Creative Director, Brand & Digital

About The Team

The Customer Experience (Marketing) team works to showcase our brand through the lens of expertise and love. They work to provide a personalized experience for our consumers backed by best-in-class, data‑driven marketing capabilities. The Customer Experience team focuses across 4 departments including, Marketing, Creative, Communications, and our Loyalty & CRM team. Everyone brings their own point of view to create a unique experience for the pets and pet parents.

Collaborative Work Environment:
At Pet Smart, teamwork and connection are core to how we thrive. This role is based at our Phoenix Home Office, with an expectation of working a minimum of four days in the office each week. In a standard work week, associates may work up to one remote “flex day” (with leader approval). Our hybrid approach is designed to foster strong collaboration while also supporting flexibility and individual success.

We’re a powerhouse retail Creative Team driving bold brand transformation across digital and physical experiences. We think big, move fast, and deliver strategically inspired work that connects with pet parents and drives real business results. Our mission: to be an in‑house creative force that blends storytelling, data, and innovation to grow Pet Smart’s brand and impact.

This is not a sit‑back‑and‑direct role—it’s a roll‑up‑your‑sleeves, lead‑from‑the‑front opportunity to reshape how a national brand thinks, works, and creates.

• Lead and elevate the creative vision for Pet Smart’s omni‑channel ecosystem—defining the look, feel, and storytelling that drive connection and conversion.
• Translate complex business goals into clear, inspiring creative strategies and executions.
• Direct, coach, and grow designers, art directors, and creative talent—balancing creative with accountability to deliver exceptional work.
• Concept, oversee, and approve brand and seasonal campaigns, as well as photo and video content that brings brand campaigns and seasonal moments to life across store and digital channels.
• In addition, you’ll lead the Digital Creative team that creates content for Emails, Web, App, Mobile executions.
• Champion and evolve Pet Smart’s brand identity—building distinctive creative systems while protecting brand integrity.
• Partner across Creative, Marketing, Visual Merchandising, Product Merchandising, eCommerce, and Loyalty to build cohesive, high‑performing campaigns.
• Use insights and data to measure creative performance and continually optimize for impact.
• Drive innovation—leveraging AI, automation, and new production models to build content faster, smarter, and more efficiently.
• Present creative work confidently to senior leadership, connecting storytelling to strategy and results.
• Professionally and positively collaborate closely with the Copy Lead, Store Creative Leads, and Creative Operations Lead to create seamless, integrated work.
• Build and inspire an inclusive culture of curiosity, accountability, and creative courage—where great ideas thrive and people love coming to work. You connect teams and make everyone feel a part of something together.
• Expect a lot from yourself and your team—and model the leadership, clarity, and drive that raise the bar for everyone.
• Shape and structure your team for maximum impact, including hiring great talent and redefining how the team operates to meet the demands of a fast‑moving retail brand.

• You’re energized by challenge. This is a big, complex, high‑visibility role—and you see that as an opportunity to make lasting impact.
• You’re a builder—someone who can design better systems, create and elevate consistent creative standards, and unite teams around a shared vision.
• You’re an incredibly kind and collaborative, ego‑free leader who values relationships, accountability, and results in equal measure.
• You have 10+ years of experience in retail or lifestyle creative environments, leading brand and digital work with deep expertise in photo and video production.
• You’ve led creative teams for 8+ years—mentoring designers and art directors across multiple channels.
• You’re fluent in storytelling through imagery,…