Creative Director (Contract)

For 30 years, ARCO Design/Build has grown into one of the nation’s leading design-build firms and the country’s number one builder of warehouses and distribution centers. Today we operate nearly 20 offices, employ nearly 700 associates, and earn our reputation project by project. We are moving into the next phase of our growth: expanding into life sciences, mission critical, advanced manufacturing, and other complex markets where we have to earn credibility before the first conversation. Our brand is how we show up in those rooms before our track record can speak for us. Over the past year, we have worked with a nationally recognized branding agency to evolve it — strategy, narrative, visual system, and architecture — while keeping the ARCO name at its core. This role exists to bring that work to life. 

We are hiring a contract Creative Director to own brand-level creative direction as we move from brand strategy into brand in practice. This is the first Creative Director role in ADB’s history, and it calls for someone who has led creative at this level before. 

The work runs on two tracks. The first is fluency. Think of the evolved brand as a language: we already have a robust set of brand guidelines, and this role learns them inside out, then extends them into what the company uses every day — functional toolkits, templates, and standards people can pick up and get right on their own. Our 2026-2027 activation roadmap holds the near-term priorities, from the proposal template system to video and motion, events, environmental graphics, and social, and this role helps shape the roadmap from here while keeping all of it consistent as it scales. The second track is hands-on creative execution for the shared and corporate services teams we support day to day — HR, Talent Acquisition, L&D, Innovation & Technology, Supplier Diversity, Procurement, Market Research, and more. 

There is room to own more. For the right person, the broader creative function is theirs to shape — from an asset library to the processes and systems that keep creative findable and repeatable. How far the role grows is largely up to them. 

You will not be building alone, and you will not own every deliverable. Creative talent already sits across the business, producing work for their teams. Those roles do not report to this one, but they connect to it through a dotted line. Your job is to set the direction they work toward, help them speak the brand language fluently, and create the conditions for them to do their best work — partnering with them and clearing the way, not adding red tape. 

• Be the first Creative Director in ARCO Design/Build history — a unique opportunity to define the role, shape the creative function, and establish its long-term impact
• Blend strategy with execution by leading brand direction while remaining hands-on in the creative process where the brand comes to life
• Work directly with Corporate Marketing leadership and collaborate with a nationally recognized branding agency to elevate ARCO's brand
• Help build what's next as the creative function grows, you'll have the opportunity to influence its evolution and expand your impact
  
  Contract Details
• Employment Type: Independent Contractor (1099)
• Contract Term: Initial 6-month engagement with the potential for extension based on business needs and performance
• Benefits: This is a contract opportunity and is not eligible for employee benefits, paid time off, or company-sponsored retirement plans

• Own brand-level creative direction across ADB’s corporate and regional work — the standard for how the brand looks, sounds, and shows up everywhere 
• Learn the evolved brand inside out and extend it into what the company actually uses: toolkits, templates, and standards people can pick up and get right on their own
• Partner with our external branding agency through the build, then take ownership of putting the system into production and keeping it consistent once the work hands off 
• Shape the 2026-2027 activation roadmap and drive its priorities — the proposal system, video and motion, events, environmental graphics, and social 
• Roll up your sleeves on hands-on creative execution for the shared and corporate services teams we support — HR, Talent Acquisition, L&D, Innovation & Technology, Supplier Diversity, Procurement, and Market Research 
• Serve as brand counsel and the steward of creative quality across every touchpoint 
• Set the direction for the designers and specialists who sit across the business, help them speak the brand language fluently, and clear the way for their best work — through a dotted line, not a reporting line
• Take regional and functional creative requests as they come, routed through Corporate Marketing case by case — producing some work directly, giving templated direction on others, and leading and mentoring the people doing the work throughout 
• Help roll out the evolved brand across the business by educating and training the divisions, building the fluency every team needs to carry the brand well on their own 
• Build out the broader creative infrastructure over time — an asset library and the systems that keep creative findable and repeatable 
• Manage freelance and vendor creative partners as needed 

• 8+ years leading brand and creative, including time inside an in-house or corporate marketing team — not only at an agency 
• Proven brand-level creative direction: you have carried a brand from strategy and guidelines through to activation across channels 
• A track record of turning brand systems into functional toolkits, templates, and standards other people can actually use 
• Experience partnering with external branding, creative, and marketing agencies 
• Strong eye for creative quality across print, digital, video and motion, environmental, and social 
• A leader who sets direction and brings others along through influence and a dotted line, not authority or heavy process 
• Comfort working across regions, business units, and functions in a fast-moving, growth environment 
• A portfolio that shows brand work at scale 
• Experience in construction, design-build, commercial real estate, engineering, or other project-based industries preferred 
• Entrepreneurial mindset with ownership, initiative, and a bias toward action 

EOE, including disability/vets