Senior Director, Creative

About the role

Braze is seeking a creative leader to scale our design function and serve as a strategic pillar within our brand organization. You will define the visual bar for the company while mentoring a team to operate with autonomy and conceptual rigor. This role requires a partner who can translate abstract ambitions into tangible visual narratives that resonate across diverse audiences. You will be responsible for establishing a cohesive design language that reinforces our market position and elevates our market perception. The ideal candidate thrives in ambiguous environments and can synthesize complex information into clear, compelling visual strategies. You will champion a design-first mindset that influences not only aesthetics but also product thinking and user empathy across the organization.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Lead and scale a multidisciplinary team covering brand, motion, and creative design while ensuring cross-functional cohesion.
• Define and enforce a high-quality standard for all design output and conceptual thinking to maintain excellence across all touchpoints.
• Mentor junior leaders to delegate ownership and foster team growth, creating clear pathways for professional advancement.
• Implement scalable design systems, workflows, and templates to improve operational efficiency and reduce redundant effort.
• Partner with strategy teams to ensure design work is rooted in business objectives and brand positioning, aligning creative with commercial goals.
• Serve as the final decision-maker for visual identity across web, events, paid media, and internal communications to ensure brand integrity.
• Collaborate with executive leadership to align design strategy with company priorities, translating corporate vision into executable creative plans.
• Manage external vendors and freelancers to maintain brand consistency while optimizing resources and leveraging specialized expertise.
• Evaluate emerging design tools and methodologies to keep the team at the forefront of industry standards and technological capabilities.
• Facilitate critique sessions and design reviews that promote rigorous thinking and continuous improvement among creative peers.
• Establish clear documentation for creative processes to enable scalability and consistency as the design organization expands.
• Identify talent gaps and drive hiring strategies to build a resilient creative team capable of meeting current and future demands.
• Measure the impact of design initiatives through qualitative and quantitative feedback to inform future creative decisions.
• Act as a bridge between data-driven insights and human-centered design to create solutions that are both effective and emotionally resonant.

Requirements

• 15+ years of professional design experience including senior leadership roles that have shaped brand and product identities.
• 5+ years of people management experience with a focus on team development, performance feedback, and career progression.
• Proven track record of building high-performing creative teams that deliver exceptional work consistently.
• Experience working in both agency and client-side environments to understand diverse operational models and stakeholder needs.
• Ability to make difficult personnel decisions to maintain quality standards while fostering a fair and transparent culture.
• Strong strategic mindset with the ability to connect design to business outcomes, demonstrating how creative work drives measurable impact.
• Exceptional communication skills to articulate design rationale to executive stakeholders and influence without direct authority.
• Deep understanding of brand architecture and how creative decisions contribute to long-term brand equity and perception.

Skills & tools

• Adobe Creative Suite for producing high-fidelity visual assets across print, digital, and multimedia formats.
• Figma for collaborative interface design, prototyping, and real-time feedback loops with cross-functional partners.
• Motion design fundamentals to enhance storytelling through animation, transitions, and dynamic visual elements.

Practical notes

• Salary range: $130,000 to $194,000 per year.
• On Target Earnings (OTE): $155,000 to $232,000 per year, including bonus or commission.
• Compensation includes equity grants of restricted stock units (RSUs).
• Benefits include medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance, retirement plans, flexible paid time off, and family services.
• Professional development is supported through learning platforms and a yearly stipend.
• This role operates in a hybrid work environment with expectations for in-office collaboration on designated days.
• The position reports to executive leadership and requires frequent interaction with senior stakeholders across the organization.
• Candidates must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship for this position.