We Are Hiring: Associate Creative Director

Note: This is a big one, and we are going to hire slowly. We're looking for the absolute right person for the job, and the interview process is guaranteed to be rigorous. We're down for the ride if you are.

Update: Thank you for your interest in this position. Due to the large volume of resumes, we would like to clarify that qualified applicants must have a strong design background and at least 3 years experience managing a creative team. Art Directors looking to move up, Marketing Directors with design degrees looking to move up, etc, we are talking to you! Must have extremely strong Adobe Creative Cloud skills.

We are on the hunt for an Associate Creative Director.
FULL-TIME, IN  HOUSE, IN WHITEFISH, MONTANA.

This is no small task. This person is a creative genius. This person is as empathetic as they are witty. This person is a badass with all things Adobe. This person is so in tune with the outdoor industry, they can accurately predict upcoming trends. Best of all, this person loves everything they just read in this post. Is this person a mythical being-- a cross between John Muir, Da Vinci, and Beyonce? Maybe. But we won't stop looking until we find what we're looking for. 

Associate Creative Directors are half support workers and half managers. They're not afraid to roll up their sleeves, grab a mouse, and throw down some legendary work, however, most of the time, they spend their time researching and identifying target markets, writing headline copy, and running creative direction and campaigns. They are able to assist Creative Directors with creative direction and campaigns, as well as supervise teams and staff on multiple design projects and create and manage budgets. The Associate Creative Director is a leader, a creative mind and a project manager all in one. This person talks to clients and loves delivering big presentations and answering client questions, often alongside someone on our Accounts Team.

This position reports to the CEO, Creative Director, and Operations Director, and supervises the entire Creative Team.

Responsibilities:
An Associate Creative Director has many duties and responsibilities. This person likely has an affinity for hats because in a small agency like ours, this position wears a lot of them. One day may involve organizing commercial shoots with lots of backcountry skiing while another day involves writing campaign copy for a for a surf company on the east coast. Another day may involve art direction for a corporate campaign followed by tracking results of a 360 campaign for a client who makes beer for a living. Every day is different. Every project is different. Every client deserves our best efforts, no matter what.

Creative Concepts
Associate Creative Directors work alongside the Creative Director to explore and develop design concepts and directions for marketing campaigns, print and digital materials, and multiple projects. This requires them to make conceptual and stylistic decisions and be able to back them up. Creating layouts, mockups and prototypes may be required to illustrate their design idea to other members of the team or management. This often involves coming up with slogans and copy for campaigns. This also involves a plan for tracking effectiveness of work.

Manage Projects
Our Associate Creative Director will oversee multiple projects at all times. This includes creating teams, creating timelines, overseeing design direction, ensuring all deadlines are met, confirming clients are satisfied with the results and troubleshooting any issues that may arise during the duration of the project. This person must be able to give engaging presentations to our internal team as well as clients. This person absolutely must be able to hold a room and set the tone, delivering presentations that are intelligent as they are entertaining to match the Wheelie brand. This person also acts as quality control for their projects by reviewing and editing their team’s final products before distribution of any materials occur. This person will be client-facing, which involves deeply understanding and matching the Wheelie brand, which delivers work as excellent as its customer service.

Conduct Research
Staying ahead of design trends, creative trends, industry trends, and socioeconomic trends is crucial to the success of the Associate Creative Director position. To best serve our clients, this person views research as a lifestyle choice, and this person continually researches marketing trends and strategies and the technologies used in advertisement practices. They must be able to recognize their intended audience and the best strategies for reaching said population. They must also be aware of what competitors are doing in order to create innovative and new designs and concepts. They must be bold.


Skills:
The Associate Creative Director should be a creative individual with fantastic interpersonal skills. They must be a reliable employee and enjoy challenging and fast-paced work. Being extremely motivated and having strong leadership skills is also important. 

Core skills: 

• Leadership is your thing, but you don't mind having a supportive boss or two to help nudge you when you need it. You must be able to lead a team of wild creatives, unhinged, and on-budget.
• You must like fun. We do not like not-fun, but we work really hard. Is that a skill? Maybe not, but it is mandatory.
• Mastery of design practices such as, brand development, user-centered experience design, digital design, and all things social media.
• Mastery of computer skills, especially the Adobe Creative Suite. We use a lot of real art supplies, too.
• Knowledge of marketing practices, particularly in the outdoor industry
• The ability to take educated chances and make them pay off. 
• The ability to infuse projects with whimsy and craft. We have a special style. Sometimes it is irreverent. This person cannot be afraid to create wild work with clients ranging from camp stoves to festivals to beer.
• Ability to work in a loud environment full of bikes, dogs, and sometimes kids.
• Ability to show up with a smile, care about the work we create, and care about the clients and our crew as human beings. 

If you do not want to work in our office, FULL-TIME IN WHITEFISH MONTANA, do not apply.
If you view this position as a stepping stone to starting your own agency, do not apply. We are looking for someone who is in this for the long haul and who is stoked on living in one of the most beautiful ski towns in the country.

Salary: DOE
Hours: FULL-TIME, 40 hours per week, in our office.  (Currently, we work 4x10's M-Th and have Fridays off.)
Location: Whitefish, Montana
Starting Date: Flexible for the right person.
How to apply:  Send cover letter, resume, and portfolio to hello@wheeliecreative.com