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Senior creative director hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring senior creative directors in the United States:
Here's a step-by-step senior creative director hiring guide:
A senior creative director spearheads the visual aspects of a company's marketing and advertising departments. They manage creative teams and lead the efforts from conceptualizing to executing projects and campaigns. As a senior creative director, their responsibilities typically include setting goals and budgets, establishing guidelines, coordinating departments, delegating tasks to managers, researching new business opportunities, liaising with internal and external parties, and developing strategies to optimize procedures. Furthermore, they must serve as a mentor to junior directors and staff, promoting and enforcing the company's policies and regulations.
Before you start hiring a senior creative director, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.
A senior creative director's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior creative directors from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.
Here's a comparison of senior creative director salaries for various roles:
| Type of Senior Creative Director | Description | Hourly rate |
|---|---|---|
| Senior Creative Director | Art directors are responsible for the visual style and images in magazines, newspapers, product packaging, and movie and television productions. They create the overall design of a project and direct others who develop artwork and layouts. | $35-130 |
| Graphic Design Manager | A graphic design manager is primarily in charge of leading and overseeing the efforts of a graphic design team, ensuring adherence to goals and deadlines. It is their duty to learn and analyze the purpose of design, coordinate staff, liaise with internal and external parties, set goals and objectives, manage schedules, and conceptualize plans... Show more | $23-43 |
| Freelance Art Director | As a freelance art director, you will work hand-in-hand with the production designer to procure works of art for your organization. Note that your duties will depend on your particular industry... Show more | $24-68 |
Including a salary range in the senior creative director job description is a good way to get more applicants. A senior creative director salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.
For example, the average salary for a senior creative director in Arkansas may be lower than in Illinois, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level senior creative director. Additionally, a senior creative director with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.
| Rank | State | Avg. salary | Hourly rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illinois | $172,921 | $83 |
| 2 | California | $166,968 | $80 |
| 3 | New York | $146,869 | $71 |
| 4 | Oregon | $133,207 | $64 |
| 5 | Washington | $130,337 | $63 |
| 6 | Minnesota | $125,237 | $60 |
| 7 | District of Columbia | $124,823 | $60 |
| 8 | Connecticut | $120,978 | $58 |
| 9 | Florida | $114,127 | $55 |
| 10 | Maryland | $100,885 | $49 |
| 11 | Texas | $100,020 | $48 |
| 12 | Colorado | $83,620 | $40 |
| Rank | Company | Average salary | Hourly rate | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sally Beauty Holdings | $248,207 | $119.33 | |
| 2 | Roku | $232,858 | $111.95 | 1 |
| 3 | Apple | $218,134 | $104.87 | 6 |
| 4 | Ancestry US Holdings Inc | $197,287 | $94.85 | |
| 5 | The Independent Traveler | $197,287 | $94.85 | |
| 6 | Fossil | $194,808 | $93.66 | |
| 7 | Nike | $191,919 | $92.27 | 9 |
| 8 | Thrive Market | $190,919 | $91.79 | |
| 9 | Amazon | $185,619 | $89.24 | 39 |
| 10 | Under Armour | $183,125 | $88.04 | |
| 11 | VICE | $176,778 | $84.99 | |
| 12 | Scopely | $171,607 | $82.50 | |
| 13 | Microsoft | $170,648 | $82.04 | 16 |
| 14 | Electronic Arts | $169,782 | $81.63 | |
| 15 | 2k | $163,530 | $78.62 | |
| 16 | B-Reel | $149,290 | $71.77 | |
| 17 | Universal Music Group | $148,947 | $71.61 | 2 |
| 18 | The Travelers Companies | $129,614 | $62.31 | |
| 19 | Raley's | $129,291 | $62.16 | |
| 20 | Oracle | $126,733 | $60.93 |
A senior creative director job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a senior creative director job description:
To find senior creative directors for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:
To successfully recruit senior creative directors, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.
It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.
The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.
Once you have selected a candidate for the senior creative director position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.
You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.
To prepare for the new senior creative director first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.
Recruiting senior creative directors involves both the one-time costs of hiring and the ongoing costs of adding a new employee to your team. Your spending during the hiring process will mostly be on things like promoting the job on job boards, reviewing and interviewing candidates, and onboarding the new hire. Ongoing costs will obviously involve the employee's salary, but also may include things like benefits.
You can expect to pay around $141,259 per year for a senior creative director, as this is the median yearly salary nationally. This can vary depending on what state or city you're hiring in. If you're hiring for contract work or on a per-project basis, hourly rates for senior creative directors in the US typically range between $35 and $130 an hour.