TITLE: Executive Creative Director
DEPARTMENT: Marketing
REPORTS TO: Chief Marketing Officer
TYPE: Full-Time Regular
FLSA: Exempt
ROLE TYPE: People Manager
OUR CLUBS
Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Reign FC are entering an exciting new era as one soccer family with a shared commitment of excellence and growth on and off the pitch. Each club has independently forged a rich history of performance while connecting deeply with the community. Our clubs are continually pushing the boundaries of what's possible while fostering an inclusive culture- championing causes and building community connections to expand our reach and impact. Each match is an opportunity to bring together our community, celebrate our resilience, inclusivity, and a commitment to excellence. United in professional dedication- we are two clubs with one shared vision of progress and greatness.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Executive Creative Director (ECD) is the senior-most creative leader responsible for defining and driving the creative vision for Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Reign FC. This role shapes how both clubs show up across every touchpoint—ensuring a cohesive, innovative, and culturally relevant presence that deepens fan connection and drives business impact.
The ECD sets the philosophy, standards, and long-term direction of creative across the organization, translating business objectives into breakthrough ideas—and ensuring those ideas are executed consistently at a high level. In a fast-paced, high-demand environment, this role brings clarity to complexity—making decisive calls on priorities, focusing teams on the highest-impact work, and ensuring creative output is both ambitious and delivered at scale.
Owning the end-to-end creative ecosystem across design, video, and production, the ECD is accountable for how work gets done as much as the work itself—establishing clear direction, aligning resources, and enabling teams to produce best-in-class output consistently.
As a key member of the Marketing leadership team, this role leads and develops a high-performing, multidisciplinary creative group while influencing partners across the organization. The ECD builds alignment, sets expectations, and drives accountability—ensuring work moves forward and delivers, even without direct authority over every stakeholder involved.
This role is for a creative leader who wants to define the future of two iconic clubs—someone who pairs bold vision with decisive execution and is motivated by turning great ideas into real, lasting impact.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Enterprise Leadership & Strategic Influence
- Own the role of creative as a driver of enterprise outcomes.
- Align creative direction to business needs and priorities.
- Set clear context on priorities, tradeoffs, and expectations so teams and partners understand what matters and why.
- Establish and reinforce standards for creative excellence and impact, ensuring consistent execution across all channels.
Creative Vision, Philosophy & Legacy
- Define and lead the organization's creative vision and legacy, shaping a distinctive and enduring brand across all platforms and experiences.
- Define the philosophy and approach to creative work, ensuring alignment with the organization's mission, values, and long-term vision.
- Steward the organization's global creative presence and long-term strategy, ensuring consistency, innovation, and cultural relevance.
- Lead creative across both clubs, curating and guiding brand expression to ensure consistency, quality, and impact.
Building Best-In-Class Teams & Culture
- Build and lead a high-performing creative organization with clear expectations, strong accountability, and a focus on delivering enterprise outcomes.
- Design the organization for both performance and future growth, ensuring the right structure, roles, and talent are in place.
- Set and uphold a high standard for performance and hold leaders and teams accountable for both creative excellence and results.
- Provide direct, actionable feedback and coaching that elevates individual and team performance, building a strong pipeline of future leaders across the organization.
- Foster a culture where people feel valued, engaged, supported, challenged, and responsible for delivering results.
Creative Direction & Production
- Lead creative direction across all video, motion, and content production, including campaign shoots, branded content, social storytelling, and matchday experiences.
- Provide executive-level oversight of creative production from concept through execution, ensuring efficiency, quality, and alignment with creative vision.
- Ensure all visual storytelling—from short-form social to long-form, broadcast, and live experiences—meets best-in-class creative standards.
- Champion innovative formats, technologies, and storytelling approaches to elevate the clubs' creative output.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with internal teams to deliver cohesive and impactful brand storytelling.
- Collaborate with revenue-generating teams to ensure creative solutions enhance sponsorship value and fan engagement.
- Collaborate to deliver cohesive and impactful creative for in-venue and live experiences.
- Act as the central creative voice across both clubs, ensuring consistency and quality across all initiatives.
Operational Excellence & Resource Management
- Establish scalable creative processes, workflows, and governance across the organization.
- Own and manage creative budgets, ensuring efficient use of resources to maximize impact.
- Balance long-term brand building with short-term campaign execution and business needs.
Innovation & Cultural
- Stay ahead of trends in sports, design, media, and culture to continuously evolve the creative approach.
