Art Director, Visual Storytelling

Job Summary:

As an inspiring, forward-thinking, and highly skilled creative leader, the Art Director, Visual Storytelling has a demonstrated ability to create and present a compelling point of view and also use it to influence, educate, and inform partners.

The Art Director serves as UCSF's senior creative lead for visual storytelling and enterprise brand expression. Reporting to the Creative Director, Enterprise Brand, this position translates UCSF's mission, strategic priorities, and brand platform into strong visual narratives that elevate the institution's reputation across research, education, patient care, and public service.

Operating as both a strategic individual contributor and people leader, the Art Director develops creative concepts, directs visual content creation, and oversees the production of enterprise photography, video, motion, and multimedia experiences across owned, earned, and social media channels.

The position manages a small multidisciplinary team of visual storytellers and external creative partners while establishing standards, processes, and governance that ensure excellence, consistency, accessibility, and scalability across the enterprise.

As deputy to the Creative Director, Enterprise Brand, this role influences enterprise-wide communication strategies, articulates visual storytelling to leadership and partners across UCSF and UCSF Health, and serves as a trusted advisor on visual communications, brand stewardship, and creative strategy.

The Art Director is a generous and collaborative leader who creates alignment in a decentralized, matrixed environment, and influences outcomes by means of vision, credibility, and domain expertise independent of positional authority. The Art Director must be a person of integrity whose beliefs and actions align with, and advance, UCSF's mission, , and stated policy goals.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Lead the development and execution of enterprise visual storytelling initiatives across photography, video, motion graphics, and multimedia experiences
• Build and sustain collaborative partnerships across UCSF and UCSF Health, establishing workflows and governance structures that support enterprise-wide creative excellence
• Appropriately leverage internal and external creative resources to optimize deliverables and maximize fiscal budget
• Build, manage, and negotiate usage rights for a roster of freelance photographers, videographers, multimedia creatives
• Manage and promote a searchable digital asset database of UCSF imagery and b-roll for enterprise-wide use
• Manage photo consenting process for patients in compliance with HIPAA regulations and for non-patients such as staff and students
• Establish and steward enterprise visual standards and creative best practices to ensure consistency, accessibility, and brand integrity across all UCSF communications
• Lead, coach, develop, and evaluate a multidisciplinary creative team, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, innovation, and continuous learning
• Establish team priorities and manage workloads to ensure successful delivery of enterprise initiatives
• Build succession and growth opportunities for creative staff through mentoring and professional development

The Art Director serves as a strategic advisor and creative leader, influencing policies, practices, and standards at both the departmental and enterprise levels to advance UCSF's mission and brand objectives. This role proactively identifies risks, establishes priorities, optimizes workflows, and develops scalable solutions to complex creative challenges. Drawing on deep subject-matter expertise, the Art Director interprets and applies organizational policies and procedures related to resource management, fiscal stewardship, contracts, and personnel matters, exercising sound judgment and discretion in determining appropriate courses of action.

Success in this role requires exceptional judgment, creativity, and strategic thinking, coupled with the ability to deliver high-quality work with accuracy and precision in a dynamic, deadline-driven environment. The Art Director thrives in highly collaborative settings, builds productive relationships across diverse partner groups, and demonstrates outstanding written, verbal, and visual communication skills. A keen attention to detail, refined creative sensibility, and proven ability to translate complex ideas into compelling visual narratives are essential to advancing UCSF's institutional reputation, strategic priorities, and brand impact.

Department Summary:

As UCSF's enterprise communications team, the Office of Communications provides comprehensive and coordinated leadership in planning, creating, and implementing integrated strategies across all media to foster increased awareness and support of UCSF's mission, vision, accomplishments, and strategic priorities among its diverse internal and external constituencies. It serves as the official voice of UCSF to regional, state, national, and international news media.

UCSF's Brand Strategy unit defines, drives, and promotes UCSF's brand platform, brand family, and story to be meaningful, differentiated, and salient. It creates and shapes content to deliver experiences consistent with UCSF's brand promise. It cultivates new audiences, fostering and deepening engagement to promote preference. It also leads enterprise alignment and orchestration, governance, and best practices at the enterprise brand level.

