Senior Communications Officer, Brand Experiential Design at Gates Foundation

You are a creative strategist and experience design leader who translates complex ideas into visually compelling, emotionally resonant experiences. You bring a strong design point of view and a rigorous approach to shaping how audiences move through and engage with brand environments. You bring expertise in brand design systems, exhibit and environmental design, immersive storytelling and audience journey design, and experiential marketing—developing interactive activations that engage audiences directly and inspire action. You have experience partnering with experience and UX designers and leading the development and evolution of design and brand systems across physical, graphic, and digital touchpoints. You will lead the strategy and creative development of globally relevant exhibits, installations, and brand activations, guiding implementation in partnership with production and facilitation teams to ensure design integrity, operational feasibility, and on-brand execution. You will manage cross-functional and multi-partner collaborations, ensuring brand experiences will be cohesive across touchpoints and designed for both in-person engagement and digital reach.

*This is a limited-term position through December 2027.

• Creative Direction and Experiential Design: Lead the creative direction and experience design of exhibits, installations, and activations—shaping how audiences encounter and move through the Foundation’s work while ensuring experiences are visually compelling, emotionally resonant, and aligned with strategic priorities.

• Cross-Channel Integration: Embed a multi-channel mindset into the design process, ensuring activations and experiences are conceived for execution across physical, digital, and social platforms.

• Lead Exhibit and Activation Strategy: Develop and oversee a cohesive strategy for exhibits, installations, and brand activations in collaboration with visitor experience experts, campaigns and channels colleagues, and subject matter experts—ensuring experiences bring the Foundation’s mission to life for public and priority audiences.

• Brand Visual Design System Leadership: Steward and evolve the Foundation’s brand visual design system across exhibits, environments, and physical brand assets. Provide strategic guidance and creative direction to ensure consistent, high-quality application across installations, activations, and object management, partnering with colleagues responsible for experience facilitation, asset management, and design implementation.

• Deliver Global Activations: Direct vendor selection and management, steward budgets, set production timelines, and coordinate with partners to deliver high-quality experiences on schedule and within scope.

• Creative Conception and Narrative Collaboration: Partner with the brand storytelling lead to craft compelling narrative arcs, storyboards, and audience journeys that anchor exhibits and activations in human-centered storytelling. Collaborate with experiential and facilitation leads to shape content, visual assets, & objects, define evaluation metrics, and create experiences that drive meaningful audience engagement and measurable impact.

• This role is anticipated to travel domestically and internationally up to 25%

Your Experience

• Strong Visual and Spatial Design Skills: Deep understanding of design principles across physical and digital environments, including materials, lighting, flow, and storytelling through space.

• Brand Visual Design System Leadership: Demonstrated experience leading and evolving brand visual design systems across environments and touchpoints, ensuring consistent application of brand standards while guiding and advising cross-functional teams and designers responsible for implementation.

• Experience working within multidisciplinary creative teams spanning environmental, digital, and visual design.

**Must have unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position is located. The Foundation does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. This includes direct company sponsorship and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (eg: H-1B, O-1, L-1,  E, OPT, STEM-OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc.). 

The salary range for this role is $173,000 to $259,600 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences in Seattle and Washington D.C., where our offices are located. The range for this role in these locations is $190,300 to $285,500 USD. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our mission. New hires salaries are typically between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint. Actual placement in the range will depend on a candidate’s job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process.