Associate Director of Retail Design

J. Paul Getty Trust, The • Los Angeles, CA

8d • Onsite

About The Position

Getty is seeking an Associate Director of Retail Design to define, lead, and protect the creative vision for its retail ecosystem. This role ensures all retail touchpoints reflect Getty’s brand voice, curatorial authority, and cultural identity across products, visual merchandising, packaging, digital assets, and physical retail environments. The position collaborates closely with Retail Operations to ensure creative concepts are strategically compelling and operationally feasible, and with Branding and Museum Design for long-term alignment. The Associate Director oversees the Retail Design & Content team, ensuring creative consistency across all retail channels and formats, and is accountable for departmental budget, planning, and staffing. This role establishes departmental objectives, delegates assignments, and interprets policies, impacting objectives and priorities across Getty. Getty has partnered with True Search for this recruitment.

Requirements

• 8–12 years of progressive experience in retail design, visual merchandising, or retail creative leadership, with meaningful tenure in a senior or lead role.
• Proven ability to translate a complex brand identity into compelling physical retail experiences, with a portfolio that reflects range, taste, and commercial awareness.
• Experience building or contributing to retail design infrastructure – creative systems, briefs, workflows, and standards – in an environment where those structures did not fully exist.
• Track record of leading and developing a small creative team, with the ability to manage up, down, and across in a matrixed organization.
• Based in or willing to relocate to the Los Angeles area; the role is predominantly onsite across the Getty Center and Getty Villa.
• Ability to work a flexible schedule inclusive of weekends, evenings, and holidays as required by the retail and exhibition calendars.

Nice To Haves

• Brings a strong and confident aesthetic point of view while remaining genuinely collaborative and open to the creative perspectives of others.
• Equally comfortable operating at the conceptual level and rolling up their sleeves to execute; does not distinguish between strategic and hands-on work.
• Patient and skilled at working within complex institutional environments; understands that influence and trust are built over time.
• Demonstrates a natural curiosity about art, culture, and ideas – and brings that curiosity to how they think about retail storytelling and product experience.
• Thrives in ambiguity and is energized by the opportunity to build something from the ground up rather than maintain an established system.
• Communicates creative vision clearly and persuasively to non-creative stakeholders; skilled at making the case for design decisions in business terms.
• Connected to Getty's cultural mission and excited by the intersection of art, commerce, and public engagement.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the retail creative vision across all customer-facing touchpoints, including visual merchandising, store environments, packaging, retail graphics, in-store storytelling, and digital assets.
• Translate Getty's curatorial content and brand strategy into engaging, commercially relevant retail concepts and experiences that strengthen institutional identity and drive visitor engagement.
• Ensure creative consistency and brand alignment across all retail channels, including physical stores, e-commerce, seasonal campaigns, exhibitions, and special activations.
• Lead and develop an initial retail design team, including a graphic designer, visual merchandiser, and coordinator, with the expectation of growing the function over time.
• Develop creative briefs, standards, and guidelines that support efficient execution and provide clear direction to internal teams and external partners.
• Establish and maintain workflows connecting retail design to buying, product development, and operations – including processes for new product cohorts, special-edition moments, and evergreen product lines.
• Partner closely with the Associate Director of Retail Operations to ensure creative concepts are operationally executable and consistently implemented across both retail locations.
• Collaborate across Getty's brand and marketing, exhibition design, and publications design teams to align retail creative with broader institutional programming and identity.
• Contribute to the physical retail environment, including input on store layout, fixture selection, and spatial storytelling, particularly in support of the Getty Center's planned renovation and reopening.
• Develop and present creative concepts and project briefs, then work effectively within Getty's existing design structures to bring them to life.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance coverage, starting on date of hire. Getty pays 75%-95% of the premium, depending on the plan selected.
• 403(b) Employee investment retirement plan – with up to 5% Getty Match.
• Getty contribution of 6%, on behalf of employee, to 401(a) retirement account.
• Educational assistance and professional development.
• Paid Vacation, Sick, and Personal days.
• 12 Paid Holidays.
• Many positions have bi-weekly off-Fridays.
• On-site Fitness Center at Getty Center.
• Community service opportunities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed