Art Director

We’re looking for an Art Director to join our Advertising Area.

When you come work with us, here’s what you’ll find:

• Work that is meaningful. We are a fast-paced, deadline-driven consulting firm that only works with nonprofit clients who are essential to advancing the cause of justice, alleviating suffering, and solving the greatest challenges we face.
• Commitment to Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion (AEI). We envision an anti-oppressive workplace that ensures an inclusive employee experience, promotes equitable outcomes for staff, and supports clients to center accessibility and anti-racism in their programs.
• Colleagues you can count on. Kind, dedicated, passionate people who work collaboratively to get things done and help you do your best.
• An organization that embraces change. We strive to improve and adapt and always seek new ways that we can contribute to a just, inclusive, and sustainable world. We are also continually working on making M+R a better place for our staff.

So that’s us. Now about the work:

• We run campaigns that raise money and create change for our clients. Great big ones you read about in the news and tiny ones you’ve never heard of that are saving lives. Lots of politically progressive groups -- Planned Parenthood, League of Conservation Voters, PETA. Environmental groups such as NRDC, and our clients also include organizations that are working in the most dire situations in the world such as the International Rescue Committee.
• Day-to-day, we’re raising revenue, acquiring new donors and supporters, winning campaigns and elections, and improving brand and issue recognition.
• We believe that creative is crucial to connecting with people and moving them to engage with causes, donate, take action, and do their part to make the world better. Day-to-day, our digital designers work with teams to create content, improve design understanding staff-wide, and demonstrate to clients the power of compelling design.

Here’s what you’ll be doing in this role:

• Drive M+R’s approach to design: shape it, advance how we present and talk about it, and evangelize it across staff and with clients in order to center design in our work.
• Develop and oversee exceptional design across digital channels and formats: primarily for digital advertising (including video and motion graphics animation), and also organic social media, email marketing, mobile strategy, branding, and web design.
• Support our in-house designers to conceive and execute exceptional digital design work.
• Ensure that we have the right mix of freelancers to complement our in-house team, and that they produce high quality design.
• Pitch current and prospective clients by leading business development efforts that expand our creative line of business.
• Drive innovation by identifying emerging technologies, new services, and serving as a creative thought leader within the agency and in the non-profit community.
• Serve as part of the Advertising Area leadership team.
• Directly supervise staff -- being proactive about their professional development and well-being.
• Drive conversations and processes that help build inclusive spaces within your teams and across M+R.
• Do your part to help us run smoothly, including carefully tracking all of your hours.

Skills and experiences required for this role:

• 10-12 years of digital-first graphic design experience, including 3+ years leading an in-house or agency design department where you directly supervise and coach a team of designers.
• Experience designing digital direct response marketing collateral for non-profits or political/issue campaigns.
• Demonstrated experience developing ethical creative and using a design approach that centers justice, equity, and anti-racism.
• Ability to create and edit video and motion-based assets and deep knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, After Effects, and Invision.
• Experience successfully working with staff and clients who are not designers -- you can translate their requirements into compelling art direction and design that meets the needs of clients, while also staying true to design best practices.
• Track record of pricing out individual design projects.
• Demonstrated ability to run meetings to identify project goals and ensure successful outcomes.
• Experience supporting the professional development of more junior staff, and directly supervising and coaching staff.

Skills and experiences we expect of all M+R employees:

• Demonstrated commitment to anti-racism, equity, and inclusion.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively to gain trust and give respect to others through honesty, integrity, kindness, empathy, and authenticity.
• Acute attention to detail and demonstrated ability to prioritize time to meet deadlines for multiple projects.
• Proven track record to successfully pick up new skills, including learning new technologies.
• Drive to seek what can be improved and offer ways to fix any potential roadblocks.
• Comfort admitting what you don’t know and recognizing that feedback is part of the learning process.
• Ability to communicate persuasively in a way that articulates your ideas and conveys your expertise, whether on the phone, in-person, or in writing.
• Able to work within equitable and inclusive decision making models in moving decisions and initiatives forward.

Skills and experiences that are preferred, but not required:

• Have worked in an agency setting or at another consulting firm.
• Experience working across multiple sectors or issues areas.
• Relationships in the nonprofit design community.

Salary and benefits:

This is an exempt status position. The salary for this position is $134,598 (dependent on years of experience) and total compensation for this position includes eligibility for our bonus program. The bonus is based on a combination of firmwide and individual performance and has averaged $14,000-$18,000 in past years. As part of M+R’s commitment to compensation equity and transparency, we have a no negotiation policy. Salary negotiations can introduce bias and perpetuate wage inequality. If your years of relevant experience for this position are more than what is required above, we may offer a higher starting salary to reflect that, and compensation will be discussed more in depth in the initial interview.

We also offer a generous benefits package:

• Three weeks vacation, three personal days, and 15 paid sick days;
• Medical, dental, and vision benefits with premiums fully paid for by M+R for individual employees;
• 401(k) plan with employer match;
• Quarterly discretionary profit-sharing contributions;
• Flexible work schedules and the option to work remotely anywhere within the United States and its territories with broadband internet;
• Annual $1,000 professional development stipend;
• Flexible Spending Accounts for medical, dependent care, and transit.

The fine print:

M+R staff have the option to be fully remote within the United States, or work from one of M+R’s current office locations (Washington, DC or New York City).

Staff working from an M+R office are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and all staff will be asked to provide information regarding their vaccine status.

To apply, use the button on this page. No calls please.

Our Hiring Process:

We aim to be transparent and efficient in our hiring process. Each question you will be asked throughout our hiring process ties directly back to one of the skills and experiences listed above. In each interview, you will be asked to provide examples of these skills and experiences or how you would draw on your experience to handle a scenario commonly found at M+R. Our typical hiring process includes:

1) Phone Interview

2) Video Interview(s)

3) Reference Check

Depending on logistics and scheduling, our hiring process generally takes about 6 weeks from phone interview to a job offer. There is no application deadline; we review applications on a rolling basis. M+R has developed an application stage informational document that some candidates may find helpful. We let candidates know after each step in the process, once we’ve made a decision, whether they are moving forward to the next stage or not, so candidates know the status of their application. If you need accommodations for this application process or any of the hiring process steps listed above, please email accommodations@mrss.com or call 202-681-8743.

M+R is an equal opportunity employer and all applicants will be considered. As a firm we are committed to being an anti-racist, equitable, and inclusive organization where all staff feel welcomed, valued, and empowered, resulting in meaningful, rewarding, and enriching experiences throughout their careers here. We work to center our AEI values in all aspects of our work, so our culture, clientele, policies, and practices are reflective and affirming of people -- inclusive of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, immigration status, citizenship status, and so much more. We strongly encourage folks from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.