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of time

Key Responsibilities

(To be completed by Supervisor)

Direct clinical care:

• Maintain a clinical caseload and provide evidence-based individual and family psychotherapy to perinatal patients.
• Complete intake evaluations, administer standardized assessment screening tools, determine mental health diagnoses, and develop treatment plans.
• Facilitate perinatal-focused therapy and support groups as needed.

Indirect clinical care and consultation:

• and provide clinical consultation to the multidisciplinary patient care team.
• Provide inpatient and outpatient clinical consultation to primary care and medical providers, serving as a liaison to inpatient and outpatient units to facilitate referrals and access to services.
• Provide clinical consultation and training to community-based partners serving the same target population.

Clinical documentation and compliance:

• Complete timely clinical documentation in accordance with LPPH&C, The Joint Commission (TJC), Medicare, and private funder regulations and standards.
• Maintain documentation in APeX, REDCap, and other program systems in accordance with UCSF policy, HIPAA, and applicable confidentiality standards.

Program operations and integrated care management:

• Ensure that all EMBRACE perinatal behavioral health services are operational and aligned with program standards, including group prenatal care, perinatal mental health, lactation support, BMMU, and Rest & Recovery services.
• Oversee day-to-day operations to ensure service quality, continuity, and cultural alignment across clinical and community settings.

Schedule management and partnership coordination:

• Develop and manage group prenatal care cohort schedules in coordination with clinical partners and community stakeholders.
• Serve as the primary liaison between UCSF interdisciplinary teams, community providers, and community partners to support care coordination, collaborative problem-solving, and service alignment for EMBRACE participants and families.

Operational workflow design and improvement:

• Develop and monitor operational workflows; recommend and implement solutions that improve efficiency, access, and impact across EMBRACE services.

Supervision, administration, and quality assurance:

• Provide clinical and administrative supervision to the Patient Care Coordinator, Perinatal Patient Navigators, and unlicensed behavioral health staff as appropriate to scope.
• Support EMBRACE medical, clinical, and behavioral health staff in maintaining group prenatal care fidelity standards and in receiving reflective consultation to mitigate burnout, vicarious trauma, and fatigue.

Performance management:

• Contribute to annual performance appraisals for behavioral health staff in partnership with senior leadership; support hiring, onboarding, and professional development of direct reports.

Cross-team collaboration and systems leadership:

• Lead and/or co-facilitate recurring team meetings (Triage and Care Coordination meetings, and staff meetings).
• Provide systems-level consultation to the Labor and Delivery unit and providers to support the development of a network of safe for EMBRACE participants and families.
• Help formalize policies and procedures for evolving systems of care.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in related area and 10 or more years of directly related work experience; and / or equivalent experience / training
• Expert knowledge of all aspects of visual communications, including design and communications concepts, various media and applicable software applications.
• Expert knowledge of the location, including its vision, mission, goals, and objectives.
• Expert visual, design, creative and artistic skills.
• Expert skills to devise broad visual, creative or design ideas, present them to clients, and produce results on time and within budget.
• Expert interpersonal communications skills, including active listening skills and skills to work effectively within teams and to effectively provide advanced creative or design advice and consultation to clients on all aspects of visual communications.
• Critical thinking skills, expert organizational skills and proactive problem-solving / problem resolution skills.
• Ability to lead and mentor others in the department.
• Expert knowledge of the trends and developments in the visual communications field.
• Strong written, verbal, interpersonal communications and active listening skills.
• Strong political acumen, analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Strong skill in problem recognition, avoidance and resolution.
• Strong project management and strategic planning skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Expert knowledge of production processes for a variety of media and knowledge of vendor requirements for a variety of products.
• Strong knowledge and skills in financial and personnel administration and management techniques, including understanding of guiding principles, relevant laws, policies and practices.
• 5+ years of management/supervisory, lead experience