Editorial Director

Our Story

At Madewell, we believe that great style starts with great design. Since 2006, we’ve been creating premium denim and foundational wardrobe pieces for men and women that balance quality, authenticity, and versatility. From iconic jeans perfected by denim experts to the essential tee, the most versatile shoe, and the timeless leather bag—if it’s Madewell, it’s made well.

Our dedication to Diversity, Equity, Belonging & Sustainability has been celebrated with industry recognition, reflecting our commitment to fostering an inclusive and sustainable workplace.

Editorial Director

Role + Purpose

Madewell’s Brand Creative team is looking for a strategic, highly creative, and customer-focused Copy Director to lead and evolve the Madewell brand voice across every customer touchpoint. Reporting to the SVP, Marketing, this role will lead the Copy team and own the development and execution of Madewell’s voice across brand campaigns, product storytelling, digital, social, paid media, e-commerce, retail, and emerging channels.

The Copy Director will be a key creative and strategic partner across Marketing and Creative, translating brand and business strategy into compelling ideas, messaging, and storytelling that build brand relevance and drive customer engagement. This person should believe deeply in the partnership between words and visuals and be equally comfortable developing a campaign concept, shaping a headline, establishing a messaging hierarchy, or editing the details of a customer-facing execution.

The ideal candidate is a solution-oriented creative leader with a strong understanding of fashion, retail, culture, and the customer. They are a strong conceptual thinker and a tireless iterator who can take a strategic brief and find multiple compelling ways to solve it. They bring a keen grasp of language, campaign concepting, storytelling, editing, and verbal and written communication.

This role also requires a highly collaborative and organized leader who can establish clear standards and processes, manage a high volume of work, and ensure a consistent and distinctive Madewell voice across channels and customer experiences.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the Madewell brand voice, establishing a distinctive, recognizable point of view that reflects the brand strategy, customer, and cultural context.

• Lead copy strategy and creative concepting for major brand campaigns, seasonal initiatives, product launches, collaborations, and key marketing moments, partnering closely with Creative and Marketing leadership from brief through execution.

• Translate marketing and business strategy into compelling customer-facing messaging, developing clear messaging hierarchies and storytelling frameworks that connect brand positioning with product and customer needs.

• Lead the Copy team, providing creative direction, mentorship, feedback, and development while establishing a high bar for conceptual thinking, writing, editing, and execution.

• Oversee copy across the full customer journey, including campaigns, paid advertising, social, email, site, product storytelling, retail, partnerships, experiential, and other brand touchpoints.

• Partner closely with Art and Design to develop integrated creative ideas in which copy and visual expression work together to create a cohesive and compelling brand experience.

• Shape product storytelling and naming, partnering with Product Marketing, Merchandising, and Creative to develop compelling narratives around key products, franchises, innovation, quality, fit, and design.

• Develop and maintain brand voice guidelines, messaging frameworks, naming principles, and other tools that create a shared understanding of the Madewell voice across internal teams and external partners.

• Bring a strong customer and cultural perspective to the work, staying connected to fashion, culture, language, media, and evolving customer behaviors to ensure Madewell remains relevant and distinctive.

• Use customer and performance insights to strengthen creative, partnering with Marketing, Social, CRM, Paid Media, and E-commerce teams to understand what resonates and apply learnings without compromising the integrity of the brand voice.

• Serve as the senior editorial authority for the brand, ensuring consistency, clarity, quality, and tone across high-visibility customer-facing communications.

• Partner cross-functionally with Brand Marketing, Product Marketing, Social, Influencer, E-commerce, Retail, Merchandising, Legal, and other teams to ensure copy supports both brand and business objectives.

• Partner with Creative Operations to establish and continuously improve briefing, review, approval, and go-to-market processes that allow the Copy team to operate effectively at scale.

• Manage internal and freelance copy resources, identifying additional talent and support as needed while maintaining consistency and quality across the work.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in copywriting, editorial, or brand creative roles, with significant experience developing consumer-facing brand and marketing work; fashion, retail, lifestyle, or editorial experience strongly preferred.

• 3+ years of experience leading and developing writers, including full-time and freelance talent.

• Demonstrated experience defining, evolving, and stewarding a distinctive brand voice across multiple channels and customer touchpoints.

• A portfolio demonstrating exceptional writing, conceptual thinking, campaign development, product storytelling, and brand-building work.

• Strong experience developing integrated campaign concepts and messaging systems, from high-level creative ideas through channel-specific execution.

• Exceptional writing and editing skills with an ability to move fluidly between brand storytelling, campaign messaging, product copy, and highly concise performance-driven communications.

• Strong understanding of fashion, retail, culture, and consumer behavior, with an instinct for how brands can participate in culture in a relevant and authentic way.

• Ability to balance brand building and commercial objectives, understanding how creative work can simultaneously strengthen brand perception and drive customer action.

• Comfortable using customer, channel, and performance insights to inform creative decisions and continuously improve the work.

• Highly collaborative with demonstrated ability to influence and build strong partnerships across Creative, Marketing, Product, Merchandising, E-commerce, Retail, and senior leadership.

• Exceptional organizational skills and the ability to prioritize, make decisions, and maintain creative quality within a fast-moving, high-volume environment.

• A generous and effective creative leader who can provide clear direction, inspire strong work, and create an environment where writers can develop and do their best work.

We welcome you to apply, even if you don't check all the boxes. Our passion is scouting life-long learners who are driven by curiosity, and who feel connected to our brands and share our desire to make an impact. We’re always seeking bright new talent who leverage their unique experiences to discover, grow and evolve with our teams.

Benefits + Perks

• Health & Well-being - Eligible associates and family members receive medical, dental, prescription and vision insurance, family planning (fertility, adoption & surrogacy support), fitness discounts, medical travel and more.

• Associate Discount - We love our products just as much as you do! That’s why we offer a great associate discount across all of our brands (J.Crew, J.Crew Factory, and Madewell).

• Summer Fridays - In addition to our hybrid work model, we also close our office at 1:00 PM every Friday during the Summer months.

• Community Impact - We support the communities where we live and work through our philanthropic efforts and the J.Crew Cares Program.

• Winter Break - In addition to our PTO package, J.Crew Group offers a winter break at the end of December to eligible full-time associates at the Home Office to provide time to refresh and recharge.

Note: Availability of these benefits and perks may be subject to work location & employment type and may have certain eligibility requirements.

At J.Crew Group (JCG) we aim to pay competitively for our company’s size and industry. The base salary offered will take into account internal equity and may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region of work premises, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors.  The base salary is just one component of J.Crew Group’s competitive total rewards strategy that also includes the opportunity for bonus, competitive benefits and perks.

One of our core focuses here at JCG is creating a community and culture that builds belonging. We are deeply committed to our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts, and we warmly welcome job applicants of all backgrounds.

JCG is proud to affirmatively provide equal opportunity to all associates and qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, national origin or citizenship, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, legally protected physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other basis protected under applicable law.