Executive Creative Director

Fortune Media is seeking an Executive Creative Director to lead Fortune’s brand creative vision across editorial, marketing, and partnerships. This hybrid role in New York, NY connects brand standards and creative governance with day-to-day execution, shaping consistency across digital, print, events, video, and brand collaborations.

In this position, you will own the global creative direction for Fortune’s identity systems, guide an integrated multidisciplinary team, and act as the central point for creative standards, freelance resourcing, and tooling decisions. You will also help the organization navigate the AI inflection point with clear ethical standards and practical AI literacy across the creative team.

What You’ll Do

• Own and evolve Fortune’s global brand identity, visual system, and style guides across platforms and markets, including Fortune.com, the magazine, newsletters, social, and international editions.
• Direct both traditional design (print, magazine, OOH, event materials) and digital design (web, social, email, digital products) to maintain a unified, contemporary look across every channel.
• Lead creative direction for Fortune’s major tentpole events, including the Fortune 500 Forum, Most Powerful Women Summit, and CEO Initiative, overseeing deliverables from stage and signage to branded environments.
• Provide creative oversight for video and photography, ensuring production aligns with Fortune’s brand standards and maintaining a strong roster of photographers, directors, stylists, and collaborators.
• Serve as the senior creative partner to Fortune’s Brand Studio, ensuring sponsored programs and advertiser campaigns meet the same creative standard as editorial while supporting commercial objectives.
• Partner with web product, paywall, and subscription teams so the digital brand experience from Fortune.com through subscriber acquisition and retention campaigns remains consistent, premium, and conversion-aware.
• Act as creative lead and strategic partner to both B2B and B2C marketing teams, guiding campaigns across paid, owned, and earned channels and building repeatable creative frameworks and templated assets.
• Own the centralized freelance creative roster, including vetting, onboarding, and management for designers, illustrators, photographers, and copywriters, and manage creative budgets with rigor and transparency.
• Own evaluation and governance of Fortune’s core creative tooling stack, including the Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, design platforms, and project management tools, and lead rollout of unified workflows.
• Lead Fortune’s creative organization through the AI inflection point by integrating AI-first tools into workflows, establishing ethical standards for AI-generated and AI-assisted output, and building AI literacy.
• Uphold Fortune’s editorial and ethical standards across all creative output, serving as the final internal authority on brand standards before publication or production.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive creative leadership experience, including at least 4 years directing a multidisciplinary creative team at a media company, publisher, or content-led brand.
• A portfolio showing mastery across both traditional and digital design disciplines, with strong editorial sensibility and platform-agnostic visual fluency.
• Proven experience overseeing creative production for large-scale live events or brand experiences, and fluency in stewarding visual identity systems at scale across multiple platforms and markets.
• Active, demonstrable use of AI-first creative tools in professional practice (a hiring requirement).
• Strong executive presence with the ability to present creative vision to senior stakeholders, advertising clients, and editorial leadership.
• Experience managing freelance creative talent and leading creative budgets with transparency and discipline.
• Deep industry contacts across photography, direction, illustration, and creative production.
• Ideally, experience leading creative within a recognized media brand with print heritage and a digital transformation mandate, plus familiarity with revenue-generating creative contexts such as branded content and advertiser co-creation.

Tools and Technologies

• Digital Asset Management (DAM) system
• AI-first tools
• Fortune.com

Benefits

• 20 vacation days and 2 personal days on top of 11 company holidays, plus an honor-based sick leave policy
• Health, dental, and vision coverage (90% paid for individuals and families), with flexible spending accounts where Fortune contributes to your HSA
• 401(k) plan
• Generous parental leave
• Dependent care, commuter, and cell phone benefits
• Tuition reimbursement program
• Commitment to an open, inclusive, and diverse work culture

Reporting and Search Context

• Fortune Media is actively conducting a search for its next Chief Marketing Officer.
• In the interim, the Executive Creative Director will report directly to Fortune’s Executive Committee.
• Upon the arrival of the incoming CMO, the reporting line will transition accordingly.

First 90 Days

• Conduct a full audit of Fortune’s current creative output, team capabilities, tooling stack, and brand standard adherence
• Build trusted relationships across editorial, marketing, events, Brand Studio, and the Brand Partnership Group
• Develop an initial point of view on the highest-leverage creative priorities and share it with interim leadership and the incoming CMO

Within Six Months

• Establish or refresh Fortune’s global style guide and design governance model
• Centralize the freelance roster with clear processes and measurable quality improvements
• Make a clear DAM tooling recommendation with a phased rollout plan
• Introduce at least one AI-augmented workflow that demonstrably improves output or velocity
• Establish a clear, productive working relationship with the Brand Partnership Group

At One Year

• Fortune’s creative output is consistently elevated and recognizable across all platforms, with measurably higher satisfaction scores from internal stakeholders
• The creative team operates with greater speed, lower freelance cost per project, and reduced re-work
• The Brand Studio pipeline has a strong creative lead relationship contributing to revenue growth
• Fortune is regarded externally as a creative leader in the media industry, winning awards, attracting talent, and setting standards

Location and Salary

• Location: NYC headquarters, hybrid flexibility
• Salary: USD 200,000 - 225,000 per year base, plus eligibility for a variable annual bonus (range is a good faith estimate and may vary based on relevant factors)