Director, Art Direction West North America
About The Position
The Director, Art Direction for North America Brand Creative leads multidisciplinary teams across multiple projects, partnering with senior leadership, creative directors, experience directors, narrative leads, studio managers, and producers to deliver innovative, well-crafted creative work. You champion design excellence across mediums, ensuring every output reflects Nike’s commitment to performance, product innovation, athlete storytelling, and cultural relevance. You will present to senior leadership with clarity and confidence, while coaching and developing emerging designers. You bring a deep connection to contemporary culture—sport, design, art, fashion, youth culture—and use this awareness to drive breakthrough ideas.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in product, brand, or marketing within a major brand or agency
- Bachelor’s degree in design or related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education and experience, and training.
- Deep passion and knowledge of North American sport, athletes, and the cultural landscape.
- Ability to evolve and elevate North America and LA focused art direction in partnership with the creative team.
- Highly proficient in design, typography, image-making, and retouching using Adobe Creative Suite and tools such as Figma.
Nice To Haves
- 3D or motion knowledge is a plus.
Responsibilities
- Lead, inspire, and coach young designers, fostering growth and creative excellence.
- Build visual worlds and deliver best-in-class art direction for campaigns rooted in sport, athlete-entertainer storytelling, and product innovation.
- Oversee the planning, execution, and delivery of high-quality creative work from concept through final execution.
- Present creative concepts with strong storytelling, clarity, and stage presence.
- Maintain uncompromising standards of quality, consistency, and innovation.
- Cultivate strong relationships with external creative partners—agencies, photographers, directors, 3D artists, designers, animators, writers, illustrators, and more.
- Stay ahead of trends across sport, fashion, subculture, music, design, retail, film, technology, AI, and social media to ensure creative relevance.
- Develop, refine, and deliver multiple visual directions system for North America and LA in partnership with senior creative leaders.
- Drive NA art direction with design teams through inspiration, execution, mentorship, and clear creative guidance.
- Deliver outstanding concepts, visual centres, project guidelines, photography, film content, digital design, social assets, and consumer experiences.
- Build and maintain relationships with top creative partners: agencies, photographers, filmmakers, illustrators, typographers, designers, 3D artists, writers, and more
- Partner with cross-functional leaders to strategically identify and manage external creative talents.
- Define and elevate art direction for NA video and photography across categories, ensuring work is on-brand, diverse, culturally resonant, and fiscally responsible.
- Foster a culture of creative “firsts” and breakthrough thinking.
- Stay current with trends in sport, fashion, design, art, film, culture, media, and technology.
- Collaborate closely with Brand Voice, Photography, Styling, Marketing, Digital, Retail, Product Design, and Concepts teams throughout the creative process.
- Ensure all projects are well-planned, creatively exceptional, and delivered on time.
- Support talent development through coaching, feedback, and performance management
Benefits
- Information about benefits can be found here.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
