive feedback, and coaching to elevate individual and team
  performance.
• Empower and support the Director of Campus Creative & Licensing in executing brand systems, quality control, and
  campus-facing creative services.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, and creative
  confidence.

Creative Operations & Quality Oversight

• Oversee creative workflows, resourcing, timelines, and prioritization in
  partnership with project management and marketing leadership.
• Ensure creative tools, processes, and systems (DAM, templates,
  workflows, standards) support both efficiency and excellence.
• Establish and uphold quality standards across all creative output,
  regardless of channel or audience.
• Guide decision-making around when work is produced in-house versus outsourced, ensuring the right
  balance of speed, quality, and cost.
• Support continuous improvement through feedback loops, retrospectives, and evolving best
  practices.

Cross-Campus Partnership & Influence

• Serve as a senior creative advisor to university leadership and campus
  partners on major initiatives and communications.
• Provide strategic creative consultation for complex or high-profile projects that
  require brand sensitivity and storytelling expertise.
• Help elevate campus-wide understanding of brand principles, creative strategy,
  and audience-centered communication.
• Collaborate closely with marketing, enrollment, advancement, and communications leaders to
  ensure cohesive brand expression.
• Navigate competing priorities and stakeholder expectations while protecting creative quality and
  team capacity.

Professional Development Requirements:

• Skills
  • Deep expertise in visual design,
    storytelling, and creative strategy across multiple channels.
  • Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence senior
    stakeholders and inspire creative teams.
  • Experience overseeing creative workflows, tools, and production
    processes.
  
  
• Training Required
  • Mastery of Adobe Creative Cloud and familiarity with DAM systems, Canva, and project
    management tools (preferred).
  
  

Qualifications:

ACU is affiliated with the fellowship of the Church of
Christ. This position requires the employee to be a professing Christian and to be willing to support the Christian mission of
ACU.

Professional

• 10+ years of progressive experience in creative leadership, brand strategy, marketing, or
  advertising.
• Demonstrated success leading creative teams and delivering integrated, brand-defining campaigns.
• Comfort
  balancing strategic vision with practical execution and decision-making.
• Bachelor’s degree in design, communications, marketing, or
  related field.
• Experience in higher education or mission-driven organizations (preferred).
• Experience partnering closely
  with enrollment marketing, paid media, or performance marketing teams (preferred).
• Degree in a related field
  (preferred).

Personal

• Brand Steward: Protects and elevates the university’s visual and narrative identity.
• Strategic
  Leader: Connects creative work to institutional goals and measurable outcomes.
• Creative Coach: Develops people, not just
  projects.
• Operator: Builds clarity, systems, and standards that enable creative excellence at scale.
• Collaborator: Thrives
  in partnership with strategy, content, enrollment, and campus leaders.

Physical Requirements:

• Work is
  performed in an office environment; must have the ability to sit for long periods of time
• Ability to travel periodically to Abilene,
  Texas or work from Abilene

ACU does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, sex, disability, genetic
information, national or ethnic origin in employment opportunities, in keeping with applicable state and federal law.

ACU is
committed to maintaining a safe and secure campus environment and protecting the university’s financial and physical assets. Therefore,
Abilene Christian University conducts background checks on all candidates for employment in security sensitive positions. As a current
employee, it will be determined if you need an additional background check upon your hire.