Creative Director

Fort West is hiring a Creative Director to set the creative bar across brand, marketing, and product work. At the core, your job is to make sure the thinking and the making never drift apart.

We're looking for someone who leads with creative vision and energy, and still wants to play a meaningful role in the work. You'll be hands-on where the big ideas take shape, including concepting, writing, and presenting, especially on new business and early in engagements. From there, you'll direct the team through design, production, and delivery.

You'll join an established team that includes our Design Director, who leads design strategy and execution today. You'll manage and mentor the Design Director as your primary creative partner. They'll continue to own day-to-day design delivery while you set the overall creative direction.

You'll also partner with our CEO and EVP of Client Strategy on go-to-market strategy and new business, and work alongside our research, CX, and technology leads to bring one point of view to everything Fort West does.

• Partner with research and strategy leads to translate audience insights and positioning into clear creative briefs and platforms.
• Bring a creative point of view to the strategy team’s category and the trend research, and spot where creative can break from the pack before competitors do.
• Hold every concept to the strategy, and push back on work that plays to internal stakeholders instead of the market.

• Build brand identity and design systems, including motion principles, that hold up across every touchpoint.
• Champion AI-ready brand systems built for discoverability, adaptability, and agentic experiences.
• Guide naming and verbal identity so the brand's strategic intent carries into every word.
• Shape how brand architecture shows up so portfolio brands strengthen each other rather than compete.

• Own creative guidelines that give client teams clear direction and a high bar.
• Build campaign systems that scale across channels and initiatives.
• Direct creative that is purpose built for each channel.
• Oversee content creation, from concept through final cut.
• Lead creative for website design, from landing pages to full editorial platforms.

• Work with research, CX, and engineering leads to ensure the brand promise and the product reality are the same thing.
• Make sure product design systems keep the brand intact as products launch and evolve.
• Partner with CX on prototyping and concept testing, so what gets tested carries the brand before investment scales.
• Help define how AI shows up in interfaces and experiences so it advances the brand rather than dilutes it.

• Partner with the CEO and EVP on new business, from first conversation through final pitch.
• Lead the creative side of pitches and proposals, including concept development, narrative, visual direction, and case study selection.
• Develop a point of view and spec creative (when appropriate) that show prospects how Fort West can address their needs.
• Help scope creative work in proposals so timelines, team, and deliverables are realistic and winnable.
• Present creative in pitch meetings alongside the CEO and EVP.
• Keep Fort West's credentials, case studies, and capabilities materials current and compelling.

• Manage and mentor the Design Director through regular one-on-ones, candid feedback on craft and leadership, and a shared development plan that expands their scope and visibility.
• Hire, mentor, and grow designers, writers, and makers alongside the Design Director, and build a culture of conviction and craft.
• Shape and grow Fort West's creative team as the company's needs evolve, recommending roles, structure, and hiring plans for approval by the CEO and EVP.
• Measure what changed, not what shipped, and hold the team accountable to outcomes.

You own the creative outcome on every engagement, including final sign-off before work goes to a client or to market. Strategy, research, customer experience, and development each have their own lead, and you work alongside them as a peer. Our CEO and EVP of Client Strategy own new business and client relationships, and you own the creative that helps win and keep them.

When priorities conflict, you hold the line on creative quality and brand integrity, and the relevant lead holds the line on their discipline.

The Design Director is your closest creative partner and a…