Creative Director

Graco manufactures and markets premium equipment to move, measure, control, dispense and spray a wide variety of fluid and powder materials. What does that mean? Well, we pump peanut butter into your jar, and the oil in your car. We glue the soles of your shoes, the glass in your windows and the screen on your phone. We spray the finish on your vehicle, coatings on your pills, the paint on your house and texture on your walls. Graco is part of your daily life.

The Creative Director leads Graco's global creative function, driving the development of compelling brand experiences, content, and creative strategies that advance business objectivesacross a complex global organization. This role serves as both a creative leader and strategic marketing partner, enabling teams to deliver high-impact creative solutions while strengthening brand expression, increasing content scalability, and enhancing the creative experiences that supportGraco’s digital channels.

The Creative Director leads a global team of creative professionals and works across business divisions, functions, and regions to ensure creative excellence, brand consistency, operational effectiveness, and measurable business impact. This individual will elevate the role of Creative from a production-focused service organization to a trusted strategic partner that helps drive customer engagement, demand generation, and brand growth.

What You Will Do at Graco

Strategic Partnership & Creative Leadership

• Serve as a strategic partner to marketing leaders, helping shape initiatives through customer-centric storytelling, creative problem-solving, and integrated campaign development.

• Translate business objectivesinto creative strategies and concepts that drive awareness, engagement, demand, and customer loyalty.

• Lead creative reviews and provide actionable feedback that elevates creative quality and business impact across all marketing channelsand mediums.

• Influence stakeholders across a highly matrixed organization to align oncreative priorities, brand standards, and customer experience objectives.

• Build trusted relationships with divisional and regional marketing teams, positioning Creative as a proactive strategic partner rather than a transactional service provider.

• Support enterprise and executive-level initiatives through the development and refinement of strategic creative concepts and brand storytelling.

• Champion the value of Creative across the organization by elevating strategic thinking, innovation, and customer-centric design

Creative Direction and Design Strategy

• Lead thedevelopment and execution of creative strategies, concepts, campaigns, and content across digital, print, video, social, web, and multimedia channels.

• Oversee the creation and production of visual, written, and interactive content to strengthen the Graco brand and support business objectives.

• Partner with, marketing, communications, product, digital and business leaders deliver customer-centric creative solutions.

• Inspire teams through a clear creative vision while ensureideas are grounded in business objectivesand customer needs.

• Establishcreative standards and best practices that elevate quality, consistency,and effectiveness of all deliverables.

• Review and guide creative concepts developed by the team, ensuring work meets the highest standards for creativity, usability, and brand alignment.

Brand Partnership & Creative Stewardship

• Partner with Brand leadersto translate brand strategy, positioning, and messaging into compelling customer-facing experiences.

• Serve as a key contributor to the evolution of Graco's brand identity, ensuring creative execution reflects customer needs, market expectations, and business objectives.

• Lead the creative interpretation and execution of the Graco brand across campaigns, content, digital experiences, events, and sales enablement materials.

• Ensure creative deliverables consistently reflect established brand standards, messaging frameworks, and visual identity guidelines.

• Influence stakeholders across the organization to strengthen brand consistency while meeting business and customer objectives.

• Collaborate with regional and divisional marketing teams to adapt creative assets for global markets while preserving brand integrity.

• Provide creative leadership for localization, translation, and adaptation efforts across international markets.

• Identifyopportunities to strengthen brand recognition, consistency, and effectiveness through exceptional creative execution.

Digital Experience & Innovation

• Champion modern, digital-first creative approaches across websites, social media, digital campaigns, video, and emerging channels.

• Advance Graco's digital design maturity through contemporary creative practices, customer-focused design thinking, and evolving content formats.

• Identifyopportunities to improve creative effectiveness through technology, automation, and workflow enhancements.

• Lead the exploration and responsible adoption of AI-enabled creative tools and processes to improve efficiency, increase content output, and enhance team productivity.

• Partner with Digital and Marketing teams to ensure creative solutions support exceptional customer experiences across digital touchpoints.

• Monitor creative, branding, digital, and content trends to ensure Graco remainscurrent and competitive.

