Director – Art & Design

Who We Are

The Farmer’s Dog was born from a mission to change the landscape of pet health, providing dogs and their humans with honest, smart, and simple care. We’re starting by radically improving the $90 billion pet food industry, replacing bags of highly-processed pellets with a personalized subscription service that sends complete and balanced, freshly-made dog food directly to customers’ doors. Our ultimate goal is to create innovative, delightful and personalized experiences across all aspects of pet care, and we believe our direct-to-consumer business model, holistic approach to growth, and dynamic culture uniquely position us to shepherd this backwards industry into the future.

To date, The Farmer’s Dog has delivered over 1 billion meals nationwide and raised over $150M in funding to help us build a company as healthy as the dogs who are eating those meals. Join us as we continue to develop ways of bringing peace of mind to customers, health to their companions, and much-needed change to the way people feed and care for their pets.

#LongLiveDogs

What We Stand For and Where You’ll Come In

The Farmer’s Dog is looking for a Director of Art and Design to lead and evolve our visual identity across every customer touchpoint, from integrated brand campaigns and packaging to social content and physical installations. Reporting directly into our VP, Creative, you’ll manage a team of designers and partner closely with our Creative Director to ensure our brand shows up distinctively and cohesively everywhere it lives. This is a high-impact creative leadership role with the opportunity to shape how millions of dog owners experience TFD.

One Team: We don’t think of ourselves as “Acquisition Marketers”, “Engineers”, “Data Analysts”, or “Product Managers”. Beyond denoting skill sets and areas of expertise, we don’t think departments matter. We’d rather align ourselves to the goals we’re working to achieve and make sure we have necessary subject matter expertise to drive meaningful impact. We strive to orient ourselves around customer problems TOGETHER – getting the right people, with the right context, in the right rooms/Zooms to solve problems holistically.

We are skeptical about everything and precious about nothing:  Ideas can and should come from anywhere, and we aren’t tied to our own. We proactively source input. We talk to our customers and leads regularly and are quick to change course if we know there’s a better or more impactful way to solve problems.

We consider the customer journey in all of our decisions:  We know that no interaction exists in a silo and therefore understand how important every single one is.  We ensure our strategy sets prospective and new customers up for success and drives long-term retention.  We answer questions and address problems early and proactively.  We understand the value of different channels, initiatives, and messages and know how to articulate impact and advocate for prioritization holistically.

We Execute For Impact: We don’t subscribe to “best practices” or “industry KPIs”. We’re uninterested in how we compare to “benchmarks”; instead we orient ourselves around being the best we can possibly be. Similarly, we don’t subscribe to rigid or classical expectations of roles – i.e. acquisition is hyper-focused on improving customer retention and experience.

We Are Focused and Work Without Assumption: We are not beholden to ideas. We have goals and believe everything beyond that is a series of hypotheses to validate. To that end, we seek to work in sequence and not in parallel. We constantly ask ourselves, “what’s the most important hypothesis I should be working on right now? How do I confirm or reject that hypothesis as fast as possible?”. We rarely have timelines/deadlines and are constantly taking in new information and adjusting our priorities accordingly. We don’t expect to be perfect the first time.

How You'll Make An Impact

• Lead art and design efforts for everything from integrated 360 brand campaigns to fast-twitch social content to packaging and installations.
• Direct new explorations of look and feel, adapting and evolving our brand guidelines and crafting proprietary, brand-true visual voice in photography, art direction, typography, and other elements of visual expression.
• Manage a team of designers to ensure that our brand is translated into effective, distinctive, and cohesive design systems. Inspire brave new ideas while keeping a constant pulse on consistency and continuity.
• Partner with the Creative Director on TVC, video, OOH, and other major advertising assets, advising on art direction and leading the intersection of graphic elements and typography.
• Be comfortable wearing different hats and navigating different elevations: from strategic creative beacon to diligent, unflappable air traffic controller to devoted mentor to nitty-gritty kerning-checker.
• Work closely with the Brand operations function to help plan resourcing, track bandwidth, create project and production schedules, and maintain oversight on the organizational health of the team.
• Partner with Product Design leadership to ensure all our surfaces feel of one brand.
• Join with stakeholders in other departments throughout the company to meet and exceed our business goals. You’ll immerse yourself in the product, becoming an expert in the unique qualities of our fresh food service, and shepherd creative ideas through the vetting process to co-develop work that serves the business as a whole.

We're Excited About You Because

• You have 10+ years of experience, including 2+ years as a Design Director within an agency and/or in-house team. A portfolio with creative, relevant work for which you were primarily responsible is required.
• You have managed a team of creatives and value mentorship as a crucial element of the job function. You consider the growth and success of your direct reports the greatest signal of your own achievement. You can spot a golden nugget in the brainstorm brain dump and help turn it into something great.
• You have a deep design background and feel as comfortable discussing the kerning of a headline as you are critiquing the headline itself.
• You have significant experience in designing for physical builds, developing packaging, and navigating retail environments.
• You have worked within both static and video. Direct motion design skills are not required, but a love for video media and the intersection of graphics, art direction, and storytelling is.
• You can quickly grasp, and bring to life the visual identity of a brand, and help evolve that identity. You also define quality by the smallest details — nothing is too small to be important.
• You specialize in untangling problems, clearing confusion, and pushing past blockers, and know how to coach your team to do the same.
• You’re adaptable to different working styles, mindsets, and personalities, showcasing a willingness to collaborate with all.
• You’re a true dog person — even if you don’t have one.

Office Guidelines

We are an in-office culture, made of in-office people who thrive on the collaboration and magnetism of working in a shared space. We are seeking individuals who excel in this type of environment, where being present fosters deeper connections and engagement. We ask all team members to be in office 4 - 5 days a week to build a collaborative and invested environment to foster our unique in-person culture we are proud to have. This office policy is subject to change at company discretion.

Our Belonging Philosophy:

At TFD, we believe Belonging is a shared commitment to creating a workplace where every person feels respected, valued, and empowered to be themselves. When people feel a true sense of belonging, they do their best work, take smart risks, and bring forward diverse perspectives — leading to stronger decisions and deeper relationships.

We anchor this belief in a simple phrase: “Everyone’s welcome at the dog park.” No matter your background, identity, or role, there’s space for you here. There’s no one way to show up at the dog park— just shared space, mutual respect, and the freedom to be yourself. Being included is just the beginning, it’s about contributing your voice, growing through challenges, and building trust through shared goals. This philosophy guides how we lead, how we hire, how we communicate, and how we grow.
                    
We continuously evaluate to ensure we are creating a consistent experience that cultivates belonging for all employees, from hiring and performance reviews to talent development. We also believe Belonging happens in everyday moments of connection; lunch with a new teammate, a shared laugh, or a quick story about your weekend. Our structure includes biannual employee surveys, manager training, TFD camps, and support from Humans to ensure we’re listening and learning from our Team.

Together, these efforts reflect what Belonging means at TFD: a culture where everyone can thrive.

A Few of Our Best Benefits

• Dog-friendly office in SoHo
• Market-competitive compensation and equity packages
• Comprehensive Healthcare, Dental, and Vision
• Company supported mental health benefits
• 12 week paid parental leave
• Competitive 401k plan with company match
• Flexible PTO 
• Discounted fresh food for your pup
• Your pet interrupting video calls (and in-person meetings) is now a feature, not a bug

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The Farmer's Dog, Inc. is an equal employment opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic or status. For more information, please visit Know Your Rights.

Reasonable Accommodations

TFD complies with applicable federal, state, and local disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities.  If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [email protected].

We're Here to Help

We’re happy to answer any questions you may have about the position or our hiring process - please reach out at [email protected].