Director, Brand Strategy And Creative Services

Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC™) is a mission-driven organization, with a vision to be the global leader in ensuring every talented person can benefit from the best business education for them. The organization's priority is to heighten its impact in promoting graduate management education and attracting a qualified and diverse candidate pool from around the world.
We are seek a Director, Brand Strategy & Creative Services to create and drive the strategy around both how GMAC supports and evolves its brand and visual identity as well as ensuring that there is an optimal Creative Services model for the organization that can scale cost efficiently while maintaining consistency across channels and products. The role is also responsible for ensuring in-market work represents a strong and cohesive brand presence across our products and channels. The role is accountable for leading the coordination, production and implementation of marketing materials delivered across our omni-channel strategy (online and offline). The role requires the ability to synthesize business goals and objectives into clear and compelling assets and determine the right creative model to support GMAC both strategically and tactically particularly as it relates to our candidate centric digital strategy.
The Director, Brand Strategy and Creative Services is responsible for delivering fast and sustainable results in the following areas:

• Drive evolve and implement GMAC's Brand Strategy to reflect its mission and value proposition, creating a meaningful and flexible infrastructure, reflecting its products and services and enhancing GMAC's reputation in the marketplace.
  
• Manage and support a creative team on the execution and delivery of creative output for the GMAC's products and services in the form of design, digital outputs and copyrighting activities.
  
• Increase effectiveness and efficiency of Creative Services resources, budget and assets, including developing training resources and coordinating in house and external resources.
  
• Support the GMAC business lines in executing strategic plans to ensure that they can achieve their go to market goals.
  
• Collaborate closely with the Communications and HR functions at GMAC to ensure consistent and coherent positioning and messages in support of overall strategic goals and objectives for both internal and external audiences.
  
• Champion overall brand visual identity in support of current and future branding strategies.
  
• Manage creative and content development and editorial calendar of GMAC's print, digital, and new media communications, in collaboration of our product marketing and regional marketing teams for both school and candidate audiences.
  
• Develop and manage a high performing team.
  

Key Responsibilities:
Brand

• Ensure visual identity design and implementation is closely aligned to organizational business and branding goals and objectives.
  
• Own brand architecture and guideline activities, including research, implementation and brand equity evaluation and ensure guidelines are clear and accessible.
  
• Develop, champion, and a establish governance model and review annually to ensure it meets the needs of the organization.
  
• Accountable for oversight, training, usage and optimization of tools and systems the organization relies on for brand Creative outputs (to include our use of Trello and Filecamp).
  
• Develop, maintain and deliver brand training and serve as main point of contact for brand reviews and brand advising internally.
  

Creative Production and Campaign Support

• Oversee production process, through facilitating and driving creative projects from conception to delivery through review for stakeholders.
  
• Create collateral that reflects Brand Strategy and visual identity as well as the needs of GMAC's audiences and regions.
  
• Develop and support the creative team through assigning daily tasks tied to creative production and initiating processes to ensure success of business-critical projects.
  
• Collaborate with the broader marketing team to create templates for use in promoting events, products and services.
  
• Provide support and advice to ensure projects stay within brand standards.
  
• Play a key role in developing GMAC's visual presence at conferences and industry events.
  
• Support, advise and/or oversee production of digital and video assets, working with internal and/or external resources.
  
• Ensure that our school and industry events, which are major touchpoints for our brand in the market are designed and executed to enhance GMAC's reputation in the marketplace.
  

Delivery Model and Agency Management

• Evaluate and recommend right go to market design for GMAC's Creative Services, inclusive of how to best balance internal and external resource allocation.
  
• Build capabilities and processes to ensure design consistency and appropriate use of existing assets, increasing their utility and utilization with an eye toward digital.
  
• Guide the creative intake process to manage the requests received, including reporting and analysis.
  
• Manage processes related to sourcing, budgeting, hiring and overseeing external agencies/consultants/freelancers/vendors.
  
• Be first point of contact for creative agency management at GMAC ensuring there is consistency in costs and standards, managing relationships and budgets.
  
• Overall owner of GMAC's global image library. Responsible for licensing of images as needed, negotiating contracts, managing renewals, oversight of budgeting and billing. Work with regional/product teams as needed to continually evolve and expand our image capabilities.
  

Team Management

• Hire, manage, and develop a high-performance team; effectively guide and develop the team, and utilize their knowledge and areas of expertise to ensure engagement and drive results.
  
• Delegate responsibilities effectively and provide growth opportunities.
  
• Other responsibilities and duties, as assigned.
  

MinimumRequirements:

• Advanced degree from accredited university in Marketing, Design, Digital Design & Communications or other relevant field; Or equivalent combination of education, skills, and experience.
  
• 7 years' experienceinrelatedfield.
  
• 3 years' progressive supervisory experience.
  
• Technical skills: Adobe Creative Cloud (including Premiere and After Effects), Hubspot, UX/UI design and prototyping, and knowledge of JavaScript/HTML/CSS.
  
• Experience working with events, tradeshows, and conferences.
  
• Experience in developing communication strategies and programs.
  
• Experience developing brand visual identity and policies.
  
• Demonstrated ability to work in an international, matrix-based organization.
  
• Knowledge of, and experience in, working with major media and multiple channels.
  
• Experience operating in portfolio branding, having been exposed to rebranding projects.
  
• Experience and good understanding in graphic design for online and off-line channels.
  
• Strong operational acumen with key focus on continuous improvement, flawless execution and processes implementation and stability.
  
• Demonstrated ability to lead change and foster professionalism and responsiveness.
  
• Ability topropose and implement strategy to influence and support the Senior Leadership team.
  
• Capable ofresolvingcomplex issuesof significance to the organizationthat havedirect impact on the success of the function both long-term and short-term.
  
• Superior analyticalskillsand ability to prioritize objectives.
  
• Exceptional verbal and written communication and collaborative skills; ability to influence and manage across all levels.
  
• Ability to travel worldwide as needed up to 10% of the time.
  
• Ability to work in-office and remotely according to GMAC's hybrid work environment.
  

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described are representative of those thatmust be metby an employee to successfully performthe essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform theessential functions.
DesiredSkills/Experience:

• Experience working in the higher education industry.
  
• Experience working in or with a mission-driven organization or membership association.
  
• General project management experience is a plus.
  
• Experience working with Trello or a similar system.
  

At GMAC, we offer:

• Comprehensive and locally competitive benefits (medical, dental, vision, 403b retirement program, and more!)
  
• Generous Paid-time Off
  
• Holiday Leave
  
• Hybrid Work Environment
  
• Free parking
  
• Work for a mission-driven organization helping to develop the next generation of responsible leaders and change makers
  
• Opportunity to utilize your skills and professionally grow and develop
  

Envision yourself joining GMAC, a team of smart thinkers that are resilient, adaptive and who take our values to heart. We work as a team and are committed to delivering high-quality products and services to work for a world where every talented person can benefit from the best business education for them.
FLSA Status:
Exempt
Report to:
Chief Marketing Officer
GMAC's value proposition offers our talented employees the ideal climate for innovation, and colleagues who are motivated and proactive, with diverse backgrounds and approaches.
As a global organization, we understand and appreciate the benefits of myriad cultural perspectives. GMAC is wholly committed to recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse group of talented people, and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to the basis of actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.
Additionally, to ensure a safe office environment, recognizing the tremendous contributions that vaccinations play in ensuring our mutual wellbeing, GMAC has implemented a mandatory vaccination policy. All employees must be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. GMAC may make accommodations or allow for exemption from this requirement for medical or religious reasons.