Job Description

We're looking for a creative leader who can think clearly, ideate boldly, and bring ideas to life with craft and purpose. In this role, you'll help shape how our brands look, sound, and grow - from initial concept to every digital touchpoint. As Associate Creative Director, you will have a unique opportunity to lead the creative direction across our portfolio of 14+ digital publications, reaching millions of professionals around the world. You'll guide a multidisciplinary team of designers, writers, and content creators (across branding, digital design, UX/UI, multimedia, and copywriting) to produce work that not only looks great and performs well, but also defines how our brands show up in the world. This is a hands-on leadership role with real creative ownership - ideal for someone eager to move from pitching ideas to building the brands behind them. You'll have the autonomy to experiment and make decisions, helping shape a design culture that values craft, clarity, and impact.

You will be responsible for:

Lead creative projects from concept to delivery:

Translate strategy and insights into work that informs, connects, and inspires.

Plan, prioritize, and manage creative work end-to-end

(from intake and resourcing through to final delivery and quality control).

Elevate our creative output:

Guide art direction, UX/UI design, video, and copy to ensure everything we produce is cohesive, beautiful, and impactful.

Coach and develop your team:

Provide clear direction, structured feedback, and support to help everyone do their best work.

Collaborate cross-functionally:

Partner with our Media, Go-to-Market, and Tech teams to bring integrated ideas to life.

Improve creative processes:

Refine our creative systems, workflows, and tools to increase speed, enhance quality, and improve efficiency.

You're a great fit if you...

Passionate about all things creative:

You love branding, digital design, UX/UI, illustration, animation - essentially any form of visual communication. You have a strong desire to continuously learn and grow, always pushing boundaries to create work that's truly unique and innovative.

Adaptable and empathetic leader:

You're comfortable navigating ambiguity in a fast-paced, evolving environment. With experience leading distributed teams, you care deeply about your team members and help them deliver work that's both creative and impactful.

Strategic problem-solver:

You excel at translating business goals into creative initiatives. You understand key business metrics and the underlying drivers of performance, ensuring creative projects align with business objectives.

Ownership and initiative:

You are proactive and make projects happen instead of waiting for tasks to be assigned. You care about the quality of your work and also stay committed to deadlines and delivering results on time.

Think like a marketer:

You stay on top of visual trends and create beautiful designs, but you also know how to design with purpose - optimizing for user engagement and conversion, not just aesthetics.

Skilled communicator:

You have a way with words and can articulate ideas clearly and effectively in both writing and speech. You enjoy crafting messages and know how to choose the right words to drive business outcomes.

Open-minded and collaborative:

You're eager to try new things and are comfortable receiving feedback and constructive criticism. You bring new ideas to the table but also respect established guidelines and processes.

Must-Haves:

7+ years of hands-on experience in digital design, branding, and video production. Portfolio showcasing high-quality web, brand, and video work. Experience managing multidisciplinary creative teams or operations. Fluency across visual design, UX/UI, video, and copywriting. Excellent creative judgment and ability to give actionable feedback. Skilled in project planning and delivery across multiple workstreams. Clear, confident communicator who thrives in cross-functional environments. Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, and modern collaboration tools. Proactive, accountable, and self-directed.

Nice-to-Haves:

Experience working in a full-service or web agency environment. Experience in content-driven organizations or media startups. Familiarity with audience growth, marketing funnels, or conversion design. Experience building or evolving multi-brand design systems.

Salary Statement:
This full timeposition is available as a remote or hybrid position (if located within a commutable distance of our office in Vancouver, BC), with an annual salary in the range of $140,000 to $160,000 CAD. The range is a guide for the expected skills, knowledge and experience for new hires based in Canada only. Seniority level and salary ranges are determined through interviews and a review of education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities of the applicant, equity with other team members, and alignment with market data. This means ranges will vary for candidates based outside of Canada and/or at different seniority levels. In addition to annual salary, full time employees are eligible for a discretionary bonus and a comprehensive benefits package.

About Us:

Black and White Zebra is a rapidly growing, independent media tech company headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. Since 2012, our portfolio of influential digital publications has been helping millions of people succeed at work.

Our brands cover project management, product management, people management, customer experience, quality assurance and others, with the goal of connecting people with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to succeed professionally.

We got our start in 2011 as The Digital Project Manager blog, founded by our CEO Ben Aston. Since then, we've grown into an international team of 70+ creators, strategists, and innovators with a portfolio of more than 14 online publications. We enjoy an impact-driven environment that combines the agility of a startup with the creativity of an agency and the diversity of a global company.

We've recently ranked #30 in The Globe and Mail's Fastest Growing Company list and received a CMI award for Best Digital Publication for The Digital Project Manager--and we're listed in both Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers, and Best Employers in BC.

All of this growth is driven by our commitment to our mission: In a world of evolving skills, practices, and technology, we're creating a playbook for the future of work and empowering communities to create it with us.

Want to learn more? Watch this video to learn why the team love working at BWZ!

Diversity Equity and Inclusion:

Black and White Zebra is an equal opportunity employer and considers all candidates for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, marital status, military or veteran's status (including protected veterans, as may be required by federal law), sexual orientation or any other category protected by law. We celebrate all backgrounds and attributes that continue to help make our team impactful, iterative, adaptable, and fun!