Senior Director, Global Head of Design - job 21 of 22

We’re looking for a Visionary Global Head of Design to join our Global Brand Creative Studio and lead us in our continued mission to build the iconic brand of VISA.

The ideal candidate will be a strategic design leader with a proven track record of leading highly successful, award winning, global design teams - either within advertising agencies or at brand-side internal creative studios. A strong portfolio of work is a must.

You must have a passion and a background in visual design systems that can work globally across every single touchpoint no matter how big or small. Your experience needs to show that you have done the job of spearheading and leading a global visual brand refresh as well as implementing this visual system across multiple touchpoints, languages and countries.

In addition to being a systems thinker, you must have a passion and a portfolio to prove how design can be used to influence culture and be a part of cultural conversation. Fresh unique, conceptual thinking in this space is a must. You must be strategic in your thinking and have an ability to articulate and execute global design strategy. You must be ahead of all trends including AI and ensure that the brands that you have touched are current, innovative and always looking forward.

A building mentality is a must - you must have the ability to build, hire and mentor a talented team that consistently produces innovative and cohesive creative design solutions across the full spectrum of the media mix. You need to be able to thrive in a global environment, and must be comfortable guiding internal design teams, agencies and production partners, but also willing to roll up your sleeves to do the work, when necessary, as a designer yourself.

You must have the experience in motion, social, content, and art direction. You should be comfortable leading a photoshoot, as much as guiding an animated short. You should have a deep knowledge of how best to implement design in the social space, in film, and in experiential.

Effortless collaboration is a must - as this role will work closely with regions across the world to ensure best in class creative is implemented. You must have a genuine appetite for building - for building and motivating people, for building a culture that fosters creativity, for building teams, and for building new capabilities. You will be responsible to lead a team of designers and work closely with all agency partners and report into the VP Global Brand Creative.

Does this sound like you?

Essential Functions

Build a Center of Design Excellence

• Be a part of the Creative Studio leadership team who will support in strategically shaping and building upon the vision and operating model for the Global Creative Studio.
• Be a doer by leading by example rolling up your sleeves to do the work when necessary and inspiring others with clear guidance in the craft. You need to have the skillsets in multiple programs to design, concept and implement best in class creative work that pushes us forward.
• Being a thought leader on trends, products and applications to support our team to move forward.   
• Build and maintain key relationships with senior Marketing executives by demonstrating a deep understanding of the global design needs and a commitment to driving a cohesive brand across all touchpoints.
• Ensure the Global Creative Studio is delivering best-in-class capabilities and partnership across all regions instilling a culture of collaboration
• Consistently deliver crafted creative design solutions for the VISA brand ecosystem on a global scale.
• Consistently innovating and staying ahead of design tools, trends and capabilities to ensure VISA is always a future forward brand.
• Influence and inspire teams across the globe with beautifully crafted and strategic creative design
• Guide photoshoots for the brand - being on set and art directing - guiding teams of photographers to capture the assets and ensuring a very high level of craft in everything.

Build relationships

• Help lead, inspire and manage both internal and external agency partners in creative design, execution and production
• Ensure external agencies become an extension of the team – radical collaboration is a must with a deep trust, and mutual respect between all partners to get the work done.              
• Provide thought partnership to business partners both regional and global and regularly make recommendations on directions to improve area under scope

Build upon a culture that fosters remarkable creativity

• Contribute to an environment that fosters remarkable creativity by providing inspiration, thought leadership, and mentorship for the creative studio.
• Maintain a culture where people love to work (and want to come and work), feel they can flourish, and are proud of what they contribute
• Support the development of remarkable ideas - across a variety of marketing touchpoints - that resonate with our audiences, earn an outsized share of cultural conversation, and create competitive advantage.
• Influence and achieve consensus on direction, priority, and decision making of area under scope
• Ensure quality output in all creative output. 

This is a hybrid position based in either our Los Angeles, CA or San Francisco, CA offices. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager.