Director – Brand and Creative Strategy

JOB OVERVIEW:

GIA is seeking a visionary Director of Brand Creative and Strategy to drive powerful storytelling and shape the future of our global brand.

This role requires a highly skilled and experienced creative brand strategist to lead and oversee GIA’s global brand image. This person will be responsible for developing ground-breaking content and messaging strategies across all brand touchpoints, directly supporting the achievement of GIA’s annual, global business goals and long-term strategic plan.

The ideal candidate must have experience leading the strategy for development of creative content and have brand-building experience as well as exceptional communication and leadership skills. Ideally the person in this role must be able to expertly toggle between B2B, B2C, and B2B2C content and messaging while maintaining a seamless and consistent brand image across all. This position will also be an agent of change for the brand creative team, evolving the group to become a highly responsive, professional, and strategic brand marketing partner to the global enterprise.

Location: Carlsbad, California. Join us onsite Tuesday through Thursday to collaborate, connect, and soak up GIA’s energetic campus vibe—then enjoy the freedom of remote work on Mondays and Fridays. It’s a hybrid schedule designed for productivity, flexibility, and a little extra joy in your week.

KEY RESPONSIBILITES:

Brand Strategy:

• Collaborate with brand marketing teams to understand business goals, product support needs and GTM plans to define and create key content types and assets that will result in delivering creative, engaging and measurable marketing campaigns.
• Work with global stakeholders to understand their strategic and creative needs to inform the Marketing department’s annual budgets and plans.
• Support GIA’s strategic goal to build brand equity with the consumer and our B2B audiences by developing research-informed, ground-breaking creative direction, content creation, and brand messaging that will help create consumer demand for GIA’s services.
• Create project plans (timelines and deliverables) for annual initiatives or long-term projects, and work with the Marketing teams to have an annual brand and creative development calendar.
• Build positive and collaborative relationships across the GIA organization and with external agencies, vendors, etc.
• Actively support trade and consumer research, and leverage data to inform brand, creative, and content decisions.

Content Development

• As brand guardian for GIA, develop creative assets, content and campaigns that directly support
• GIA’s global business units and achievement of GIA’s strategic plan while maintaining a singular brand voice and experience.
• Build and maintain a strategic content development plan that includes all content types, brand touchpoints, and global markets
• Manage a team of designers, copywriters, and other brand creatives to ensure the successful delivery of high-quality projects that directly meet the needs of GIA global business units and support the achievement of the GIA strategic plan.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to creative team members in support of developing their skills, careers, and pride in their work.
• Oversee content development for Lab + Instruments and Education. Define how to organize and structure for enterprise use on a global scale to create streamlined brand content.
• Implement best practices using a project management platform (i.e. JIRA, etc.) that will provide optimal ease of use, clarity, and efficiency for a hybrid brand creative team, ensuring timely delivery of brand creative projects, materials, and content.
• Other duties as assigned.

JOB COMPETENCIES:

• Leadership & Accountability: Demonstrates personal initiative, focus and drive for continuous improvement; holds self and team accountable to meet commitments and deadlines. Sees the “big picture.” Leads change, fosters innovation and models GIA values
• Technical/Functional Knowledge: In-depth knowledge of principles and practices within multiple disciplines and broad knowledge across many related disciplines. Keeps up with current technology and trends in the global marketplace
• Service Mindset: Focuses on the needs of customers; builds strong customer relationships and delivers holistic, customer-centric solutions that adequately balance risks with business needs
• Optimize Talent: Plans and supports the development of staff skills & abilities to build capacity and drive organizational effectiveness (in both short-term and long-term). Builds strong team structure through valuing, leveraging & maximizing diverse skills and perspectives to achieve common goals. Links business strategy to current talent capabilities and proposes a plan to address gaps
• Drives Engagement: Creates a culture where people are motivated to do their best to help the organization achieve its objectives; skilled in relationship building, persuasion, high-level negotiation and collaboration; engages with approachable demeanor
• Drive for Results: Sets high goals for personal and team accomplishment and uses measurement methods to monitor progress against operational or strategic goals of the functional area. Consistently meet or exceed goals within timeline and budget; maintains a focus on continuous improvement. Creates an environment that embraces and rewards innovation and change
• Decision Quality/Problem Solving skills: Incorporates a holistic approach to making good, timely, ethical decisions that keep the organization moving forward; ability to identify root causes of problems and provides sound resolutions taking into consideration multiple perspectives and long-term future implications. Can derive solutions based on limited information using strong reasoning and conceptual thinking abilities
• Analytical Skills: Ability to interpret and analyze data comprehensively and make excellent conclusions; thinks strategically while considering long-term impact of actions/decisions
• Communication Skills: Develops and delivers multi-mode communication that conveys a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences; uses clear and effective verbal and written communications delivered with confidence and the style of the receiver in mind. Uses persuasion, reason and negotiation to influence decisions and get results
• Collaboration skills: Uses excellent collaboration skills with all levels (up/down and lateral); develops and uses collaborative relationships to facilitate the accomplishment of short and long-term work goals. Gains the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity, transparency and authenticity. Maneuvers organizational dynamics to achieve objectives. Ability to handle high conflict situations effectively to minimize impact and maximize outcomes; ability to express opposing views in a non-confrontational manner
• Time Management: Approaches work in an organized and systematic manner; plans work and time effectively to manage conflicting or shifting priorities and achieve goals aligned with functional area and organization
• Strong computer skills utilizing software such as Microsoft Office Suite, e.g., MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint; and e-mail

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• A bachelor’s degree in marketing or communications, or an equivalent combination of education and/or experience.
• 15+ years’ experience in brand management, strategic planning for content development, and creative strategy, preferably in an agency setting.
• 10+ years of experience managing staff.
• Experience with jewelry, luxury, fashion, or lifestyle brands is preferred.
• Understanding of marketing to both B2B (trade) and B2C (consumer) audiences preferred.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Up to 10% of travel (domestic and international)

WORK ENVIRONMENT/PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

• Work is performed in a designated professional office workstation and environment.
• Extensive use of office equipment including computer, calculator, copier, fax, and other business-related machines and software.

Pay Range: $150-170K

An Equal Opportunity Employer
All employment decisions are made without regard to unlawful considerations of race, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, or any other legally protected status. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.

Disclaimer: This job description indicates in general terms, the type and level of work performed as well as the typical responsibilities of employees in this classification and it may be changed by management at any time. Other duties may also apply. Nothing in this job description changes the at-will employment relationship existing between the Company and its employees.