- Create culturally relevant, breakthrough work that resonates with fans and strengthens community connection.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Extensive experience and demonstrated success in creative leadership roles, including operating at a senior level and guiding teams through complex, high-visibility projects.
- Proven ability to set creative direction and standards for a complex organization and ensure consistent execution across multiple platforms and touchpoints.
- Proven track record of leading and developing high-performing, multidisciplinary creative teams.
- Experience overseeing design and video production functions, including content development, live-action production, and delivery at scale.
- Strong business acumen with the ability to connect creative strategy to measurable outcomes.
- Ability to operate from strategy through execution, making decisions and driving clarity in complex, fast-moving environments.
- Strong cross-functional leadership skills, with the ability to align senior stakeholders and influence decisions across the organization.
- Experience managing budgets, external partners, and production resources with discipline and focus on impact.
- Excellent communication and executive stakeholder management skills.
- Comfortable making decisions, resolving tradeoffs, and challenging work to maintain a high standard.
- Collaborative, forward-thinking, and comfortable challenging the status quo.
- Strong understanding of sports, culture, and storytelling, and how creative work drives brand, fan, and revenue growth.
- Committed to principles of diversity, equity and inclusion, and to living organizational values and driving the organization's mission to Create Moments, Enrich Lives, and Unify & Uplift Through Soccer
- Proficiency in modern creative tools and platforms (Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, etc.)
- Deep understanding of modern video production ecosystems, including editing, motion, and finishing tools (e.g., Premiere, After Effects, Resolve), with fluency in emerging AI-driven creative technologies (e.g., Runway, Midjourney, generative video platforms).
WORK ENVIRONMENT
- This is a hybrid position working from home and from our Headquarters & Training Facility in Renton WA and attending matches at the club's various facilities in market, and traveling to other club facilities as needed.
- Must be able to work a flexible schedule, including evenings, weekends, and holidays as needed.
- Must reside within Washington state upon date of hire.
- Must be able to facilitate own local travel.
- Must be eligible to work in the US without sponsorship.
COMPENSATION, BENEFITS AND PERKS
We offer competitive compensation and an engaging, supportive environment that prioritizes the health and well-being of our people.
The annual salary range for this position is $175,000-$210,000. Positioning within the range at time of offer is based on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, internal equity, and current market conditions.
In addition to financial compensation, we provide a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your overall well-being and professional growth, including:
- Comprehensive Healthcare Coverage: We offer 100% employer-sponsored medical, dental, and vision premiums for you and your dependents. For employees enrolled in our HSA healthcare plan, annual employer contributions to a Health Savings Account (HSA) — $1,000 for employee-only coverage and $2,000 for spouse or family coverage.
- Generous Paid Time Off & Leave: We offer unlimited paid vacation, paid company holidays, and paid sick leave in compliance with Seattle's Paid Sick and Safe Time ordinance. We also provide paid bereavement leave and paid jury duty leave to support you during life's critical moments.
- Retirement Planning Support: 401(k) retirement plan matching, helping you secure your financial future with ease.
- Inclusive Parental Leave: Our gender-neutral parental leave program provides 12–16 weeks of paid leave, inclusive of Washington Paid Family & Medical Leave (PFML), giving new parents the time and support they need during this important life stage.
- Peace of Mind Coverage: Employer-paid long-term disability coverage, as well as basic life insurance and accidental death & dismemberment (AD&D) coverage, providing financial protection and peace of mind for you and your family.
- Exclusive Perks: Enjoy complimentary tickets to matches and employer-funded ORCA cards for transit, making it easier for you to experience the excitement firsthand.
- Continuous Growth Opportunities: We invest in your learning and development through various programs, resource, and experiences that support growth, internal mobility, and career advancement.
- Community Engagement: We provide a variety of volunteer opportunities that align with our social impact goals and RAVE Foundation initiatives, empowering you to make a meaningful difference in the Seattle community.
OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace where every employee is respected, valued and supported. We celebrate our diverse work environment and welcome team members of all backgrounds and perspectives. To that end, if you do not meet every job requirement listed, we still encourage you to apply. We believe your relevant experience and expertise will help us become a high-performing best-in-class workplace for all. Women, gender-nonbinary, people of color, LGBTQIA+ people and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
The physical demands reflected in the duties and work environment herein are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. If you'd like to request an accommodation in the application or interview process, please do so by emailing the People & Culture Team.
In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire.
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