Director of Creative

Location – High Hybrid

This is a hybrid role, which means that you will have the flexibility to work both onsite and at a distance. You will collaborate onsite at our Cashton office for 4-8 days per month and the rest of the time you can choose to work remotely or onsite.

Employee Type – Salaried

Bonus – This position is eligible for a 30% annual incentive bonus based on cooperative and individual performance.

Safety Sensitive – No

If a company is going to make a difference in today’s world, it’s going to have to think differently. At Organic Valley, our philosophy and decisions are based on the health and welfare of people, animals and the earth. We’re a mission-driven cooperative, owned by family farmers, and we’ve been leaders in organic agriculture from the very beginning. Once pioneers of organic agriculture, we’re now an established leader. Organic is all we do. We are driven by our mission to promote regional farm diversity and economic stability by the means of organic agricultural methods and the sale of certified organic products.

Summary Of Role

The Director of Creative is responsible for leading and evolving the creative vision and expression of the Organic Valley brand across all touchpoints, with a primary focus on brand identity, packaging, and integrated marketing experiences.

As both a creative leader and people leader, this role balances hands-on creative direction with business acumen to ensure the brand shows up with integrity, consistency, and relevance to deliver against the cooperative’s goals while empowering a high performing in-house creative team.

This role requires a dynamic creative who can translate strategy into compelling visual systems and communications. The creative leader will steward a genuinely mission driven brand and will need to lead with courage and trust in a collaborative, cooperative culture.

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

• Creative Team Leadership & Development – 25% of time
• Lead, coach, and develop an in-house creative team with clear expectations, regular feedback, and growth opportunities
• Foster a culture of trust, accountability, and constructive creative debate
• Set priorities, manage workload, and ensure the team can do its best work without burnout
• Encourage learning, experimentation, and craft development while maintaining brand discipline
• Brand and Visual Leadership – 25% of time
• Own and evolve the brand’s expression and visual identity system across packaging, campaigns, digital, retail, and experiential touchpoints
• Serve as the final creative decision maker on brand expression/visuals and packaging design
• Ensure packaging design balances brand storytelling, regulatory requirements, shelf impact, and operational realities
• Establish and maintain brand and packaging guidelines that enable consistency without stifling creativity
• Champion creative excellence while ensuring work reflects the cooperative’s mission, values, and farmer owned roots
• Packaging Strategy and Execution – 25% of time
• Lead creative direction for all packaging initiatives, including new product launches, renovations, and line extensions
• Partner closely with Category, Legal, Operations, QA, and Supply Chain teams to ensure packaging solutions are creative, feasible, and compliant
• Supervise Packaging Manager, external partners (agencies, illustrators, photographers), and agency to deliver packaging work aligned with brand standards
• Ensure packaging tells a clear, human, differentiated story at shelf and online
• Champion visionary thinking with a “solve it” approach to navigate the packaging process
• Own the brand’s packaging architecture and lead ongoing optimizations grounded in consumer research
• Cross-Functional Creative Leadership – 25% of time
• Partner with Integrated Marketing and Category teams to translate strategy into creative briefs and visual solutions
• Clearly articulate creative rationale to stakeholders and leadership
• Act as a creative problem solver, not just an order taker
• Balance collaboration with decisive leadership to keep work moving forward
• Model collaborative partnership as a leader in Integrated Marketing and as a member of the cooperative’s Senior Leadership Team
  
  

Additional Duties And Responsibilities

• Stay current on design, packaging, digital, social media, content and cultural trends relevant to mission driven and consumer brands.
• Continuously improve creative processes to increase efficiency, clarity, and quality.
• Support cooperative initiatives that strengthen culture and shared purpose.
• Other duties as assigned by supervisor.
  
  

Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities

• Demonstrated creative expertise gained through formal education and 5 years of progressive senior-level experience, or 10 years of relevant professional experience, in integrated marketing, brand identity systems, and packaging design
• Ability to inspire and mentor creatives, and create a strong, positive creative culture.
• Experience with video production workflow, from development to final edit with the ability to evaluate and elevate work.
• Strong storytelling instincts grounded in consumer insight, brand strategy, and relevance to our intended audience(s).
• Understanding of print production, packaging workflows, and digital execution
• Fluency in collaborative creative tools including Asana preferred
• Skilled at giving and receiving feedback in ways that strengthen work and relationships
• Comfortable making decisions and standing behind them, including managing priorities and problem solving
• Ability to navigate ambiguity without passing it on to the team
• Strong storytelling instincts grounded in consumer insight and brand strategy
• Alignment with mission driven, values based organizations
• Ability to communicate ideas succinctly and present creative work with clarity, confidence, and strategic intent to senior leaders and cross functional partners
• Working knowledge of AI best practices in creative work, with strong judgment on appropriate, brand safe application.
• Collaborative mindset with the courage to challenge respectfully
  
  

Base salary range: $129,896.00 - $173,201.60 per year

This salary range is exclusive of fringe benefits. The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of discretionary bonuses. If you are hired at CROPP, your final base salary compensation will be determined based on factors such as geographic location, skills, education, and/or experience. Additionally, we believe in the importance of pay equity and consider the internal equity of our current team members as a part of any final offer. Please keep in mind that entry-level candidates to this role should expect to be at the lower end of the salary range and hiring at the maximum of the salary range is not typical.

Benefits

We believe when our people are strong, our mission is strong. Therefore, we offer a comprehensive and holistic Total Rewards package meant to strengthen employees’ and their family's total wellbeing. Here are some of the great benefits offered:

• Comprehensive Health Insurance - Choice of plans for you and your family, including some that can be paired with an HSA (which CROPP contributes to on your behalf)
• Supplemental insurances: we offer accidental insurance, critical illness insurance, and hospital indemnity insurance.
• Time Off – 136 hours in the 1st year of employment prorated by start date. Plus 9 paid holidays, plus one floating holiday to use at will.
• 6 Weeks Paid Parental Leave – For all gendered partners in childbirth or adoption.
• Vision & Dental Insurance – Free annual eye exam, discounts on glasses/contacts, flexible dental network, adult ortho.
• 401k – We match 100% up to the first 3% of an employee’s contribution, and then 50% for 3.1%-5.0% of employee contributions.
• Free services at five local Neighborhood Family Clinics.
• Tuition Reimbursement – Up to $1,500 per year to support continuing higher education.
• Life Insurance - $50,000 policy funded by CROPP for each employee. Supplemental voluntary coverage available for employees, spouses, and children.
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability/AD&D Insurance - $50,000 of life insurance coverage of $50,000 of AD&D coverage funded by CROPP for each employee.
• Employee Assistance Program - Free and Confidential for employees, spouses, and dependents.
• Free biometric screenings (cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure) and health coaching.
• Financial advisors and seminars
• Annual $360 Lifestyle Spending Account
• On-site all-organic cafeterias