Design Director

Location: Remote-first (NY-based preferred)

Team: Design & Creative Production

As Design Director at Addition, you'll lead the creative vision and strategic direction for AI-powered design projects across video generation, experience design, and content systems. You'll oversee a team of designers and motion artists while driving innovation in marketing campaigns and internal tooling. Working closely with executive leadership, strategists, engineers, and content designers, you'll transform brand concepts into immersive experiences that push the limits of generative design, animation, and hybrid media.

This is a leadership role for a visionary director who can balance hands-on creative excellence with team management, strategic thinking, and client relationship building. You'll be instrumental in shaping Addition's creative culture and delivering work that's both emotionally resonant and technically innovative across a variety of formats and client verticals.

Key Responsibilities:

• Creative Leadership + Vision: Define and execute the creative strategy for complex, multi-platform campaigns. Lead creative presentations to C-level clients and internal stakeholders, championing bold ideas that leverage AI-powered design possibilities.
• Team Management & Development: Build, mentor, and manage a team of senior designers, motion designers, and creative technologists. Foster a collaborative culture of innovation while ensuring quality standards and professional growth across your team.
• Strategic Concepting & Creative Direction: Collaborate with creative leads and strategy teams to develop breakthrough concepts from initial brief through final execution. Guide the creative process from storyboards and moodboards to final deliverables, ensuring strategic alignment and creative excellence.
• Brand Systems & Design Leadership: Oversee the development and evolution of visual systems for global brands and Addition's external brand. Drive the creation of comprehensive style guides, templates, and scalable design frameworks for AI-driven campaigns and content systems.
• Cross-Discipline Integration & Client Management: Lead integrated teams including copywriters, content designers, AI engineers, and producers to craft cohesive storytelling experiences. Present creative work to clients, manage feedback cycles, and ensure successful project delivery.
• Video Pipeline Strategy: Drive the strategic development of Addition's video pipeline framework alongside our Technical Director by overseeing the creation of motion assets and templates that integrate with our development team. Ensure outputs are modular, scalable, and technically compatible with generative and programmatic production workflows.
• Innovation & AI Integration: Champion the exploration and integration of cutting-edge generative image, video, and animation tools (e.g., Runway, Sora, Veo, Pika, Midjourney). Lead R&D initiatives and establish best practices for AI tool implementation across the creative team.
• Quality Control & Process Optimization: Establish and maintain high-quality standards across all creative outputs. Develop efficient workflows and production processes that ensure timely delivery while maintaining creative excellence.

Qualifications:

• 8–12 years of progressive experience in design and creative leadership roles, with significant experience in creative agencies, studios, or production companies working with Fortune 500 clients.
• Proven track record of managing and developing creative teams (5+ direct reports preferred), with strong leadership and mentorship capabilities.
• Exceptional portfolio demonstrating strategic thinking, brand design excellence, and innovative motion work across digital and video platforms.
• Advanced proficiency in creative direction, with solid technical knowledge of After Effects, Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, and motion prototyping tools.
• Experience with generative design tools and AI-powered creative workflows is highly preferred.
• Strong business acumen with experience in client relationship management, project budgeting, and creative strategy development.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills, with the ability to articulate creative vision to diverse stakeholders.
• Bonus Points for: Experience leading creative teams at AI-native companies, developing generative content systems, or pioneering innovative creative technologies and frameworks.