Creative Director - Production Design and Social-First Creative

Title: Creative Director (Production Design & Social-First Creative)

Location: New York City or Remote

Job Description:

We are seeking a Creative Director with deep expertise in digital design and social-first creative strategy to lead ideation, design, and delivery across all facets of creative production at Engine, Code and Theory's creative studio. This role is at the intersection of creativity, technology, and brand storytelling, and you will lead the creative vision for both production design campaign asset development and digital/social-first film content, collaborating closely with other teams and ensuring every project is executed at the highest level of creative excellence from initial concepts through to final delivery.

Your experience will be rooted in digital design and social, with a proven track record of delivering multiple campaign components across diverse campaign ecosystems and dynamic, platform-optimized assets.

Ultimately you're a storyteller, but a modern one that understands technology and a differentiated approach to platform specific storytelling. You're able to weave the 'creative thread' through multiple creative touchpoints whilst retaining a brand's story and directives. You live and breathe social and have a proven understanding of platform specific performance. You know where people live and breathe and how they act, and you want to communicate with them in new and exciting creative ways

You'll also take the lead on branded assets for Code and Theory, ensuring the integrity and quality of our brand while collaborating with our brand team and other campaign leads. A hands-on creative leader, you will be expected to ideate, design, direct and execute alongside your team, guiding them through complex creative processes while mentoring and fostering growth within the team.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Creative Leadership & Strategy:
  
  
  • Lead creative ideation across all areas of the studio, from production and digital design to social-first film content, developing concepts that align with client objectives and drive impactful, on-brand campaigns.
  
  
  • Set the overall creative vision for projects, ensuring high-level creative concepts are grounded in strategic thinking and effectively executed.
  
  
  • Work with the brand team to align all work with Code and Theory's core design standards, ensuring the integrity of the brand across all deliverables.
  
  
  • Build and maintain a creative framework that includes both long-form, big-scale campaigns (e.g., TV, online video) and smaller, agile digital/social-first content (e.g., Instagram Reels, TikTok).
     
  
   
• Social-First & Platform-Specific Thinking:
  
  
  • Drive platform-specific creative solutions that are optimized for social media and digital-first formats, keeping up with the fast-paced nature of online content.
  
  
  • Ensure designs and films are tailored for specific platforms (e.g., Instagram, YouTube, TikTok), optimizing for both aesthetic appeal and engagement.
  
  
  • Develop prolific, creative content that spans both paid media campaigns and organic social strategies.
  
   


• Collaboration & Cross-Functional Leadership:
  
  
  • Lead cross-functional teams, collaborating with project managers, brand designers, and creative campaign leads to ensure the successful execution of large-scale and small-scale projects.
  
  
  • Work closely with other campaign creative leads to deliver multi-component campaigns, guiding the team to create integrated experiences that resonate across different channels.
  
  
  • Collaborate with the Tech Operations Lead to integrate design and creative processes with automation tools, optimizing workflows for efficiency while retaining the highest level of craft
  
   


• Brand Ownership & Creative Integrity:
  
  
  • Be a key creative voice for Code and Theory's brand, driving new initiatives, and ensuring brand consistency and quality across all assets.
  
  
  • Help our team develop case studies, presentations, and internal materials that showcase the studio's work for future campaigns, new business pitches, and internal reviews.
  
  
  • Ensure that all creative outputs are in line with Code and Theory's values, brand guidelines, and creative standards.
  
   


• Team Mentorship & Growth:
  
  
  • Provide creative mentorship and leadership to a diverse team of junior and senior designers, motion designers, editors, copywriters, and other creatives, offering guidance through ideation, feedback loops, and critiques.
  
  
  • Foster a collaborative and creative work environment where ideas are exchanged freely, and team members are motivated to push boundaries and take risks.
  
  
  • Build and lead brainstorming sessions that encourage innovative thinking and creative solutions, inspiring teams to think outside the box and elevate their work.
  
   


• Hands-On Creative Work:
  
  
  • A hybrid, you actively contribute to creative execution, both in art direction and copywriting, as needed-whether that's designing social assets, reviewing copy for a campaign, or providing direct creative input to other members of the team.
  
  
  • Create and manage the art direction of production design assets, overseeing every stage of execution, from the initial concept through to post-production.
  
   


• Process Optimization & Efficiency:
  
  
  • Work closely with the Project Manager to streamline creative workflows, ensuring projects are executed efficiently and deadlines are met.
  
  
  • Leverage creative automation tools and systems to help scale design production, ensuring high-quality output without sacrificing creative integrity.
  
   

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• Experience as a Creative / 5+ as a Creative Director or in a senior creative role, with a strong focus on production design, and digital/social-first creative, and branded content creation.


• Extensive knowledge of social platforms (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.), with a deep understanding of the unique design and content needs of each platform.


• Proven ability to ideate and deliver across all forms of creative-from production design (e.g., display ads, banners) to live-action film and motion graphics.


• A demonstrated history of translating large-scale campaigns and creative delivery across a range of assets for big and small projects.


• Deep understanding of brand development and brand consistency, with the ability to uphold creative integrity while innovating within established guidelines.


• Strong leadership abilities, with experience managing creative teams and mentoring junior and senior staff alike.


• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro), Figma, Final Cut Pro, and other relevant design and video production software.


• Willingness to dive into both art direction and copywriting, providing a hands-on approach when needed.


• Familiarity with project management tools (Airtable, Trello, Asana) and the ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams (Project Managers, Tech Leads, etc.

 

ABOUT US

Born in 2001, Code and Theory is a digital-first creative agency that sits at the center of creativity and technology. We pride ourselves on not only solving consumer and business problems but also helping to establish new capabilities for our clients. With a global client roster of Fortune 100s and start-ups alike, we crave the hardest problems to solve. With a remote-first approach to our people, we have teams distributed across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. The Code and Theory global network of agencies is growing and includes Kettle, Instrument, Left Field Labs, Truelogic, Rhythm and Mediacurrent. 

Striving never to be pigeonholed, we work across every major category: from tech to CPG, financial services to travel & hospitality, government and education to media and publishing. We value the collaboration with our client partners, including but not limited to Adidas, Amazon, Con Edison, Diageo, EY, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lenovo, Marriott, Mars, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, and TikTok.

The Code and Theory network is comprised of nearly 2,000 people with 50% engineers and 50% creative talent. We're always on the lookout for smart, driven, and forward-thinking people to join our team.

This is a full-time role, based in the United States. The target range of base compensation for this role is $150,000-$190,000. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience and location.