Critical Mass

Senior Art Director

Posted 22 Days Ago

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New York, NY, USA

In-Office

120K-160K Annually

Senior level

AdTech • Marketing Tech

The Role

As a Senior Art Director, you will lead a creative team, develop design strategies, manage projects, and drive innovative solutions for clients while fostering team growth and excellence.

Summary Generated by Built In

As a Senior Art Director in our New York City office, you'll be the conceptual force driving our most ambitious brand initiatives by bridging strategy to execution, creative to media, and all of it to business outcomes. You recognize that modern audiences navigate multiple touch points and mental states across a fragmented media landscape. Your strength lies in architecting unified storytelling that remains fresh across each channel—where every paid asset strengthens the brand narrative through distinct, culturally relevant content.

You are fluent in art direction, visual identity systems and/or campaign platforms. You have impeccable taste and a deep understanding of visual craft. You bring this standard to everything you’re responsible for.

You help brands evolve, and remain future-proofed through bold creative thinking.

You know great work is effective work, and you know how to set up presentations for varying client needs.

Beyond your conceptual chops, you have a strong background in graphic design, as well as one or more of these skills: motion design, UX/UI design, illustration, typography, photography, copywriting.

You Will:

Lead concept development and art direction across projects and accounts.
Bring executions to life across all platforms, products and touch points.
Develop innovative ideas and proposals that drive growth and new business.
Partner cross‑functionally with account, strategy, technology, and production teams to deliver award winning work.
Communicate creative ideas and strategies clearly to clients, stakeholders, and senior leadership.
Be thorough, detail-oriented, and highly organized, with the ability to manage multiple campaigns and meet tight deadlines.
Build, lead, and mentor a multidisciplinary creative team, providing ongoing feedback and development.
Champion creative excellence, quality standards, and continuous improvement across all deliverables.

You Have:

5+ years’ experience working at an advertising agency.
A portfolio showcasing creative problem-solving, visual excellence, and expertise across campaigns and brand identities
Strong expertise in campaign conceptualization, messaging development, and creative storytelling.
An experienced, innovative, and forward-thinking approach to creative work, from foundation to amplification.
Exceptional communication skills (verbal, written, and visual) and interpersonal skills.
Flexibility and adaptability in fast-paced, changing environments.
Proficiencies across the Adobe Creative Suite, Figma and emerging AI platforms.

What We Offer:

Global maternity and parental leave
Competitive benefits packages
Vacation, compassionate leave, wellness days, and flex days
Access to online services for families and new parents
Early Dismissal Friday’s (off at 3:00 PM local time every Friday)
13 affinity groups
Internal learning and development programs
Enterprise-wide employee discounts

The Talent Team at Critical Mass is focused on ensuring we provide the best training, onboarding, and employee experience possible! Our new hires & employees are the future of our organization, and we want to set you up for long-term success. In an effort to do so, we expect our team to work from an office a minimum of 3 days a week.

We continually review ranges to address skills, experience and markets. Base salaries are determined during our interview process, by assessing a number of factors that include, but aren’t limited to, a candidate’s experience and skills relative to the scope and responsibilities of the position. For current CM employees, tenure will also be a consideration.

Salary Range

$120,000—$160,000 USD

Critical Mass is an equal opportunity employer.
Critical Mass uses artificial intelligence in our recruitment process to enhance job postings, filter keywords during the review of prospective candidates, and, in some cases, transcribe interviews with our recruiters. Human review remains central to the process, and all hiring decisions are ultimately made by our team.

The Critical Mass Talent Acquisition team will only communicate from email addresses that use the URLs criticalmass.com, omc.com and us.greenhouse-mail.io. We will not use apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Google Hangouts for communicating with you. We will never ask you to send us money, technology, or anything else to work for our company. If you believe you are the victim of a scam, please review your local government consumer protections guidance and reach out to them directly.

If U.S. based: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams#avoid
If Canada based: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/finance/consumer-affairs.html
If U.K. based: https://www.gov.uk/consumer-protection-rights
If Costa Rica based: https://www.consumo.go.cr/educacion_consumidor/consejos_practicos.aspx

Skills Required

4+ years experience working in a digital agency
Strong portfolio of digital design and art direction work
Experience leading a team of designers
Experience meeting clients and presenting your work
Working knowledge of the latest versions of Mac OS, Photoshop, and Illustrator
Experience in both digital and traditional media

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The Company

Chicago, IL

2,000 Employees

Year Founded: 1996

What We Do

We’re Critical Mass. We are 2,000 inspired humans across 14 offices, setting the right path—not just the next one—for our clients, their customers, and our own colleagues. We work with the best, Apple, Adobe, BMW, Nike, Diageo, Airbnb, BNY and many more, to power connected ecosystems that make brands stand out by driving performance with data, technology, AI, creative and media. We’re a global marketing agency founded in Canada, but digital is our home. If you know us, then you know we’re a special place that attracts big talent and tiny egos. We’re driven, uncompromising and we live our values. We’re Critical Mass, but our friends call us CM. Learn more at criticalmass.com.