Creative Director

About the team/role

Reporting to Checkr's VP of Marketing, the Creative Director, Head of Brand will set the creative vision for how Checkr shows up in the world, while owning and evolving our newly refreshed brand identity.

This role will lead Checkr's Brand Studio team and creative execution across Marketing's full portfolio of work, turning brand strategy into distinctive, memorable creative that builds recognition and preference for Checkr. The role will build brand into an operating system — clear standards, briefs, and review processes paired with AI-powered, self-serve tools — so the rest of the company can produce great work without the team touching every asset. Partnering closely with teams across Marketing, Internal Communications, HR, and Product, and advising executives on how Checkr shows up and is perceived, this leader will play a defining role in the company's reputation as it continues to grow.

What you’ll do

• Set and lead the creative vision for Checkr, translating brand strategy into distinctive ideas, campaigns, and experiences that build recognition and strengthen the brand over time
• Own and evolve Checkr's newly refreshed brand identity system — visual language, voice, and design standards — ensuring it's applied consistently and thoughtfully while continuing to push the brand creatively as the company scales
• Lead and inspire the Brand Studio team, raising the creative bar through strong direction, mentorship, and a high standard of craft, while continually exploring new ways of working — including AI tools and processes — used additively to extend the team's craft, never in place of it
• Lead the development of high-impact brand campaigns and creative platforms from concept through execution, bringing strong creative judgment to work across channels and formats
• Build brand into an operating system — standards, briefs, review cycles, and clear decision rights — paired with AI-powered, self-serve tools, and partner across Checkr to put those tools directly in every team's hands
• Define and track brand health (awareness, sentiment, consistency) to measure the impact of brand investment beyond individual campaigns
• Own creative execution and exercise final judgment on high-visibility brand moments — from campaigns and product launches to executive communications — ensuring the work is strategically sound, creatively distinctive, and executed at a high level of craft, including knowing when AI-generated work is off-brand or needs a human hand
• Advise Checkr's executives on brand positioning and narrative, and partner with Marketing leadership to align brand strategy with go-to-market priorities

What you bring

• 10+ years of experience increative and brand leadership
•  including experience building or significantly scaling a brand function — not just maintaining one
• A strong portfolio of brand-building work demonstrating exceptional creative thinking, conceptual ability, and craft across campaigns, channels, and experiences
• A proven track record of developing distinctive creative ideas and translating brand strategy into work that earns attention and builds brand recognition
• Exceptional creative taste and judgment, with the ability to recognize great work, articulate what makes it great, and help teams make it better
• Demonstrated use of AI tools in real, shipped brand work, with a clear point of view on where automation belongs and where human judgment and craft are non-negotiable
• Proven judgment shaping brand and narrative at the company level, with experience advising executives on positioning
• Rigorous measurement instincts — defines and owns brand health metrics like awareness and sentiment as a discipline in their own right, alongside campaign performance
• Strong people leadership experience, with a track record of building, inspiring, and developing high-performing creative teams, and comfort operating with high autonomy in a fast-moving environment
• An A-player mindset with a strong bias for action: you raise the bar, move with urgency, stay resilient through ambiguity, and take ownership to deliver meaningful outcomes.

On-target Earnings OR Base Salary range (San Francisco, CA) 233000 - 274000 USD
On-target Earnings OR Base Salary range (Denver, CO) 197000 - 232000 USD