Senior Director, Brand Storytelling and Creative

Position Summary

The Senior Director, Brand Storytelling and Creative plays a critical role in shaping how the university expresses its values, priorities, and aspirations through integrated storytelling and creative execution. This role oversees communications, writing and editorial strategy, graphic design, visual media, social media, and content production.

The Senior Director is responsible for translating Vanderbilt’s brand strategy into compelling, cohesive, and high-quality expression across platforms and audiences. This position ensures the university’s brand comes to life through distinctive visual identity, powerful narrative, and strategically aligned creative work. At its core, this role oversees how Vanderbilt’s brand expression is interpreted, activated, and produced— creating what is needed to effectively tell the institution’s story.

In addition to creative and editorial leadership, the Senior Director champions the thoughtful integration of technology, tools, and evolving platforms to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability of storytelling and creative production. This leader fosters a culture of digital fluency and continuous improvement, ensuring teams are equipped to deliver high-quality, on-brand work with speed and agility while upholding appropriate standards for governance, ethics, and brand integrity.

This position reports to the Chief Operating Officer, Communications and Marketing and serves as a leader within the Communications and Marketing(MarComm) division. The Senior Director has supervisory responsibility over a multidisciplinary team of writers, editors, designers, videographers, photographers, social media specialists, and content strategists.

About The Work Unit

The Communications and Marketing team at Vanderbilt University is a dynamic and deeply collaborative group. The division, with all of its departments and sub-teams, serves as the institution-wide center of excellence for communications and marketing, developing and executing strategies that inform, engage and inspire others to participate in Vanderbilt University’s global academic and research mission. The division is a key strategic adviser and partner for other divisions in the university, providing comprehensive plans and thoughtful analysis on messaging opportunities and constraints. The Communications and Marketing team continuously seeks innovative solutions to new and emerging challenges in order to deliver results at scale to advance the larger mission, values and priorities of the university.

Key Responsibilities And Expected Performance

Brand Storytelling and Creative Direction

• Oversee the development, creative direction, and execution of Vanderbilt’s brand storytelling strategy across internal and external touchpoints.
• Serve as the creative authority responsible for how the university’s brand looks, feels, and sounds across channels.
• Bring to life the university’s brand identity and positioning through powerful, distinctive, and relevant creative executions across mediums and for various audiences, including prospective and current students, faculty, staff, alumni, and other key stakeholders.
• Guide the development of integrated campaigns and supporting assets that expand brand visibility and deepen engagement with institutional priorities.
• Oversee editorial planning and content strategy to ensure storytelling is audience-centered, strategically aligned, and reflective of Vanderbilt’s mission and values.
• Review, critique, and guide creative work generated by internal teams and external agency partners to ensure excellence, consistency, and strategic alignment.
• Drive innovation across storytelling formats and platforms, identifying new and more effective ways to advance institutional goals through creative expression.
  
  

Team Leadership and Talent Development

• Lead, inspire, enable, and develop the Brand Storytelling and Creative team, including writers, editors, designers, videographers, photographers, and social media specialists.
• Facilitate a results-driven culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Recruit and retain top creative talent.
• Establish team goals and direct the collection of qualitative and quantitative data to measure impact and inform ongoing optimization.
  
  

Operational Excellence and Technology Enablement

• Develop and optimize systems, tools, processes, and workflows to support efficient and high-quality creative production.
• Champion the thoughtful integration of technology and evolving platforms to enhance creative effectiveness, scalability, and collaboration, ensuring teams are equipped to deliver high-quality, on-brand work with speed and agility while upholding appropriate standards for governance, ethics, and brand integrity.
• Direct and manage the Brand Storytelling and Creative budget.
• Efficiently and effectively manage multiple, complex, and results-oriented projects with both quick turnaround requirements and long lead times.
  
  

Strategic Partnership and Institutional Stewardship

• Partner closely with divisional leaders and partners across campus to ensure creative work aligns with strategic objectives and target audiences.
• Communicate and collaborate effectively with a wide range of audiences—including leadership, faculty, staff, students, and alumni.
• Demonstrate excellence in judgment and a strong understanding of what is appropriate for the Vanderbilt University brand.
• Maintain fluency in emerging developments in higher education, brand storytelling, and creative strategy.
• Adhere to confidentiality and business ethics; demonstrate outstanding judgment and discretion.
  
  

Supervisory Relationships

This position oversees a team of direct reports that include communications, design, visual media, and social media. This position reports administratively and functionally to the Chief Operating Officer, Communications and Marketing.

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree or commensurate experience is required. A degree in communications, marketing, art, design, media, or a related field is strongly preferred.
  
  

Experience And Skills

• At least 8 years of experience in creative direction, brand storytelling, communications, or related roles.
• At least 3 years of experience leading a multidisciplinary creative or content team.
• Experience across the full range of brand expression—including print, digital, social media, video, and experiential platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and manage cross-disciplinary teams within a complex, matrixed organization.
• Demonstrated experience influencing and coordinating work across integrated teams, including both direct and indirect collaboration models.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, high-visibility environments characterized by shifting priorities, evolving expectations, and ambiguity.
• Demonstrated resilience and sound judgment in navigating complexity, managing competing demands, and delivering high-quality outcomes under pressure.
• Experience motivating and aligning creative professionals around shared goals, fostering clarity and forward momentum even when direction is evolving.
• Strong facilitation, partnership, and stakeholder engagement skills, with experience participating in cross-unit forums, working groups, or enterprise initiatives.
• Experience supporting and leading change initiatives with professionalism, adaptability, and strategic perspective.
• Ability to make thoughtful, timely decisions with incomplete information while maintaining brand integrity and institutional alignment.