Rachel Soeder

I'm a creative who genuinely loves the process: collaborating, connecting, and finding the idea that makes everything click. My eye was developed in art school, my approach was sharpened in grad school, and my taste was curated by a lifetime of chasing experiences.

In my 15+ years within the creative industry, I’ve had the privilege of building multiple multi-disciplinary creative teams. And I’ve lead the vision for a broad spectrum of needs from internal communications to multi-million dollar ad campaigns. In all of it, I bring curiosity and warmth while delivering quality and craft.

I currently reside in New York City with my two playful cats and a shit ton of art.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR • STRATEGIST • ORGANIZATIONAL ARCHITECT
INNOVATING FOR GLOBAL BRANDS @ THE BRANDGTECH GROUP

A creative leader at the intersection of design, strategy, and technology. I drive innovation and excellence while building conditions that make both sustainable. My background in human-centered design (M.S.) shapes how I approach every challenge: start with the user, understand the system, then create something effective. This is how I transform teams and elevate creative.

  • 15+ years of experience building and leading multi-disciplinary design teams for global brands

  • Proven track record of driving strategic creative vision and establishing ways-of-working that elevate quality and output

Experience

Transforming from Manual to Ai

Recently, I've been leading my team through one of the more significant shifts in our industry — the move from manual creative production to AI-augmented workflows. I developed the transformation plan, facilitated the rollout, and built the internal frameworks that have shaped how our team operates day to day. It's the kind of work that requires equal parts strategic vision and on-the-ground execution.

Modeling for Creative Elevation

My focus is on developing creative that's not just on-brand, but effective. And I care deeply about giving designers the structure and space to do their best work. I've built creative development models that reduce ambiguity upstream, launched designer growth programs, and championed processes that elevate output — not just output volume.

notes from colleagues & employees

“Rachel is a strong Design Director with a unique creative flair, has innovative design ideas and is a strong strategic team player. She has the rare ability to get into the mind set of the customer, user journey and create strong creative positioning and deliver on brief, as well as pushing clients above and beyond their comfort zones. Rachel successfully engages her teams, ensures everyone understands the tasks at hand and is a likeable leader that lives the brand values she and her clients are focused on. I hope our paths cross again in the future.”

“Rachel easily and effectively distills the ask during the briefing process, showcasing her strong working relationships with our brands and her ability to translate their needs to our team.”

“She supports my creative ideas and pushes them where they need and considers my recommendations at the same time.”

“She is a great communicator, very attentive and responsive to the input and concern, and effectively ensuring our working process and goals are met efficiently.”

“Any time I've made a mistake, I have felt comfortable going to Rachel immediately to communicate and fix it. She has never made me feel guilty, and always reminds me that we are all human, not machines”

“Rachel thank you for everything, my time was short with the company, but I really hope one day having the opportunity to work with you again. Life has put me with amazing leaders, and you are indeed one of those. Thanks for the opportunity, the help, the guidance, and the chance of being part of the Pernod team.

Please keep leading as you do, the world needs people like you to be better and do better.  You were truly amazing!