Brand Creative Director

Brand Creative Director role based onsite in Burlington, VT, reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer.

Responsibilities

• Lead and evolve Burton and Anon’s brand narrative architecture, including long-term story pillars, seasonal arcs, and campaign hierarchy
• Define what the brand is saying each season and the “why it matters now” rationale
• Ensure storytelling accumulates over time to reinforce brand meaning instead of resetting each cycle
• Partner with the CMO as the final authority on marketing creative strategy, storytelling, and brand expression
• Build flexible, scalable creative and storytelling frameworks for global consistency with space for local expression
• Define and maintain storytelling hierarchy across hero narratives, supporting stories, and editorial layers
• Ensure all marketing expression respects product creative intent while elevating brand storytelling
• Act as Burton’s senior cultural intelligence leader, connected to Gen Z culture, emerging sport communities, style, creators, platforms, and subcultures
• Translate cultural insights into storytelling implications, including what to tell, what to stop telling, and how tone, casting, pacing, and platforms should evolve
• Partner with Product Creative on cultural trends and emerging aesthetics that inform product design direction
• Balance youth relevance with multi-generational resonance, honoring legacy riders while attracting new ones
• Serve as upstream creative strategy partner to Brand/Sports and Category Marketing teams, shaping how stories are framed emotionally and narratively across brand, product, and commerce
• Participate in seasonal Product Creative reviews to provide cultural insight and downstream storytelling perspective (input, not approval)
• Rally teams behind creative direction using clarity, confidence, and collaboration
• Partner with Product Creative Director on major moments where brand and product are inseparable (collaborations, limited editions, anniversaries, special projects)
• Ensure those moments honor product vision while maximizing cultural and storytelling impact
• Represent brand creative in external partnerships alongside Product Creative leadership
• Bring enterprise-wide storytelling fluency across Burton hardgoods, softgoods, and Anon
• Provide strategic guidance so brand narratives translate cohesively across DTC and wholesale environments
• Act as a consultative partner to Creative and Production leadership, reinforcing clarity and consistency in how category and regional stories ladder to the global brand
• Use a fast-moving, resourceful “scrappy but smart” approach to creative problem-solving
• Leverage AI-powered tools to accelerate strategic exploration, test narrative directions, and rapidly visualize storytelling systems (not to replace craft)
• Be hands-on when needed: concepting, shaping narratives, building references, inspiring teams
• Mentor designers, writers, producers, and cross-functional partners to build taste, confidence, and creative clarity
• Lead by example through humility, generosity, and collaboration; model curiosity, progression, and respect
• Build strong creative partnership culture with Product Creative teams
• Represent Burton and Anon brand creative strategy to founders, executive leadership, the board, and key partners
• Present creative strategy, cultural insights, and competitive positioning at GTM gates, sales meetings, and board meetings
• Serve as a senior creative voice in leadership forums
• Decide what constitutes a campaign vs. a supporting story vs. editorial
• Establish seasonal storytelling arcs and long-term story pillars; ensure brand, category, and commercial storytelling ladder together
• Protect meaning as creative scales globally across channels and regions
• This role does not own creative production, trafficking, or localization

Requirements

• 10–15+ years in senior creative leadership roles
• Proven ability to lead through influence and partnership
• Demonstrated success shaping brand narratives across seasons, not just campaigns
• Deep experience with modern heritage, sport, lifestyle, youth culture, or performance brands
• Strong narrative sensibility across film, photography, motion, and systems
• Ability to translate culture into strategy, not just aesthetics
• Experience working across hardgoods, softgoods, accessories, and/or technical products
• Strong understanding of retail, wholesale, DTC, and omni-channel storytelling
• Comfort using AI and modern creative tools for exploration and system-building
• Experience modernizing brand systems without losing soul
• Low ego, high taste; solid risk-taking; big heart
• Calm, decisive, and clear under pressure
• Curious, culturally connected, authentic
• Passion for sport, community, joy, and creativity
• Energized by re-grounding an iconic brand into its future
• Inherent influencing and motivational leadership to mobilize teams around evolving creative direction

Decision Rights & Escalation

• Brand Creative Director: final authority on marketing creative strategy, storytelling, and expression in partnership with CMO
• Product Creative Director: critical decision authority on product design direction
• Joint escalation to CMO/CPO for conflicts at the intersection of brand and product
• This role does not own creative production, trafficking, or localization

Technologies

• AI-powered tools
• AI

Location & Travel

• Onsite in Burlington, VT
• Periodic domestic and international travel for cultural research, creative partnerships, and seasonal alignment

Compensation

• USD 120,000 - 150,000 per year