Sr. Manager, Brand Creative & Design

The Chicago Sky are looking for a highly motivated, collaborative, experienced, and innovative senior manager to lead brand creative and design.

This candidate should be passionate about women's sports, championing equality, and generating breakthrough graphic design strategies and creative to elevate the Chicago Sky brand and drive sales, awareness, fan engagement and fan loyalty. Key responsibilities include developing unique, impactful, culturally-relevant graphics and marketing across game day executions, tickets, partnership content, social media, website, email newsletters, promotional themes, community, merch, and more. The role will also include setting the design standards and brand identity for the Chicago Sky to drive consistency across the marketing mix. This candidate should demonstrate exceptional creativity, leadership, project management, and collaboration skills.

Reporting to the CMO, this candidate will work closely with an integrated marketing team including videography, partnership marketing & content, photography, PR, traditional marketing, and social media. In addition, this role supports other Departments: Tickets, Corporate Partnerships, Game Ops, and Community.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and communicate consistent Chicago Sky brand identity that ties to brand positioning, including overall campaign and season look and feel
• Develop world class and innovative graphic designs that are fresh, contemporary, and connect with Chicago Sky fan segments
• Provide design, layout, and production support of required materials, including but not limited to marketing and sales collateral, social media, digital marketing, partnership marketing, sponsored content, merch, community, video end cards, arena content, promotional theme game elements, etc.
• Closely manage timelines and ensure flawless execution to meet internal and external partner timelines
• Partner closely with Video and Photo Content team to drive consistency and excellence
• Responsible for cataloging, storage, and maintenance of images, artwork, and logos based on approved filing and naming conventions to ensure information is accessible and available to all service providers and marketing team members
• Collaborate and participate in ideation sessions with the creative team and other cross-functional teams, including external marketing partners/agencies as required
• Collaborate with Partnership Marketing and Corporate Partnerships to ensure sponsored content best represents Chicago Sky and our partners
• Oversee direct reports including full-time and part-time designers

Job Specifications / Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in graphic design or a related field preferred
• 5+ years of graphic design experience in a marketing or ad agency environment, including digital design expertise
• Advanced skills using Adobe Creative Suite, including InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Lightroom
• Experience working in college or professional sports
• Good understanding of photo editing, typography, and layout design
• Some familiarity with AI design, animation, and latest technologies to drive innovation in design
• Strong leadership, teamwork, and executive presence skills with an ability to navigate feedback from multiple stakeholders
• Energetic, self-starter who must be proactive and is comfortable working in a fast paced environment, with and without direct supervision
• Able to multi-task in a high-volume work environment with tight deadlines
• Perform work requiring analytical thinking, creativity, and a holistic business mindset
• Maintain consistency in projects within graphic standards guidelines
• Possess organizational and communication skills, both oral and written
• Work independently, with a supervisor, and as a team
• High attention to detail and strong project management skills
• Passionate about sports marketing, specifically women's sports and the WNBA
• Hybrid role: 1-2 days/week expected in office, with attendance at all 22 home games and some nights/weekends/holidays
• Applications submitted without a portfolio will not be considered.

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital or veteran status, or any other protected class.

Job Questions:

1. What is the role of graphic design in women's sports?
2. Tell us about a design project, ideally in sports, that drove fan engagement?
3. Please provide an example of how you collaborate with key stakeholders
4. What are your salary expectations?

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