Creative Director

As Creative Director, you will lead the vision, execution, and growth of SPO’s creative function, amplifying the mission to various audiences. From fundraising campaigns and recruitment initiatives to events, digital experiences, and internal communications, you'll help tell stories that inspire people to encounter Christ and join His mission. While the focus is creative, the role also includes some responsibilities typically associated with marketing.

This is a hands-on player/coach role. You'll shape the creative vision, and content and channel strategy, while actively contributing to the work, partnering with your team to design, direct, and refine exceptional creative work across print, digital, video, photography, and web.

You'll build and develop a high-performing creative team, mentor emerging talent, enhance processes, raise the standard of design and storytelling, and strengthen brand awareness. If you're energized by both creating great work and helping others do the same, this role offers the opportunity to make a lasting impact.

Responsibilities:

• Vision, Strategy, & Brand:
  • Develop and champion SPO's creative vision, in alignment with SPO’s charism, mission, and overall vision.
  • Develop SPO’s content and channel strategy to engage key audiences in pursuit of organizational goals, including students, young adults, staff, donors, partners, and alumni, building brand awareness and engagement.
  • Own and steward the SPO brand, ensuring consistency, excellence, and strategic alignment across all creative work.
• Team Leadership & Development
  • Lead SPO’s creative team, including direct supervision of its members.
  • Recruit, mentor, and develop a growing team of designers, photographers, videographers, content creators, and other creative professionals.
  • Foster a collaborative, feedback-rich environment that helps individuals grow (particularly junior talent) while producing high quality work.
  • Manage freelancers, agencies, and external creative and marketing partners as needed.
• Creative Direction & Hands-On Execution:
  • Manage and execute SPO’s content and channel strategy, including social media, website, photography, videography, print, and mass emails.
  • Serve the creative needs of other departments, prioritizing requests as needed.
  • Provide creative direction for channels and creative needs.
  • Provide hands-on execution with high quality skills, including copywriting, design, and video editing, utilizing Adobe Creative Suite and other tools.
  • Monitor effectiveness of efforts via metrics and seek continuous improvement to strengthen SPO’s brand awareness and engagement.
  • Stay current with emerging industry trends, creative technologies, AI tools, and storytelling approaches that can increase effectiveness.
• Operations & Asset Management:
  • Establish and continually improve creative systems, processes, and tools.
  • Manage the national creative calendar and internal processes for requests.
  • Manage the budget for the creative team.
  • Steward SPO’s equipment and studio, in conjunction with the worship team.
  • Ensure SPO’s creative assets are organized, accessible, and properly archived.
• Collaboration: 
  • Partner closely with the Advancement team to serve their creative needs in particular, including creating compelling fundraising materials, donor communications, and support for events.
  • Engage with other departments to ensure the creative team supports other SPO needs effectively, especially recruiting, worship, and national mission events.
  • Work with supervisor and other leaders to prioritize appropriately.

• Abides by the Catholic Church’s teachings on faith and morals, exemplifies standards of Christian conduct, and committed to living SPO’s charism values.
• As someone ministering to and leading others in the Catholic tradition, the incumbent should be a practicing Catholic in good standing, passionate about the work of evangelization and discipleship.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating high-level design execution across print and digital, including proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop).
• Experience with video production and editing (Premiere Pro, After Effects, or similar).
• Strong understanding of social media and web from a marketing and creative perspective, including analytics.
• Understanding of typography, layout, visual hierarchy, and brand systems.
• Strong leadership and mentoring skills and experience.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Self-starter with strong strategic and creative instincts and problem-solving ability.
• Dependable, flexible, proactive, tech-savvy, and professional.
• Up-to-date with current trends, especially among younger generations.
• Ability to read, write, and speak English fluently.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communications, Marketing, Fine Arts, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 4+ years of professional creative experience.
• 2+ years leading, mentoring, or managing creative professionals preferred.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with SPO’s charisms and mission strongly preferred.
• Experience in nonprofit or mission-driven organizations preferred.
• Familiarity with fundraising and donor communications preferred.

Send your resume and cover letter to talent@spo.org.