REI hiring Manager, Visual Design in Seattle, WA | LinkedIn (2024)

OverviewThis job contributes to REI’s success by overseeing design and visual branding for stores for all company marketing, internal, external initiatives, specific programs and will lead store/market specific design installations for the co-op.

This position establishes and provides insight, guidance, and creative direction for the visual merchandising graphic design team. This role understands our co-op’s brand in all its nuances to help further translate the artists deliver a brand centric experience for all collateral, signage integration for the full fleet program. Collaboration with other is vital to success in this role as a large part of the responsibilities will be to evangelize program principles, consulting with others, providing project support, and managing projects to completion.

This people leader position operates with a high degree of influence to successfully execute business initiatives, marketing campaigns/events, and other time sensitive business communications that ladder up to REI’s Annual Strategies. Works with cross functional teams and peer leaders to manage the processes and communications needed to coordinate, build, and launch our visual merchandising in store graphic design efforts on-time, on-brand, and in-budget.

Responsibilities And Qualifications

• Accountable for end-to-end oversite of multiple concurrent visual merchandising business critical graphic and brand design projects that are strategically complex, high investment, cross functional, and cross-divisional in scope and scale.
• Sustain and grow the overall in store program by supporting marketing and brand lab with translation of ideation and design for the co-op narratives for store platform.
• Understand and operate the program assets, data, systems, methodologies, and take part in strategically evolving them while assessing fundamental needs to operationalize the signage, graphic system in store.
• Be in the know of current design trends to curate and consider best implementation and integration design solutions and strategies for product, programs, and partnerships in store.
• Apply sustainability and inclusivity principles throughout all programs, store installations and fleetwide rollouts.
• Accountable for timely calendaring, facilitation, and recapping of decision-making communications and meetings that include cross-functional stakeholders and Sr. Leaders to ensure brand and strategies are accurately represented, channel best practices are observed, technical and proofing requirements are met, and legal risks are mitigated.
• Ensures the work and team are prepared for approval meetings by asking clarifying questions so no assumptions are made and providing candid feedback on project efforts to push the team to deliver higher quality results with every iteration, works with vm design and merchandisers to create 2D and 3D mock-ups or renders to bring the full picture and scope to scale for strategies when opportunities present themselves.
• May require working with visual merchandising leaders to develop and manage SOW/SLA’s for design curation and/or commission for creative artwork for collection or programs as specific installations and collaborations surface.
• Accountable for accurate allocation of creative resources within a project schedule to drive team member focus and efficiency. Proactively elevates resource concerns and advocates on the team’s behalf to alleviate capacity issues.
• Conducts a campaign/event post game at the close of assigned projects to identify and communicate key process wins and opportunities to management and stakeholders to inform further efforts.
• Leverages Smartsheet, Workfront and other work management tools daily to centrally house project requirements, schedules, documentation, and resource time tracking. May lead and/or provide support relative to tool releases.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of strong foundation experience in the Visual Design process with specific focus on visual merchandising and graphic design for the retail environment.
• Ideal candidate will have extensive experience in creating compelling branded experiences within brick-and-mortar retail and a track record at delivering innovation, creative design and knowledge of trend.
• Candidate will have a portfolio that showcases their strength in developing brand-defining innovative work from concept to execution, all while demonstrating an understanding of the science and art of visual storytelling.
• 7+ years’ experience working with creative teams on content through design, merchandising strategy, production, and process plan for deployment with cross functional teams.
• 7+ years marketing analysis experience. A solid understanding of how to dive deep in the data behind the design, partnering with cross-functional teams to strategically version and optimize designs based on learning. (retail metrics, store/regional testing methodology, and optimization strategies)
• Experience and expertise with design rendering to present forward-thinking concepts and proposals to foster innovation within the brand.
• Experience working with project management systems to lead complex projects, platforms such as: Smartsheet, Workfront, etc.
• Build and manage visual design systems, patterns, and profile guidelines in collaboration with vm leadership, cross functional partners to support brand consistency across the entire customer journey in the stores ecosystem.

ClosingAt REI, we believe the outdoors is for all. We are committed to becoming a fully inclusive, anti-racist, multicultural organization. We know that there's strength in our diversity - that each employee brings unique skills, experiences, and perspectives. Every day you are driving change, fostering a culture of respect, and knowing you're backed by benefits that support your whole life. To work towards this commitment and fulfill our brand promise of inspiring and enabling a life outside for everyone, we seek employees who demonstrate different ways of working, create a sense of belonging, and actively listen and learn.

Pay TransparencyWe are committed to practices that promote pay equity and transparency. As required by applicable Pay Transparency laws, REI provides a range of compensation for roles that may be hired in locations under these requirements. Factors that may be used to determine your actual salary may include a wide array of factors, including: your specific skills and experience, geographic location or other relevant factors.

REI offers all regular employees a generous employee discount, access to health benefits, a retirement savings plan and accrued time off. Click here for a detailed overview of benefits plans by employee profile.

Pay Range$96,400.00 - $154,300.00 per year