Creative Director - Uncommon Schools

Uncommon Schools is a nonprofit network of high-performing, public charter schools providing an outstanding K-12 education in historically under-resourced communities. We have proudly built schools that reflect our student population, with more than 60% of our teachers and staff across our network identifying as a person of color. Uncommon currently manages 53 schools serving more than 20,000 students in five cities: Boston, Camden, New York City, Newark and Rochester. We are proud that Uncommon graduates persist in and graduate from college at five times the rate of their peers nationally. We achieve this by offering strong academic, co-curricular, and social-emotional learning that prepares students for success in college and beyond.

We are seeking a proven & experienced Creative leader to develop and lead the creative strategy for Uncommon Schools. This role is responsible for cultivating and directing execution against a vision for how the Uncommon visual brand manifests and is engaged across network, regional, and school contexts. This role will own the creative strategy and development for all of Marketing’s workstreams, steward the production process, and manage creative resources, including external designers, agencies, and vendors.

The Creative Director role develops the most authentic and compelling manifestation of our brand, elevating the impact of design while advocating for our students and the communities we serve. 

Our ideal candidate will have a strong background in visual storytelling & campaign development, a ready-to-share strong creative portfolio with proven impact on brand metrics, experience managing people and production, branding systems, a track record of leading complex, integrated design efforts, and a passion for educational equity.

Duties and Responsibilities

Serve as the resident Creative Brand Strategy Expert for Uncommon.

Lead the brand strategy for storytelling (art direction, graphic design, photography, and video). Serve as creative subject matter expert for external agencies, functional stakeholders, team members, and vendors. Develop and lead a comprehensive brand architecture and visual brand strategy, building cohesion across our events to ensure a “One Uncommon” look & feel.

Lead the development and implementation of Creative Strategy.

Proactively build overarching visual creative concepts that create a cohesive look and feel across Uncommon’s programs and regions. Leverage existing insights and agency work to develop year-long creative concepts to support promotional campaigns and organizational strategic priorities. In partnership with Marketing, proactively develop creative concepts for internal campaigns, key events, and moments.

Drive the top and end of the creative production process.

Partner with Marketing to manage the production of photo and video shoots, building and achieving alignment for creative concepts. Develop and grow relationships with cross-functional partners to support sell-in of concept proposals. Build & manage relationships with local creative vendors, small shop agencies, and studios. 

Creative Team & Resource Management

Build and steward the organization’s asset management system, including brand standards and creative assets. Manage and track the creative and production budgets, identifying opportunities to drive stronger value for creative dollars spent. Maintain the team’s ongoing design project tracking and cost management.

• 8-10+ years experience in visual brand development
• 5+ years leading a team of creatives
• 3+ years leading visual branding programs and successful creative vendor management.
• Proven experience building and executing concepts for regional or national promotional campaigns
• Experience with Adobe Creative Suite required
• Creative portfolio required

Our people are what make us uncommon. It’s important to us that our compensation practices align with our values and enhance our ability to attract and retain talent.  Our compensation philosophy is focused on equity and fairness, retaining our talented staff and valuing their expertise, and transparency and clarity.

Compensation for this position: The starting compensation for this role based in NYC is between $115,900-$144,900 and generally, we expect that qualified candidates in this location will be made an offer between $115,900 and $130,400. The starting pay will depend on a variety of factors that may include but are not limited to experience, education, training, certification, and location. Because we value staff staying in their roles over time, we do not currently cap salary ranges.

Uncommon believes in the importance of being a diverse, equitable and inclusive organization that enables our students and staff to thrive. We are committed to building a talented team that reflects the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our students. At the same time, we work to ensure an inclusive community through creating a space for meaningful dialogue about issues of race and identity for our staff and students.  As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status or disability.