This position is open to applicants in the US and Canada
The Manager of Creative Services is responsible for several facets of the creative product offering at Kanopi Studios. Primarily, this person is responsible for elevating and unifying Kanopi’s Creative team, overseeing the hiring, growth, and retention of our data strategists, visual designers, UX practitioners, and content specialists. This person will interface with the Sales and Marketing teams to support presentations for the former and branding for the latter. This person should also be able to consider the scope of a client’s relationship with Kanopi and make recommendations aimed at expanding that relationship within and beyond the client’s expectations.
The right candidate will have at some point in their career been a web designer, with an impeccable design aesthetic and knowledge of the industry, best practices, and tools, as well as experience managing clients and teams.
The Manager of Creative Services is expected to be 50% billable and reports directly to the CEO.
Requirements
In this position, a person can expect these main focus areas:
What you’ll do for the Kanopi Design team (45% of your time):
- Lead the Creative team on a strategic and professional level
- Inspire, motivate, and mentor a team of UX/UI professionals to deliver the highest quality creative work by fostering learning and encouraging a highly collaborative team culture.
- Empower the career growth of direct reports.
- Advocate for the strengths and limitations of self and team, and raise concerns when assistance is needed.
- Engage in difficult conversations proactively and in real-time.
- Focus on solutions aligned with bigger-picture departmental/company vision or goals.
- Partner with Directors to resource the creative team, evaluating skill sets and opportunities for team members to grow within the projects/tasks assigned to them.
- Ensure the team in this department is 80% billable within our resourcing views. When the team needs more work, there should be a backlog of initiatives that can be pulled from if there is no billable work to pivot towards.
- Based on employee strengths and areas they enjoy, work to provide variety and diversity of work within their workload.
- Proactively discover areas of frustration or inefficiencies within the creative team’s processes to help optimize.
- Team Growth
- Develop professional growth plans for employees within this department to ensure opportunities for growth are available and planned, removing blockers when they arise.
- Work to identify current and future talent needs for the department.
- Participate alongside HR in the recruiting process, including talent reviews and interviews.
- Develop and adhere to onboarding processes for the roles with this department, adjusting and optimizing when necessary.
- Innovate and operationalize new ways to explore our discipline and elevate our growth (example: Building a Storybrand methodology).
What you’ll do for Kanopi’s clients (40% of your time):
- Provide hands-on web design deliverables as needed for Kanopi and our clients (for example: wireframes, design layouts, and presentation decks).
- Diplomatically push for innovative solutions and question the status quo.
- Work closely with Project and Account Managers to monitor the pipeline, be responsive to potential issues and troubleshoot, as necessary.
- Guide strategy, user research, UX, and Design deliverables for Kanopi and for our clients.
- Ensure creative deliverables are polished and answer the client’s project goals and strategic vision.
- Review all design deliverables for consistency and accuracy, including spelling, style, and brand consistency (for both the client and for Kanopi).
- Lead and manage Website Growth Plans
- Run Discovery for builds (as needed) and hand off to PM for development execution.
- Manage proactive project reviews with select clients.
What you’ll do for the Kanopi brand (15% of your time):
- Keep Kanopi aligned with the latest Design/UX trends.
- Participate in the sales and estimating process.
- Advocate for Creative work.
- Estimate scope for creative deliverables.
- Articulate the creative process and custom solutions during sales meetings.
- Act as the subject matter expert for UX/UI consultations within current client work and potential new business opportunities.
ABOUT THE COMPENSATION & WORK REQUIREMENTS
This is a full-time position. Salary is commensurate with experience. Not to worry. The pay is competitive and what you’d expect for this role. This is a 100% remote role, but you must live and be able to work in North America.
NOW… LET’S TALK ABOUT YOU!
We are looking for candidates who have…
- A professional background in web design and team management (including experience building, mentoring, and coaching a team of design and UX practitioners) for small or niche creative agencies is required for this position.
- Ability to context-switch within a workload consisting of hands-on creative, keeping track of tickets on behalf of the team, and managing the individuals on the team.
- Innovative thinker, with a track record for translating strategic thinking into sales, growth, or leadership models.
- Excellent judgment and creative problem-solving skills, including negotiation and conflict resolution.
- Ability to anticipate future needs, while making decisions in a changing environment.
- Ability to stay energetic, flexible, collaborative, pragmatic, and proactive while positively and productively impacting administration initiatives.
- Exceptional written and oral interpersonal and presentation skills, and attention to design details.
- Demonstrated digital-first knowledge of the creative process, graphic fundamentals, marketing, and advertising principles.
- Experience advising and consulting with senior executives with a solution-oriented approach.
At Kanopi, we believe a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and voices make for a better workplace. We strongly and enthusiastically encourage people of color, individuals who identify within and beyond the LGBTQ+ spectrum, women, and people with disabilities to apply.
NOW, WHAT?
If you think this post was written just for you, here’s what to do next:
- Submit your resume and a link to your portfolio.
- Answer the questions you see here on this page.
- Send us a cover letter.
Now… About that cover letter… This is VERY important!
Please include all of the typical reasons why you’d be an outstanding candidate for this position, plus answer this question: What is your favorite piece of technology?
Our screening process takes a bit of time, because we like to ensure that you are the perfect fit for us, and we are the perfect fit for you! After we’ve taken a look at your application, we will send you a series of questions that will help us get to know you better. From there, you will engage in several interviews with members of our team, and a skills assessment or two in order to take a look at how you do the things you do! Some candidates may even do a mini-project, depending on the role you are interviewing for. We’ll be happy to explain a bit more once we’re in the interview stage.
Please note – we try to make an effort to contact every applicant to let you know the status of your application, but we are human, so if you don’t hear from us, drop us a line!
Benefits
Fully Remote: Work where and when you do your best. It’s about feeling connected to others, having a flexible schedule and staying healthy.
Top Talent: Since we are not limited by walls, our ability to hire the best is limitless. Collaborate, learn and surround yourself with a strongly skilled and diverse team.
Travel: Love to see the world? So do we. Just find a place with good wifi, get connected and make great work happen!
This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by those assigned to this classification. This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by those occupying this position. The job description and job functions described herein are subject to possible modification by Kanopi Studios in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.
No agencies, recruiters or applicants outside of the US or Canada.
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