Head of Creative

Summary

Join Modea as their Head of Creative and lead the Product Design team in establishing and executing exceptional creative vision and strategy across the client portfolio. Drive design excellence and innovation while ensuring business impact, elevating the quality of work and its strategic value to clients. Cultivate a creative culture that balances bold innovation with strategic business outcomes, inspiring and mentoring design talent. Build strong relationships with key stakeholders to ensure creative solutions align with business objectives. A typical day involves providing creative direction, presenting strategic concepts, collaborating with other teams, contributing to business development, and identifying emerging design trends. This role requires strategic leadership, creative vision, and strong communication skills.

Requirements

• Ability to serve as a key leadership team member, contributing to organizational vision while aligning creative strategy with business objectives
• Ability to develop inspiring, modern visual concepts that elevate both client work and Modea's brand while maintaining practical applicability
• Demonstrated success in building and directing high-performing design teams through complex projects, maintaining quality and consistency in execution while implementing effective hiring, coaching, performance management, and accountability systems to foster a culture of creativity, excellence, and continuous improvement
• Experience owning departmental budgets with proven ability to optimize resource allocation and drive financial performance
• Exceptional ability to articulate creative concepts to clients at all levels, translating design decisions into business value
• Capacity to connect design solutions to broader business objectives and integrate design thinking into overall product strategy
• Ability to contribute to growth initiatives and support sales efforts with compelling creative vision
• Understanding of how creative and design efforts contribute to business outcomes for both clients and Modea
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively across disciplines, particularly with product management and engineering teams
• Dedication to championing company values and embodying the mission and vision throughout all activities
• Flexibility to pivot between creative ideation and practical implementation as projects evolve within agile, iterative development cycles
• Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, User Experience Design, or related field
• 8+ years of progressive experience in visual/product design with at least 3 years in a practice leadership or team management role, directly overseeing designers and guiding design strategy
• Proven track record of leading creative strategy and execution for digital products (websites, applications, or software)
• Proficiency with Figma and other industry-standard design tools (Adobe Creative Suite, etc.)
• Experience presenting design concepts to clients and stakeholders
• Portfolio demonstrating both creative strategy and visual design execution
• Strong understanding of user-centered design principles and methodologies
• Experience working within agile processes and iterative software development environments

Responsibilities

• Serve as a key member of the leadership team, contributing to organizational strategy and growth initiatives
• Lead creative strategy as a core component of our product strategy service
• Direct, manage, coach, and mentor a high-performing team of designers, including hiring, performance evaluations, and accountability
• Own and manage the design department's budget, ensuring optimal resource allocation and financial performance
• Develop modern visual concepts that transform client work from transactional to inspiring
• Oversee high-quality product design execution across websites, mobile apps, and custom software
• Translate creative strategy into tangible designs ready for technical implementation
• Establish and maintain design standards, processes, and quality controls
• Present design concepts and strategy to clients with confidence and clarity
• Contribute to business development and digital strategy across client portfolio
• Execute and steward Modea's visual identity across all touchpoints
• Provide thought leadership through content creation, speaking engagements, or industry participation
• Champion and embody our core values, mission, and vision throughout the organization
• Travel to client sites or Modea offices for collaboration sessions, presentations, or team building
• Performs other duties as assigned that are reasonably within scope of this position

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a consulting or agency environment
• Familiarity with design systems and component libraries
• Background in mentoring junior designers
• Knowledge of front-end development concepts (HTML/CSS)
• Experience contributing to business development efforts

Benefits

• Work at any location in Virginia, Tennessee, or North Carolina
• Modern offices located in Nashville, TN and Blacksburg, VA
• Fully-office, fully-remote, or hybrid work experience
• Tools to do their job at home as well as in the office