Associate Creative Director

Instrument is a digital product and brand experience agency of more than 200 talented people on a four different teams, each focused on a core offering and dedicated to producing best-in-class work. With a shift to a hybrid working model, we believe in both remote work's potential and recognize the value of in-person interactions for building relationships, sparking creativity, and engaging clients Continuing to allow for remote work has only strengthened and diversified our company culture, and we’re committed to career advancement, personal support, and a healthy work/life balance for everyone we hire.

We're seeking a passionate, confident design leader experienced in driving change and fostering beauty within large, corporate technology firms. Your background should be rooted in design, encompassing UI/UX design and Art Direction. While expertise in all areas isn't mandatory, you should speak with authority and be adept at identifying skilled talent to tackle a range of creative tasks.

You excel at building relationships with clients and internal teams, knowing precisely when to focus closely on the work and when to take a broader view to maintain quality and momentum.

You're enthusiastic about the future of technology and creative storytelling. However, you're equally passionate about nurturing, guiding, and inspiring your team to foster a collaborative environment of experimentation and innovation.

What You'll Do

• Collaborate with other disciplines and clients to understand what a project needs at any given moment in an effort to move the work forward
• Help establish the bar for design thinking and execution on your team, shipping work, creating design guidelines, and codifying best practices and processes
• Fearlessly concept, iterate, prototype, and test in an effort to deliver strategic, elegant and simple design solutions
• Make sense of complex systems and develop inventive solutions through distillation and experimentation
• Ground the work in a deep understanding of the client and push on strategic insights to stretch creative opportunities
• Influence the design team with brave and inspired design solutions, inspiring them to push their thinking and skill levels to new heights 
• Produce engaging visual presentations for client work, internal projects, and business development pitches
• Consistently communicate effectively and proactively with team members and clients
• Think strategically about the project lifecycle, necessary timelines, business challenges, and the necessity of communication amongst your project team
• Balance multiple project assignments or business challenges with a steady disposition 
• Invite a wide range of perspectives and help strengthen collaboration on your team through role modeling

What You'll Bring

• Demonstrated experience leading teams in shipping high impact, successful digital products and experiences
• Proven experience managing, training and mentoring design teams, and steering work with clarity and actionable direction
• Experience collaborating with cross disciplinary partners and leaders
• An inclusive mindset, and an ability to reconcile diverse points of view
• Capacity for unsticking intractable roadblocks and pushing the team toward inventive solutions
• Rock solid foundation in visual design, user experience, and user interface design
• Strong verbal and visual presentation skills that get across the process, approach, and impact of your design 
• A mind for best practices, paired with a willingness to try something just crazy enough to work
• Expertise in current industry tools with the ability to adapt to new technologies
• Emotional maturity and awareness, utilizing multiple styles of communication and influence to come to the best result for our clients and team 
• Curiosity, humility, and a passion for doing great work

Pay Range

• The expected pay range for this position is $135,000-$160,000 for our base US Region 3*. We have three regional pay ranges that are adjusted for cost of living (US1 +15%, US2 +7.5%, US3 Base), learn more about our pay philosophy and cost of living adjustments

What We Offer

Flexible, Hybrid Work Environment

Great Compensation with Annual Reviews (Learn more about our Pay Philosophy)

Annual Profit Sharing

401(k) Matching with Immediate Vesting

Robust Medical, Vision, and Accident Insurance

Generous Paid Holidays and unlimited PTO

Sabbaticals

Monthly Wellbeing Stipend

Career Management and Leadership Training