Brand & Creative Manager

Description

Who We Are: 

Founded in 1957, The Spice House is the leading purveyor of the finest spices, herbs, blends, and extracts. Our customers range from renowned Michelin-star chefs to home cooks everywhere. For over 60 years we have curated our global network of premium growers and distributors in order to offer our customers unrivaled quality and selection. Our goal is to be the trusted resource for fresh flavors and shared culinary experiences in kitchens around the world. We have been featured in The New York Times, Food & Wine, and Bon Appétit and named a favorite by celebrities and chefs like Gwyneth Paltrow and Alton Brown. We have recently started to grow into the grocery sales channel and can now be found in stores like Costco, Mariano’s, United Supermarkets, and Central Market. 

As our Brand and Creative Manager, you will be the creative voice and visual steward of The Spice House. You’ll inherit a brand identity steeped in the history of the spice trade, from embossing and rich textures to a voice that’s worldly yet approachable. Your job will be to carry that story into its next chapter by shaping how we show up on every shelf, screen, and dinner table, and by finding new ways to help people see, smell, and taste what’s possible in their own kitchens. This is a hands-on role where you help set the creative direction and then own bringing it to life from concept to completion, partnering cross-functionally and leveraging freelancers where needed. You’ll report to our VP of Marketing & Growth and be one of four people on a small, collaborative marketing team, so you’ll have real ownership with high visibility. If you love the idea of protecting something beautiful while pushing it somewhere new, this role is for you. This is a hybrid position based in Chicago, IL.

Responsibilities:

• Own creative production across every sales channel, including ecommerce, retail, and wholesale, and every marketing channel, including email, SMS, social, paid, and in-store. 
• Work closely with Marketing, Wholesale, and Product, gathering input from multiple stakeholders and balancing feedback to shape creative that serves the whole business.
• Partner with our Product team and turn their knowledge of our sourcing, ingredients, and recipes into compelling positioning and storytelling.
• Create visuals and copy for all channels, managing the content budget and deciding where to invest in outside help and where to pull things together yourself, to deliver creative assets on time and on budget.
• Own the creative design process for product packaging, labels, and wholesale fixtures, coordinating approvals with internal stakeholders and working closely with Product and Supply Chain.
• Write creative briefs for external resources that showcase and protect our brand and manage output from photographers, designers, copywriters, agencies, and more. 
• Shape the creative side of our marketing calendar by helping to set seasonal themes, hero messages, and the visual strategy for campaigns.
• Lead email creative, crafting campaigns and templates in our email marketing system, so every send looks and sounds like one brand.
• Maintain and evolve our brand guidelines including logo, color, typography, photography and illustration style, packaging architecture, and the voice and tone guide. Audit the website, labels, and other materials to keep everything on brand.
• Work with the Director of Omnichannel Marketing to review creative performance, test ideas, and improve based on results.

Requirements

• 5-7+ years of experience in brand, creative, or marketing roles, ideally in-house.
• Consumer packaged goods experience preferred; food and beverage specifically a plus.
• Excellent writing skills and a strong sense of brand voice.
• Experience writing creative briefs and directing freelance graphic designers, photographers, and/or agencies.
• Some experience in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), Canva, or comparable tools preferred.
• Experience with Klaviyo or a similar email platform is a plus.
• Resourceful, hands-on approach to getting great work done with a small team and a set budget.
• A test-and-learn mindset, with willingness to use performance data to improve creative.
• Track record of balancing competing priorities across multiple projects and stakeholders, and thriving where brand decisions are shared.
• Passion for food and flavor, a must!
• Portfolio or work samples welcome: share campaign, digital, retail, or packaging work if you have it.

Why The Spice House:

• You can make a huge impact as a key member of a growing brand that’s disrupting how consumers gain access to the freshest spices  
• You will work with a group of dedicated team members who are driven to help home cooks and professional chefs alike create delicious food with the highest quality ingredients
• You’ll join a company that is passionate about its people and their development, with opportunities for training and advancement 
• Employee benefits* include health, dental, vision, and life insurance immediately upon hire; 401(k), generous time off, spice education, and free spices monthly (*Program and eligibility rules apply)

Reports to: VP of Marketing & Growth

Position details: Full-time, salary, exempt position

Location: This is a hybrid position requiring 1-2 days/week at our Chicago River North office and willingness to travel to our local retail stores or manufacturing sites as needed. 

Compensation: All-in compensation ranges from $80,000 - $105,000, based on experience