Creative Director

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

LOCATION: Fully Remote

TYPE: Full-time | People Manager

WORKING HOURS: Pacific Time

REPORTS TO: CEO/Founder

SALARY RANGE: $150,000 – $190,000

About Nodpod

Nodpod® is the sleep wellness brand that has pioneered the weighted sleep mask category for over a decade. Inspired by Deep Touch Pressure Stimulation, we built our patented weighted sleep mask around one simple idea: helping people naturally let go of stress so they can get to their best night’s sleep.

It started with The Weighted Blanket for Your Eyes® and grew to include The Weighted Pod for Your Body®, bringing our signature gentle pressure beyond the eyes. Today, these two products remain at the heart of Nodpod and our mission to help you Chill more. Stress less. Sleep better.®

That mission does not stop at the product. Rest and mental health are inseparable, so we donate 1% of net sales to mental health initiatives, including To Write Love on Her Arms and the Art Therapy Project. Every mask sold supports work that helps people find calm beyond the bedroom.

About the Role

This is a senior, highly hands-on role and one of the most important hires we will make. As our first dedicated Creative Director, you will help shape the next era of Nodpod across retail, digital, social, product, packaging, and brand storytelling.

As a lean, fast-moving company, we need someone who is equally comfortable developing big ideas and executing them directly. The ideal candidate is equal parts creative and operational : someone with exceptional taste, strong instincts, and a sharp understanding of modern culture and visual storytelling, who also knows how to execute and move quickly as the brand scales.

Own the creative excellence of Nodpod's email and digital communications, with exceptional attention to typography, layout, visual hierarchy, copy integration, and restraint.

Serve as the final creative authority across all consumer facing brand assets, including email, paid advertising, organic social, website, retail, packaging, influencer campaigns, and external agency work.

Establish a consistent review and approval process so that every asset meets Nodpod's creative standards before publication or production.

Above all, you bring fresh ideas consistently, and you understand how to evolve a founder-led brand while protecting the visual identity that customers connect with.

Core Responsibilities

Creative Vision & Brand Standard

• Define and champion Nodpod's creative vision, visual identity, and brand voice, and keep them consistent across every channel.
• Own the creative direction and standard of Nodpod, including brand guidelines that the whole company can use.
• Present creative strategy and a point of view on what's next to the CEO and leadership team.
• Make the call on what meets the standard and what doesn't, and explain why.

Art Direction

• Lead art direction across campaigns, product and packaging, the website, email, social, paid media, and partner collaborations.
• Develop creative concepts and campaign ideas, and guide them from brief through final execution.
• Direct photographers, videographers, illustrators, and other creative partners and agencies, with a strong internal point of view.
• Make sure creative is built to work: ideas that look great and also meet the goals of the brief.

Graphic Design Team Leadership

• Build, lead, and develop our graphic design team, deciding where we need specialists and where we need generalists.
• Set clear goals, priorities, and ownership for each role, and hold regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and development plans.
• Create a creative process that moves quickly: clear briefs, fast review cycles, and a simple way for teams to request work.
• Raise the quality of the team's work through feedback and example.

Partnering Across Marketing

• Work with the Senior Director of Brand Strategy so that influencer, social, partnership, licensing, and collaboration work meets Nodpod's creative standard. Brand Strategy sets the brief and the channel plan; you own how it looks and feels.
• Work with the Senior Director of Growth Marketing to turn performance data and consumer learnings into creative that converts, including testing creative for paid, email, SMS, and the website.
• Partner with the broader company, including Product Development, on packaging and product visuals.

Creative Operations

• Manage the creative calendar, budget, and vendor relationships.
• Build a library of brand assets that makes it easy for everyone at Nodpod to use the brand correctly.
• Create the operating rhythm that supports Nodpod's next stage of scale.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in creative direction, art direction, or brand design , ideally within a high-growth DTC or consumer brand.
• A portfolio that shows a clear creative point of view and work across brand, digital, packaging, and campaigns.
• Experience leading and developing a design team , including setting standards and giving clear, useful feedback.
• Strong skills in art direction and visual storytelling , with experience directing photo and video shoots.
• Deep craft in graphic design and brand identity , with fluency in modern design tools.
• Experience working with agencies, freelancers, and production partners .
• The ability to work closely with growth, brand, and product teams, and to turn performance data into better creative.
• Strong commercial judgment : great creative should also move the business.
• Comfort moving between vision and execution, close enough to the work to know how it's going.

Additional Experience That Adds Value

• Experience with sleep, wellness, beauty, or lifestyle brands.
• Experience with packaging and product design .
• Experience building a brand's creative function from an early stage.
• Experience at a startup or founder-led brand, and you liked the pace.
• A brand or campaign you shaped from start to finish, what made it work, and what you would do differently.

Benefits

• Performance bonus: Opportunity to earn a bonus based on performance targets.
• Medical insurance: The base plan is fully covered by Nodpod, with extra coverage options available. Dental and vision are also offered. Health insurance starts within your first 30 days.
• 401(k): Nodpod contributes 3% of your salary, whether or not you contribute. You're eligible after 12 months.
• Paid parental leave: Up to four months, after 12 months with Nodpod.
• Paid time off: 10 days of PTO in your first year, rising to 25 days with tenure. You also get at least 5 sick/wellness days.
• Holidays: 10 company holidays, 2 floating holidays, and a paid day off for your birthday.
• Home office equipment & stipend: Nodpod provides the resources you need to do your job.

Nodpod is an equal opportunity employer. We make all employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.