Project Oversight and Quality Management

• Partner with Marketing Operations and cross-functional stakeholders to ensure effective prioritization and execution of creative initiatives.

• Oversee multiple projects and campaigns simultaneously while maintaining high qualitystandards and effective resource utilization.

• Ensure creative work delivers against business objectives, customer needs, and brand expectations.

• Measure the effectiveness of creative initiatives and continuously improve processes, workflows, and deliverables.

• Recommend and leverageinternal and external resources to maximize team effectiveness, scalability, and speed to market.

• Support the continued evolution of Graco's content production model to meet growing organizational needs efficiently and effectively.

Team Leadership and Financial Management

• Lead, mentor, anddevelop a high-performing global creative teamcomprisedof art directors, graphic designers, copywriters, and other creative professionals.

• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.

• Coach team members to strengthcreative excellence, strategic thinking, digital capabilities, and business acumen.

• , ensuringalignment with organizational goals and promoting a culture of excellence.

• Drive team performance by setting clear goals, performance expectations, and developmentsplans that support both organizational and an individual’sgrowth.

• Build organizational capabilities that support the evolving needs of the business and modern marketing environment.

• Create a culture that embraces experimentation, learning, and reasonable adoption of emerging technologies.

• Managecreative budget, ensuring effective allocation of resources to business objectives.

What You Will Bring to Graco

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Graphic Design, Visual Arts, Communications, or a related field.

• 8+ years of progressive experience in creative,design, brandor content functions.

• Excellent leadership skills; 4+ years of leading and developing high-performing creative teamspreferred.

• Proven leadership experience in designing and implementing creative design and content strategies and deliverables within a global business context.

• Demonstrated ability to transform creative organizations by strengthening strategic partnerships, modernizing capabilities, and improving the scalability and effectiveness of content production.

• Proven ability to influence stakeholders and drive alignment across functions, business units, and geographies without direct authority.

• Strong portfolio and leadership track recorddemonstratingstrategic thinking, creative excellence, talent development, and measurable business impact

• Deep understanding of digital marketing, content strategy, web experiences, social media, video, and integrated campaign development.

• Experience supporting global brands across multiple audiences, channels, markets, and business units.

• Exceptional communication, presentation, collaboration, and relationship-building skills.

• Strong business acumen with the ability to connect creative investments to organizational objectivesand outcomes.

• Proficiencyin Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) and other relevant design tools.

• Ability to travel approximately 10% of time, both domestic and international

Accelerators

• Global industrial manufacturing experience and business acumen with both B2B and B2C experience.

• Background leading creative transformation initiatives that improved organizational effectiveness, content scalability, or stakeholder engagement

• Experience modernizing creative operations through technology, automation, and AI-enabled workflows

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. This role is not eligible for immigration sponsorship now or in the future (e.g., H-1B, TN, F-1 OPT).

At Graco, you truly make a difference. Your unique talents contribute to our organizational growth and future. Not only do you make a difference, but Graco’s culture empowers employees to create their own career path. Whether you choose to advance within your current department or explore new opportunities in different divisions, you have the ability to build your future. Our managers are here to provide support and guidance as you continue to grow within your career.

Graco has excellent opportunities available to individuals who want to be part of a fast-moving, growing company that is committed to quality, innovation and solving fluid handling problems for our customers. Graco is proud to be named a Best Place to Work by Fortune Magazine in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 & 2022. Graco offers attractive compensation, benefits and career development opportunities. Graco’s comprehensive benefits include medical, dental, stock purchase plan, 401(k), tuition reimbursement and more.

Our company uses E-Verify to confirm the employment and eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit www.dhs.gov/E-Verify.

The base pay range for this position is listed below, exclusive of fringe benefits or other compensation. If you are hired, your final base hourly rate will be determined based on factors such as geographic location, skills, competencies, education, and/or experience. In addition to those factors, we will also consider internal equity of our current employees. Please keep in mind that the range provided is the full base salary range for the role. Hiring at or near the maximum of the range would not be typical to allow for future and continued salary growth.