Executive Creative Director

The Executive Creative Director (ECD) serves as the creative visionary and strategic leader for design initiatives across the organization. This role requires a rare combination of retail experience expertise, design talent, and construction literacy. You will bridge the gap between creative vision and built reality - leading teams to deliver transformative retail environments that are both inspiring and executable.

The ECD is also responsible for installing a repeatable creative operating rhythm that improves outcomes: stronger briefs, faster approvals, less rework, healthier margins, and more confident clients. This is not a traditional creative director role - it is creative leadership with operational discipline.

Responsibilities:

Design breathtaking retail experiences that stop customers in their tracks - and still make it through value engineering without losing the soul.

Understand P&Ls, square-foot economics, proforma logic, and retail operational requirements (flow, merchandising, labor, throughput).

Speak fluently about millwork details, MEP coordination, building codes, documentation, and construction sequencing - you have been in the field and know what happens there.

Translate between the languages of brand strategy, design excellence, and construction reality - and align stakeholders from CMO to CFO to GC.

Build a creative operating system (not just great work): standards, critique, stage gates, and metrics that scale quality across teams.

Core competencies:

Visionary creative thinking balanced with pragmatic business sense and construction realities.

Ability to translate complex business challenges into elegant, executable design solutions.

Fluency across creative, retail, and technical languages; strong cross-functional collaboration.

Strong leadership presence and executive communication skills; comfortable with merchants, strategists, CFOs, and contractors alike.

Comfort with ambiguity and ability to thrive in a fast-paced consulting environment.

A systems mindset: builds repeatable standards and processes that improve outcomes beyond any single project.

Problem-solver who sees constraints as creative opportunities, not obstacles.

Key responsibilities

Creative vision, standards, and storytelling

Creative operating system (COS) and delivery discipline

Retail strategy, economics, and client outcomes

Design development and construction integration

Executive client leadership and stakeholder management

Growth, thought leadership, and market differentiation

Team leadership, talent development, and studio health

Qualifications:

12+ years of experience in retail design, branded environments, retail architecture, or experience design.

5+ years in senior creative leadership roles, with demonstrated ability to lead leaders (ACD/CD level) and multidisciplinary teams.

Deep retail fluency: store planning, customer journey, merchandising strategies, retail operations, and the economics that drive decision-making.

Construction literacy: working knowledge of architectural systems, construction documentation, materials, codes, and field execution; experience collaborating through CA/field realities.

Proven record of design excellence - a portfolio that shows strategic thinking, design innovation, and executed built work.

Executive communication skills: confident presenting to C-suite stakeholders across creative, operations, real estate, and finance.

Business literacy: comfortable with metrics and partnering with finance/ops to improve utilization, margin, and delivery performance.

Bachelor's degree in Design, Architecture, Interior Design, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Preferred:

Registered Architect or Interior Designer.

Experience in consulting or professional services environments.

Direct retail industry experience (client-side or deeply embedded with retail clients).

Knowledge of retail real estate development processes, fundamentals, and economics.

Familiarity with emerging retail trends, omnichannel strategies, and experiential design.

Master's degree in Design, Architecture, Business, or related field.