Job Description

Manager, Client Creative Services

Staples is Business to Business. You're What Binds Us Together.

While you may know Staples as the worlds leading office supply company, Staples Promotional Productsa division of Staplesis a national leader in the promotional products industry. At Staples Promotional Products, we help customers build love for their brands through customized merchandise solutions. Whatever story they want to tell, connection they want to make, or goal they need to achieve, Staples Promo makes it easy to design promotional experiences that create a lasting impact. Join our winning team!

The Manager, Client Creative Services leads the client creative team dedicated to our top Enterprise accounts. This role is responsible for driving strategic digital and traditional creative solutions for our customers. In addition to overseeing client strategy, this position develops the overall creative direction for the department, identifies trends and opportunities, and makes recommendations to senior leadership.

Daily responsibilities include managing the creative departments operations: staffing, performance management, work assignments, and addressing other operational needs. The Manager fosters innovation and the exploration of new techniques and technologies. This individual represents the Client Creative Services team in high-level client and prospect presentations and serves as a mentor to the SPP Supervising Art Director.

What Youll Be Doing:

• Manage and mentor a team of art directors, fostering a culture of creativity, collaboration, and excellence to help them reach their full potential.
• Strategically assign art directors to client accounts, adjusting as needed to ensure balanced workloads and full client support.
• Lead the team in developing dynamic visual content for e-commerce websites, emails, social media, print and online marketing materials, flipbooks, catalogs, experiential materials, and event signage.
• Set and maintain standards of design excellence and implement creative training guidelines.
• Collaborate with other department leaders to define priorities and streamline processes to achieve operational excellence.
• Play a key role in improving the departments operating model, including timelines, resource allocation, budgeting, and hiring.
• Champion innovative and compelling visual storytelling that elevates clients brands in the branded merchandise space.
• Confidently present and advocate for creative work across the organization, while listening and negotiating as needed to uphold strategic and creative integrity.
• Partner with leaders in Account Services, Merchandising, Business Development, Sales, and Marketing to identify growth opportunities and deliver on project goals.
• Lead creative direction and execution from concept to delivery using project management tools, internal resources, and external partners as needed.
• Translate ideas into visually compelling and on-brand marketing materials that align with client brand identities and objectives.
• Plan visual campaign assets, direct on-site and remote photo shoots, coordinate post-production, and manage asset application.
• Assess creative performance through metrics and feedback, and make data-driven improvements.

What You Bring to the Table:

• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects, budgets, and deadlines.
• Expert ability to think holistically about user engagement, cohesive design systems, message strategy, and end-to-end experiences.
• Strong visual design, layout, and aesthetic capabilities.
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to articulate creative strategies clearly.
• Strong understanding of operational effectiveness and how to scale without compromising creative excellence.
• Ability to align creative output with marketing objectives to produce measurable results.
• Proven experience leading complex creative projects with senior stakeholders, clients, and cross-functional teams.

Whats Needed Basic Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in brand development and creating strategic, creative experiences.
• 1+ years of management or mentoring experience, or demonstrated potential for successful team leadership.
• Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Office, HTML, and CSS.
• Experience using project management software (e.g., Planview AdaptiveWork).
• Experience directing product photographyboth tabletop and on-modelin studio and on location.
• Familiarity with SEO best practices, Adobe Marketo, Google Analytics, and ADA web compliance.

Whats Needed Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Proficiency in User Interface Design for e-commerce.
• Understanding of User Experience Design specific to e-commerce.
• Illustration skills are a plus.
• Experience writing effective marketing copy is a plus.

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