Associate Creative Director, Brand & Design

The role

The Associate Creative Director will design, art direct, and solve creative problems while managing and mentoring a small design team. This role involves shaping creative direction for brand moments and translating business goals into executable creative work.

What you will do

• Own and evolve Vast's brand design standards
• Manage a team of designers day-to-day
• Perform hands-on design, sketching, and editing
• Lead creative work from concept through final execution
• Translate business goals and technical complexity into creative direction
• Partner with marketing, comms, product, engineering, and business teams
• Mentor designers on craft and judgment
• Present creative direction to stakeholders
• Integrate AI into design and production workflows

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
• 8+ years of experience in brand, design, art direction, or a related creative discipline
• A strong portfolio demonstrating hands-on craft across multiple channels and audiences
• Experience working in a fast-paced environment
• Experience managing a small design team
• Experience translating business objectives, audience insights, and complex concepts into clear, executable creative
• Experience partnering with cross-functional teams
• Ability to travel up to 10% of the time
• Willingness to work overtime, or weekends to support critical mission milestones

Nice to have

• Experience building brand in aerospace, technology, science, or another category where the product is genuinely hard to explain
• Comfortable across brand design standards, design for print, ads, social, events, partnerships, mission graphics, facilities and wayfinding
• Experience translating highly technical, hard-to-explain products into stories that land with a broader audience
• Experience managing external creative partners and production resources
• Comfortable in the room with engineers and executives

Benefits

• Company equity
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents
• Generous paid time off
• Up to 20+ days of vacation for exempt staff
• Up to 10+ days of vacation for non-exempt staff with ability to cash-out unused vacation annually
• Paid parental leave
• Short and long-term disability insurance
• Life insurance
• Access to a 401(k) retirement plan
• ClassPass credits
• Personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health
• Snacks, drip coffee & onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge

About the company

Vast is developing next-generation space stations and space infrastructure. Headquartered in Long Beach, California, the company has more than 1,000 employees.