Deputy Director, Global Brand Experience

Job Posting Organization:
The Gates Foundation is the largest nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting poverty, disease, and inequity on a global scale. Founded on the principle that every individual, regardless of their identity or circumstances, should have the opportunity to lead a healthy and productive life, the Foundation is committed to reflecting the rich diversity of the populations it serves. It offers an exceptional benefits package that includes comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage without premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, retirement contributions, regional holidays, and opportunities for employees to engage in various community initiatives. The Foundation is dedicated to fostering an environment where employees can thrive both personally and professionally, emphasizing the importance of diversity and inclusion in its workforce.

Job Overview:
The director" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">Deputy Director, Global Brand Experience plays a crucial role in shaping how the Gates Foundation's brand and stories are communicated to external audiences. Reporting to the Director of Content & Campaigns, this position is responsible for leading the Foundation's global brand, creative direction, visual identity, storytelling ecosystem, and creative production. The Deputy Director ensures that every public interaction with the Foundation fosters trust, inspires care, and reinforces the belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to live a healthy life and reach their full potential. This role involves leading a multidisciplinary creative studio that includes creative producers, story developers, visual and experiential designers, and audience engagement specialists. The Deputy Director is tasked with setting the team's creative vision, enhancing its capabilities, and ensuring cohesive, audience-centered experiences that emotionally connect people to the Foundation's mission. The position also requires travel, anticipated to be up to 25% both domestically and internationally.

Duties and Responsibilities:
The Deputy Director will lead creative direction and design excellence by establishing a compelling creative vision for the Foundation's brand across all audience touchpoints. This includes providing executive creative direction for campaigns, storytelling, digital experiences, exhibitions, activations, and environmental design. The role involves championing exceptional visual craft and design quality, ensuring that all work meets world-class standards of creativity, accessibility, and audience-centered design. Additionally, the Deputy Director will build creative excellence and organizational capability by leading and developing a multidisciplinary team responsible for delivering world-class creative work. This includes overseeing the entire creative lifecycle from ideation to execution, fostering a culture of creative excellence, and strengthening internal creative capabilities. The Deputy Director will also steward the Foundation's brand positioning and creative platform, ensuring that all brand expressions reflect the Foundation's values while remaining locally relevant. Responsibilities extend to leading the evolution of the Foundation's visual design system, ensuring high-quality implementation of brand standards, and guiding the development of scalable design systems and creative resources. The Deputy Director will also lead the strategy and production of creative content for integrated campaigns and public engagement initiatives, ensuring that audience experiences are designed holistically across various channels. Finally, the role requires applying audience insights and behavioral research to enhance creative strategies and engagement, identifying emerging trends and opportunities for broader audience reach.

Required Qualifications:
Candidates must have a minimum of 12 years of experience leading brand, creative, and design initiatives within global nonprofits, media companies, agencies, technology firms, consumer brands, or mission-driven organizations. They should demonstrate success in leading multidisciplinary creative teams across brand strategy, visual design, storytelling, creative production, experiential design, and content development. Deep expertise in brand visual systems, creative governance, and design leadership across various applications is essential. Exceptional creative judgment and the ability to evaluate and elevate design work across multiple disciplines are required. Candidates should have experience in establishing creative vision while empowering teams to deliver outstanding work, as well as a proven ability to mentor and grow creative professionals. Experience in managing complex creative budgets and a strong understanding of audience-centered design and storytelling are also necessary.

Educational Background:
A bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as marketing, communications, design, or a related discipline is required. Advanced degrees or specialized training in brand management, creative direction, or related areas may be preferred but are not mandatory.

Experience:
Candidates should possess extensive experience, specifically over 12 years, in leading brand and creative initiatives within various sectors, including nonprofits and mission-driven organizations. They should have a track record of successfully managing multidisciplinary teams and large-scale creative projects, demonstrating their ability to navigate complex organizational structures and deliver impactful results.

Languages:
While the job description does not specify mandatory languages, proficiency in English is essential given the global nature of the Foundation's work. Additional language skills may be advantageous, particularly in languages relevant to the Foundation's international initiatives.

Additional Notes:
This position is full-time and requires unrestricted work authorization in the United States, as the Foundation does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. The salary range for this position is between $212,800 to $329,800 USD, with higher ranges for positions based in Seattle and Washington D.C. The Foundation strives to balance competitive pay with its mission, and new hires typically fall between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range based on their skills and experience. The hiring process includes a standard background check, and the Foundation is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates.