Zappos is looking for an Art Director who can lead the visual design team and serve as a strategic creative leader, shaping the overall direction and visual storytelling of the brand. This role combines the strategic thinking of an Art Director with the systematic design expertise of a Visual Design leader, responsible for setting the creative tone across all customer touchpoints while building scalable design systems that drive brand consistency and operational efficiency. As both a tastemaker and strategic partner, the Art Director translates complex business requirements into compelling visual narratives that reinforce brand identity and drive customer engagement. This role requires expertise across multiple mediums—from campaign concepting and art direction to typography, layout, and responsive design—while maintaining the highest quality standards across desktop, mobile, app, social media, email, advertising, and physical retail environments. The Art Director operates at the intersection of creativity and strategy, collaborating directly with Director-level stakeholders, cross-functional partners, and leadership to align creative vision with business objectives. They are accountable for end-to-end creative development on the brand's most complex, high-impact campaigns while simultaneously building the design infrastructure (seasonal guidelines, brand systems, templates) that enables their team to deliver thousands of assets annually with consistency and excellence.
Key job responsibilities
• Set and evolve the overall design direction for the brand, acting as the primary tastemaker and visual authority. • Develop seasonal creative guidelines (Resort, Spring, Transition, Fall, Holiday) that outline typography, color palettes, graphic systems, and visual application templates across all platforms. • Conceive, pitch, and execute innovative creative concepts for Tier 1 campaigns, major category launches, and franchise programs. • Present campaign strategy and creative rationale to leadership and Director-level brand partners with sound business judgment. • Stay on the pulse of industry trends, emerging technologies, and design innovations to maintain competitive advantage. • Art direct photoshoots, video productions, and content creation, working closely with photographers, stylists, editors, and animators. • Design responsive email templates and landing pages that drive conversion and customer engagement. • Ensure consistent, elevated visual presentation across all customer touchpoints and marketing channels. • Deliver compelling creative reviews and presentations using data-driven insights to influence business and creative decisions • Create mechanisms and frameworks that enable the team to deliver thousands of assets annually while maintaining brand unification • Develop scalable solutions that increase team effectiveness and operational productivity • Contribute to the professional development of design colleagues, improving their design skills. through 1x1 mentorship and design review meetings. • Manage contractors to ensure they meet our high creative and productivity bar.
Basic Qualifications
- 7+ years of design experience
- Have an available online portfolio
- Knowledge of branding guidelines and corporate identity, visual design, print and digital layout design
- Experience leading creative development of innovative creative from concept to delivery
- Experience in influencing senior leadership through data driven insights
- Experience with asset management, design workflows, or partnering with creative teams
- Set and evolve the overall design direction for the brand, acting as the primary tastemaker and visual authority.
- Present campaign strategy and creative rationale to leadership and Director-level brand partners with sound business judgment.
- Stay on the pulse of industry trends, emerging technologies, and design innovations to maintain competitive advantage.
- Art direct photoshoots, video productions, and content creation, working closely with photographers, stylists, editors, and animators.
- Design responsive email templates and landing pages that drive conversion and customer engagement.
- Ensure consistent, elevated visual presentation across all customer touch points and marketing channels.
Preferred Qualifications
- Knowledge of marketing fundamentals and ability to implement them to create dynamic advertising solutions
- Experience in photo and video production, including post production, lighting, composition, color quality, and aesthetics
- Knowledge of HTML and CSS
- Background in both brand/campaign work and product/UX design.
- Experience building and scaling design systems for large organizations.
- Track record of delivering measurable business results through creative excellence.
- Usage of generative AI tools to enhance workflow efficiency, with a willingness to learn effective prompting and evaluation practices
- Ability to recognize opportunities where generative AI could enhance products, workflows, or customer experiences
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The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.
USA, NY, New York - 155,400.00 - 210,300.00 USD annually