Creative Director, Issues & Advocacy

Location: Washington, D.C., Raleigh, New York City, Chicago

Position Summary

As a Creative Director at APCO, you will lead the strategic and creative direction for client accounts, focusing on impactful creative solutions in the public affairs space. Your experience with issues-based campaigns is crucial in addressing complex advocacy challenges, blending creative vision with strategic insight to inspire clients and persuade audiences from grassroots communities to policymakers. You will oversee creative solutions from inception to completion, while mentoring our creative team and expanding APCO’s client relationships and integrated offerings.

About You

You are a seasoned creative director and art director with a keen understanding of how creative concepts drive impact in public affairs and advocacy. Your primary craft is design, but you also have a deep appreciation for how words and visuals work together to influence audiences. Whether crafting ad concepts or storyboarding a video script, you’re unafraid to use your skills to bring multi-channel campaigns to life. Pragmatic and resourceful, you thrive on problem-solving—breaking down complex issues into compelling concepts that resonate across diverse audiences. You’re highly organized, disciplined, and collaborative, able to balance pixel-perfect attention to detail with big-picture thinking. You build strong relationships with clients, account managers, and executive leadership, communicating clearly and directly. Just as importantly, you’re committed to fostering an inclusive environment, mentoring early- and mid-career talent, and removing barriers to success—both operationally and creatively. You’re energized by both client success and team development, leveraging your industry connections to propel APCO forward.

Key Responsibilities

• Creative Strategy, Art Direction & Design: Lead and oversee the development of data-informed and high-impact creative concepts that aligns with APCO’s public affairs and advocacy goals. Drive the strategic and creative vision for client accounts, ensuring campaigns and projects raise awareness, drive behavior change, and influence public opinion. Partnering with copywriters to develop persuasive messaging that connects emotionally with diverse audiences, translating complex topics into compelling narratives. 
• Integrated Campaigns: Oversee the execution of multi-channel campaigns (digital, social, paid media, experiential) to amplify advocacy messages and achieve maximum impact.
• Brand Strategy & Leadership: Partner with Account Managers on brand initiatives, guiding projects from brand positioning, messaging, and tone development to guideline rollouts.
• Team Development & Mentorship: Mentor and guide the career paths of art directors and designers, and the broader creative team, fostering a culture of creativity, continuous growth, and high performance.
• Client Engagement & Business Development: Represent APCO in client pitches, and actively engage with new and existing clients to build trusted relationships. Use your industry network to drive new or organic growth, positioning APCO as a leading partner for public affairs, issues, and advocacy-driven campaigns.
• Innovative Offering Development: Work with creative leadership to create and package new service offerings that align with client needs, enhancing agency capabilities and growth potential. 
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Build relationships with Managing Directors, practice leads, and account teams, fostering a collaborative environment where creative solutions address client challenges with impact.
• Industry Trends & Key Issues: Maintain a strong grasp of current social, political, and public policy issues, leveraging this knowledge to inform and enhance creative work.

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Experience: Minimum 12 years in a creative leadership role focused on art direction and ideation within a public affairs, advocacy, advertising or issues-based campaign environment. Strong history of client relationships and cross-functional collaboration.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Advertising, Communications, Journalism, Marketing, or related field, with a robust portfolio showcasing experience in advocacy, public affairs, integrated campaigns, and issues-based communications.
• Creative Expertise: Demonstrated proficiency in crafting persuasive, audience-centered messaging for complex public affairs topics. Familiar with the unique demands of advocacy work, including coalition building, stakeholder engagement, and issues framing.
• Strategic Leadership: Proven ability to balance advocacy objectives with creative innovation, managing resources and priorities for high-impact results.
• Business Development & Industry Relationships: Strong network within advertising, public affairs and/or advocacy sectors, with a track record of growing business through strategic partnerships and trusted industry relationships.
• Exceptional Communication & Presentation Skills: Proven ability to articulate and present creative strategies to clients and teams, translating complex issues into accessible, compelling narratives.
• Integrated Expertise: Strong knowledge of audience segmentation, paid targeting, earned media strategies, and brand positioning to inform advocacy campaigns.
• Fluency with AI Tools and Technology Trends: Demonstrated ability to leverage AI tools and stay current with emerging technology trends to enhance design work, optimize workflows, and integrate cutting-edge solutions into projects.

Compensation Range

The US base salary for this position ranges from $130,000/year to $180,000/year. Our compensation range for this role is inclusive of several US geographic markets. APCO targets an employee's pay within this range to be based on several factors, which include but are not limited to relevant education, skills, job-related knowledge, qualifications, work experience, credentials, internal equity and/or geographic location.

Careers at APCO

With our commitment to recruit, hire, promote and retain people who reflect the diverse communities in which we operate, APCO Worldwide ensures our teams bring the best possible expertise and diverse perspectives to our clients. We embrace diversity of identity, experience and thought, starting with our values and extending to our behaviors, policies and practices. We aim to create a positive work experience and welcoming environment where everyone feels they belong and can thrive.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourage applications from all qualified candidates regardless of race, national origin, citizenship, native language, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, religion, age, veteran status, neurodivergence, mental or physical disability, medical history, pregnancy, political belief or affiliation or any other characteristic protected by law.

EOE M/F/V/D