Creative Manager

Position Title: Creative Manager Department: Communications Reports to: Creative Director Location: Remote Travel: ≥ 10% Salary Range: $78K to 112K*

• New hires are typically brought into the organization between the minimum to midpoint of the salary range posted depending on qualifications, internal equity, and the budgeted amount for the role.

Formerly the Mental Health Association of New York City (MHA-NYC), Vibrant Emotional Health’s groundbreaking solutions have delivered high quality services and support, when, where and how people need it for over 50 years. Through our state-of-the-art technology-enabled services, community wellness programs, and advocacy and education work, we are building a society in which emotional wellness can be a reality for everyone.Position Overview The Creative Manager leads a small graphic design team and owns end-to-end delivery of brand-aligned creative across digital and print. The role is responsible for building scalable systems and collaborating within and across departments to execute integrated campaigns. This role works to elevate art direction and design systems that build brand credibility, cohesion and awareness. Duties/Responsibilities

• Manage, coach, and develop designer(s)
• Own intake and project management (scope, resourcing, schedules, reviews, delivery) with weekly capacity/priority reporting for graphic design
• Maintain DAM hygiene, version control, and naming conventions for efficient retrieval and reuse
• Art direction – translate strategy into briefs and guardrails
• Design system evolution – turn one-off requests into repeatable systems; build and document scalable templates (presentations, social, one-pagers, brochures, event collateral) for the assets portal
• Enforce brand standards, accessibility and pre-flight specs
• Support creative direction/brand development/strategy
• Lead creative for environments/booths, signage, programs, and on-site graphics
• Develop promotional/merch items to vendor specs and budgets
• Partner with Digital to adapt assets for each channel (ratios, thumbnails, landing page assets) and meet accessibility standards
• Provide reusable systems and set clear QA checks for web and social
• Review social media and web metrics and apply learnings to grow followers and improve shareable/viral moments
• Translate Mar/comms campaign strategies into concept boards, key visuals, and full asset suites across paid/owned/partner channels, in alignment with KPIs
• Support board and staff-facing communications with on-brand visuals
• Produce press-ready assets and rapid-response workflows; coordinate timely approvals
• Create donor-facing materials; deliver production-ready files for print/mail and digital
• Provide deployable donor toolkits (pledge forms, giving-day assets, sponsor kits)
• Develop clear, empathetic designs that promote org programs, emphasizing access, clarity, safety, and accuracy
• Produce multilingual, accessibility-forward assets highlighting services and brand narratives
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Skills/Abilities

• Adobe Creative Cloud expertise (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) and Figma. High proficiency in PowerPoint/Google Slides and Asana (or similar).
• Proven people management skills (goals, coaching, calibrated feedback, performance)
• Strong foundation in typography, layout, identity systems, and multi-channel adaptation
• Experience with brand governance and driving consistency at scale
• Experiential/event competency (environmental graphics, signage systems, promo/merch, vendor coordination)
• Stakeholder and project management: convert objectives into actionable briefs; set expectations; present clear rationales
• Comfortable collaborating with motion/video teams (aspect ratios/safe areas, thumbnails, deliverable specs, cohesive static-to-motion systems)
• Working knowledge of accessibility best practices
• Motion design or video editing knowledge and/or UI/UX/product design experience, a plus but should not be the focus
• Demonstrated willingness to learn and adapt as the Creative industry evolves, especially with developments in AI

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of BA/BS in Design, Visual Communication, Marketing, or related field or 4+ years of equivalent experience.
• 8+ years in fast-paced, in-house brand/creative roles (large, cross-functional/matrixed organizations preferred), including 2+ years directly managing designers; agency experience applicable
• Portfolio showing brand systems, multi-channel campaigns, and experiential/event work
• Demonstrated independence: owning priorities, timelines, and stakeholder alignment with minimal supervision
• Experience in nonprofit, mental health care, or mission-driven orgs with sensitive messaging, a plus
• Physical Requirements:
• Must be able to remain in a stationary position 50% of the time
• Will frequently communicate over video calls with internal and external stakeholders to provide status updates and potential roadblocks

Excellent comprehensive benefits, including medical, dental, vision, supplemental income insurance, pre-tax transit/parking, pre-tax FSA for medical and dependent care, and 401K available. 4 weeks’ vacation, plum benefits, etc.

• This role is endowed/subsidized through July 2026, with the possibility of renewal based on performance and funding**

Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they are able to perform every task in the job description. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may be one who comes from a less traditional background. Vibrant will consider any equivalent combination of knowledge, skills, education and experience to meet minimum qualifications. If you are interested in applying, we encourage you to think broadly about your background and skill set for the role. Vibrant Emotional Health is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants are considered for positions without regard to veteran status, uniformed service member status, race, creed, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, citizenship status, national origin, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, caregiver status or any other category protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.