The Director of Brand and Creative Strategy & Services is responsible for leading the creative vision and execution for the National Restaurant Association and its family of brands, including the Educational Foundation, Business Services product suite, research and insights content, and convenings. This role serves as the strategic steward of our brand identity, responsible for enhancing visual and verbal expression across all channels while managing a high-performing in-house creative team.

In addition to overseeing brand governance and creative operations, this leader will also be responsible for developing and executing strategic brand campaigns and activations that tell the story of the Association and its impact, amplifying visibility, increasing brand awareness, and shaping stakeholder perception across the industry. Working closely with the CMO and Brand Manager, the Director will ensure that campaigns are aligned with organizational priorities and executed with excellence across all platforms.

This leader will modernize our visual identity systems, improve operational efficiency, and ensure design work consistently reflects the professionalism and innovation of the restaurant industry we represent. The Director oversees a team of 3 designers and creative professionals and 1 brand manager, guiding concept development, executional excellence, and internal client service with a digital-first, audience-centered mindset.

Key Responsibilities

Brand Strategy & Governance

Lead the development of enterprise-wide brand campaigns and activations that tell the story of the Association’s value, mission, and leadership to industry and stakeholder audiences.

Collaborate with the CMO and Brand Manager to shape messaging frameworks and campaign strategy, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities, tone, and stakeholder needs.

Oversee the execution of brand campaigns across all channels, ensuring consistency, creative quality, and on-time delivery in partnership with functional teams (e.g., communications, events, digital).

Lead the development, enhancement, and application of brand identity systems—including visual language, voice/tone, and usage guidelines.

Serve as the steward of the Association’s house of brands, overseeing logo design governance, brand architecture, and visual consistency to ensure a cohesive and strategically aligned brand ecosystem across all entities and initiatives.

Oversee the creative expression of all brands across digital, print, video, and experiential platforms.

Develop and maintain brand governance processes to ensure consistency across the organization.

Creative Team Leadership

Manage and mentor a team of mid- to junior-level designers and brand manager, fostering a culture of creativity, excellence, and accountability.

Establish high standards for design execution, creative thinking, and collaboration across departments.

Lead by example with strategic and conceptual direction for key campaigns and brand moments.

Creative Services Operations

Manage day-to-day intake, resourcing, and prioritization of creative requests across the enterprise.

Implement tools and workflows that enhance team efficiency, minimize revision cycles, and boost throughput.

Manage budgets, vendor partnerships, and freelance resources as needed.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

Partner with communications, digital, IPG, events, product, and program teams to understand creative needs and deliver high-impact, audience-driven work.

Translate business objectives into compelling creative concepts that align with the Association’s broader goals.

Serve as a strategic advisor to internal stakeholders on brand and creative decisions.

Qualifications

10+ years of brand and creative leadership experience, including managing in-house creative teams

Proven success leading brand development and design systems for B2B and B2C audiences

Strong portfolio demonstrating digital-first creative across multiple formats (social, web, email, paid, print)

Deep understanding of marketing funnels, audience segmentation, and content strategy

Fluency in Adobe Creative Cloud; knowledge of modern project/workflow tools (e.g., Asana, Workfront)

Experience managing internal creative teams and external vendors

Excellent communication, presentation, and cross-functional leadership skills

Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative, and evolving environment

What Success Looks Like

Elevated Visual Identity

The organization’s visual identity system is modernized, delivering a more professional, consistent, and digital-first brand experience across platforms.

Enterprise Brand Alignment

Updated brand guidelines and internal education materials are created and adopted organization-wide, fostering better understanding and application of brand standards.

Creative Team Growth

The internal creative team produces more strategic, higher-quality work that reflects upskilling, clearer direction, and increased confidence in digital design.

Operational Efficiency

Creative projects are delivered on time with fewer revision cycles, optimized team resourcing, and improved output quality and quantity.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The National Restaurant Association, National Restaurant Association Solutions, LLC, and The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (together, “Company”) is committed to equal employment opportunity, and it is Company's policy to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

It is our policy to recruit, hire, train, and promote persons in all job titles, and ensure that all other personnel actions are administered, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status and disability, or other legally protected status, and we will ensure that all employment decisions are based only on valid job requirements.

This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.

For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.

National Restaurant Association

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Sr. Director, Brand & Creative Services