Vice President, Creative

Role overview

Kanahoma is looking for a senior creative executive to guide the agency’s creative direction and lead a multidisciplinary team spanning copy, design, and video. Reporting to the CEO, this leader will oversee the full Creative Services offering, balancing long-range innovation with strong daily delivery across client work. The role suits someone who enjoys both strategic leadership and operational rigor, and who can help shape integrated campaigns, performance creative, website experiences, productions, and new creative capabilities.

In this position, you will work closely with college and university presidents, CMOs, executive teams, and boards while influencing where the agency and its creative practice are headed next. You will also help build a high-performing organization, strengthen creative quality, and ensure work is aligned to measurable growth outcomes.

Creative services ownership

• Set the vision, strategy, and evolution of Kanahoma’s Creative Services offering.
• Advance the connection between brand thinking, performance marketing, AI, and emerging technology so the agency stays ahead of market shifts.
• Create new capabilities, service models, frameworks, and best practices that improve the agency’s competitive position.
• Work with executive leadership on agency strategy, product development, and long-term growth plans.
• Coordinate with Sales on scopes, growth opportunities, partner presentations, and new business support.
• Collaborate with account teams and leadership on scoping, budgets, and resourcing so engagements are properly staffed and profitable.

Team leadership and organizational development

• Lead a creative organization of 10+ people across Copy, Design, and Video through Associate Creative Directors.
• Hire, coach, and retain strong creative talent while encouraging accountability, curiosity, collaboration, innovation, and continual improvement.
• Develop leaders who can grow their disciplines without losing creative quality.
• Build systems and workflows that let the team scale output without sacrificing speed or craftsmanship.
• Own the health, performance, and ongoing growth of the creative organization.

Creative strategy and channel leadership

• Guide integrated creative work across campaigns that support the full journey from awareness to enrollment.
• Direct creative across brand campaigns, paid social, paid search, websites, landing pages, digital experiences, video, photography, email, and organic content.
• Partner with Strategy, Paid Media, SEO, Web, and Account Services to deliver integrated solutions that drive enrollment growth.
• Help partners articulate what makes their institution distinctive in a crowded higher education market.

Performance and optimization

• Use performance marketing knowledge to improve conversion across the funnel, from inquiry through enrollment.
• Base creative choices on strategy, audience insight, testing, and data rather than opinion alone.
• Refine best practices continuously based on campaign results, market movement, and changing consumer behavior.

Production leadership

• Provide executive creative direction for Kanahoma Productions, the in-house production arm.
• Lead six-figure productions with hands-on direction on set alongside producers, directors, crews, photographers, and editors.
• Ensure production work meets a high creative standard and supports partner objectives.

Casting leadership

• Contribute consultatively when pitching new casting projects.
• Create tailored casting approaches for existing partner upsells.
• Lead partner-facing casting presentations.
• Collaborate with the partner to define the target audience pool.
• Develop email and survey materials.
• With support from the Agency Producer, organize interviews and follow-ups with respondents.
• Assemble the final casting book and, when production is involved, advise the broader team on the strongest cast options.

Innovation and future-focused creative

• Keep a strong point of view on AI, organic content, digital platforms, search behavior, creative technology, and the future of marketing.
• Identify practical AI applications that improve ideation, workflows, and results without replacing human creativity.
• Promote experimentation, learning, and innovation across the creative team.

Client and executive presence

• Represent the creative organization with confidence in executive presentations, partner meetings, pitches, and advisory work.
• Present strategy to CMOs, university presidents, executive teams, and boards of trustees.
• Act as a trusted advisor who connects institutional goals to creative solutions that deliver measurable growth.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate brings 10+ years of progressive creative leadership experience, including meaningful agency experience, and has led multidisciplinary teams across copy, design, video, web, and digital experiences. You should have a record of developing creative leaders, building strong team cultures, and shaping integrated campaigns that combine storytelling with measurable performance outcomes.

You should also understand paid media creative, paid search, paid social, websites, landing pages, conversion optimization, and full-funnel customer journeys. Experience leading creative for complex, multi-step consideration cycles, website redesigns, digital experience initiatives, and six-figure commercial productions is important. Confidence in front of executive stakeholders, university leaders, and boards is essential.

A genuine interest in emerging technology, AI, and the future of marketing is required, along with practical experience using AI to strengthen creative thinking, workflows, and results. Experience in higher education marketing is strongly preferred, though candidates from other highly competitive industries are also encouraged to apply. A creative portfolio is required.

Mission and values

Kanahoma’s mission is to build a better agency for organizations that are building a better world. The team supports mission-driven organizations across education and nonprofit sectors, with a focus on progressive performance marketing.

The company’s core values emphasize finding a better way, treating results as the engine rather than the finish line, working as a team of high performers, and serving partners with a strong service mindset.

Core advocacy principles

The role is expected to reflect four forms of advocacy: self-advocacy, team advocacy, business advocacy, and partner advocacy. That means communicating needs clearly, supporting teammates, promoting company goals responsibly, and ensuring partner interests are heard and translated into practical solutions.