Senior Manager, Brand Creative; Associate Creative Director

About the Team

Marketing brings our brand to life through deep expertise and an authentic love for pets. The team is dedicated to delivering personalized experiences for our consumers, supported by best-in-class, data-driven marketing capabilities.

The work spans key areas including Loyalty, Customer Analytics & Research, Brand Experience & Creative, and Omni-Channel Marketing. Each team member brings a unique perspective, working together to create meaningful and engaging experiences for both 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.

Pet Smart is building a modern, high-performing in-house creative organization—one that owns outcomes, moves fast, and leverages innovation to scale impact. As Senior Manager
, Brand Creative
, you are a proactive creative leader who blends strong creative judgment, operational discipline, and an AI-forward mindset to deliver exceptional brand storytelling.

As Senior Manager, Brand Creative
, you serve as a senior creative leader with significant scope, influence, and ownership. In many organizations, this level of responsibility aligns to an Associate Creative Director; at Pet Smart, we’ve intentionally structured the Senior Manager role to lead with both creative authority and operational accountability.

This role calls for a proactive, collaborative, confident leader who thinks ahead, owns results, and communicates with purpose. You are relentlessly curious about better, smarter, faster ways to create and scale impact—while protecting the integrity of the brand. You are brand obsessed and have a keen eye for aesthetically impactful photography and design. You lead with humility and extreme collaboration, grounded in the belief that the strongest work happens when the entire team succeeds.

• Lead and elevate brand campaigns, seasonal storytelling, special projects and evergreen brand moments across digital and physical channels
• Partner closely with the Creative Director to define, protect, and evolve Pet Smart’s brand look, feel, and creative standards
• Actively lead and participate in brainstorming and creative sessions, shaping ideas into clear, executable concepts.
• Serve as a hands‑on creative lead, designing work, strategically conceptualizing campaigns and art‑directing photography and video from concept through post‑production
• Own creative quality, consistency, and storytelling excellence across all brand work
• Act as a trusted creative and brand expert and Creative Director proxy when needed—leading reviews, presentations, and partner discussions
• Partner with the Creative Director to communicate and reinforce brand and visual standards with marketing and business partners, while supporting governance of external agencies and production partners
• Collaborate deeply with Copy, Digital Creative, Store Creative, Marketing, Merchandising, and eCommerce teams to ensure holistic campaign alignment
• Build strong relationships with photographers, producers, stylists, editors, and external partners
• Lead, mentor, develop, and allocate work for 2 – 5 designers and art directors, fostering a culture of ownership, accountability, and creative ambition
• Manage multiple high‑profile projects simultaneously while balancing speed, quality, and brand integrity
• Champion operational excellence by driving more AI utilization, automation, and modern production workflows to improve efficiency and scale
• Stay ahead of cultural, retail, and design trends—keeping Pet Smart’s brand work fresh, relevant, and differentiated

• A visual storyteller with an exceptional eye for imagery, composition, color, and brand expression
• A proactive, solution‑oriented leader who takes full ownership and follows through
• Highly articulate communicator who can…