Senior Art Director

Mach27•Culver City, CA

13h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Art Director leads campaigns without the need of close supervision and sets the quality standard for the work produced under their direction. This role serves as creative lead across multiple accounts and is accountable for both creative quality and team performance. Mentorship of junior creatives is a core part of the job.

Requirements

8–9+ years of proven experience in a design company, advertising agency, or in-house creative environment
Portfolio demonstrating creative leadership — work that shows not just exceptional execution but the ability to shape a campaign's direction, elevate a team's output, and deliver results that move the client's brand forward
Expert-level proficiency in Photoshop and Illustrator: able to direct and produce work at the highest level of craft, troubleshoot complex technical challenges, and establish production standards for the broader team
Advanced experience with project management tools (Asana, Monday.com, or similar): able to oversee multiple concurrent campaigns, advise PMs on timeline and resourcing, and maintain creative accountability across a project portfolio
Deep knowledge of key art and entertainment marketing, including an understanding of what drives audience engagement across theatrical, streaming, gaming, music, and live events
Elite compositing skills — creates seamless, photorealistic images from the most challenging elements and makes every comp look like it was shot that way
Does not just work with difficult photography — solves it; lighting corrections, color grading, exposure issues, and asset mismatches are handled with confidence and speed
Deep, intuitive understanding of light, shadow, color grading, and visual atmosphere — used not just technically but expressively, to tell a story
Sophisticated and authoritative compositional instincts — understands how to create images that command attention, convey emotion, and hold up across every platform and format
Confident ability to articulate creative ideas, lead a room, and advocate for the work at every level of the organization
Proven ability to mentor and develop creative talent — feedback genuinely elevates the people around them
Strong communicator with leadership, project managers, and clients
Highly organized, self-directed, accountable, and runs projects without being managed
Developing financial and operational literacy — understands how creative decisions affect scope, timeline, and profitability, and can engage meaningfully with PMs and leadership on resourcing, capacity, and project economics
Growth mindset — genuinely invested in developing others; understands that the measure of a senior creative is not just the quality of their own work but the quality they draw out of the people around them
Highly fluent in Google Suite — able to build and lead client-facing presentations in Google Slides that are both visually compelling and strategically persuasive

Responsibilities

Serve as creative lead on flagship accounts and high-visibility campaigns, setting the quality standard for all work produced under your direction and pushing the team consistently toward output that is genuinely exceptional
Guide the creative team in analyzing briefs deeply and with real rigor — help them identify the tension in the brief, the insight that makes a campaign idea land, the cultural moment worth tapping into, or the audience truth that separates a forgettable execution from a memorable one
Own projects end-to-end from kickoff to post-mortem with full accountability for creative quality, timeline integrity, and team performance; proactively troubleshoot creative and logistical challenges as they arise rather than waiting for them to surface or escalate
Lead the team effectively in the absence of the Creative Director: provide clear, decisive creative direction, maintain team momentum, uphold the agency's creative standard, and make judgment calls with the confidence of someone who understands the work deeply and the business well
Provide direction, feedback, and quality control over all assets within a campaign through crits and direct methods — your feedback should always be specific, tied directly to the brief and the brand, and framed in a way that helps the team understand not just what to change but why the change matters
Communicate proactively with leadership and project managers about timeline risks, resourcing needs, and creative concerns — don't wait to be asked; bring information forward early enough that it can still be acted on, and come with a proposed path forward whenever possible
Mentor designers and art directors through direct, consistent engagement — give feedback that builds skills, not just feedback that fixes deliverables; share the context behind your creative decisions so your team learns to think the way you think, not just execute the way you execute
Ensure that every deliverable leaving your team meets internal and external visual communication and brand standards; you are the final quality gate before work reaches the ACD or CD, and that responsibility should be taken seriously on every project, not just the high-profile ones
Actively contribute to the agency's creative culture: participate in crits beyond your own projects, share inspiration and industry knowledge with the broader team, and model the kind of creative curiosity and professional rigor that raises everyone's game
Generate bold, attention-grabbing, culturally resonant creative concepts across multiple clients and genres
Research and develop scrap boards that establish, drive, and elevate creative direction at a campaign level
Articulate and present creative ideas with authority to clients, leadership, and cross-functional teams, command the room
Leverage AI tools strategically for scrap, ideation, graphic exploration, typography concepts, and production mockups (while keeping original creative thinking at the center)
Produce and design presentations and pitch decks that demonstrate both creative and strategic thinking
Maintain well-organized, clearly labeled files and layers throughout the design process, including post-delivery server organization
Other duties as assigned

Benefits

Full benefits package (health/dental/vision/HSA)
$50,000 fully company-paid life insurance policy
401(k) with a 4% match (and no vesting period)
25 Days of Paid Time Off (PTO), plus twelve national holidays off and additional early release days
Yearly performance, compensation, and inflation adjustment
Potential year-end bonus
Employee wellness benefits and mental health support
Flexible location and hours policy
Yearly employee development fund
Transparent Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and culture initiatives
Regular employee engagement events
Mentorship focused development