Creative Manager

Who We Are

Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we help clients with total transformation-inspiring complex change, enabling organizations to grow, building competitive advantage, and driving bottom-line impact.

To succeed, organizations must blend digital and human capabilities. Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives to spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting along with technology and design, corporate and digital ventures-and business purpose. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, generating results that allow our clients to thrive.

What You'll Do

Design Studios is looking for an experienced creative leader to guide our Japan studio - someone who values craftsmanship, cares deeply about the people they lead, and brings genuine curiosity to how creative practice is evolving, including the responsible use of AI.

As the Creative Manager for Japan, you will be entrusted with the quality and integrity of our creative work across brand, presentation, digital, video, editorial, and experience design. You will work closely with the Regional Creative Director and Japan studio leadership, listening carefully to business needs and translating them into creative direction that is considered, refined, and true to both BCG’s global standards and the expectations of the Japanese market.

You will also become part of a wider community: BCG Design Studios’ global network of Creative Managers across our offices worldwide. This is a place for mutual learning - sharing perspective, comparing approaches to new tools such as AI, and supporting one another as we each strengthen our own studios.

• Take responsibility for creative quality and culture within the Japan studio, from early concept through to final delivery - across every discipline. Guide your teams, review work thoughtfully, and help maintain a consistently high quality standard.
• Support the studio's thoughtful adoption of AI - piloting relevant tools, helping the team understand where they can genuinely help, and where human judgment and craftsmanship must continue to lead. The goal is always to use technology in service of better creative work, never in place of it.
• Bring an informed understanding of the Japanese market to your work - its visual culture, language, and client expectations - while helping connect this local perspective with BCG's global brand standards. Partner with the regional Strategy team on go-to-market initiatives, and build lasting relationships with local consulting leadership as a representative of Design Studios in Japan.
• Support the growth of the people around you - mentoring senior creatives and team leads with patience and encouragement, and sharing what you learn with the broader global community of Design Studios leaders.

What You'll Bring

• 8-10+ years in a creative leadership role - agency, in-house brand studio, service design firm, or similar with a portfolio that proves range and craft
• A bachelor's degree in design, visual communication, brand/visual arts, or a related creative field (design school background preferred)
• Hands-on experience using GenAI and creative automation tools in real creative workflows, with a genuine point of view on where the practice is heading
• Native or near-native Japanese fluency and strong professional English, comfortable leading bilingual creative and stakeholder work in both
• Real, lived familiarity with the Japan market - its business culture, client expectations, and design landscape
• A track record of mentoring designers, nurturing team culture, and leading across multiple geographies or matrixed teams
• Strong communication skills and the ability to present creative thinking clearly and respectfully to senior stakeholders
• Fluency in Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, and PowerPoint, along with working knowledge of AI-enabled creative and design-ops platforms
• A balanced mindset that brings together creative sensitivity, business understanding, and operational care

Who You'll Work With

We are Design Studios - BCG's in-house creative agency, a global, multidisciplinary team of design strategists, creative leaders, and digital experts. We create the design work that brings BCG's thinking to life, applying design, technology, and increasingly AI to support the firm's work for its clients.

We value craftsmanship, curiosity, and mutual respect, alongside a genuine commitment to quality and business impact. In Japan, this means bringing together global creative standards with real sensitivity to local aesthetics, language, and client expectations. We believe design is a shared language for navigating complexity, and that AI, used thoughtfully, can help us serve that purpose even better.

Additional info

YOU'RE GOOD AT

Creative Craft & Vision

• Leading multidisciplinary creative teams across brand, presentation, digital, video, editorial, and experience design, with a portfolio that reflects genuine care and skill
• Holding a consistently high creative standard, and guiding others toward it with patience and clear judgment
• Shaping thoughtful creative direction from ambiguous or evolving business needs, not simply executing a brief

Thoughtful Use of AI in Creative Practice

• Approaching GenAI and creative automation as tools that support the team's craft, used with care and always in service of the work - never as a replacement for human judgment
• Piloting new AI tools responsibly, and helping the team build workflows that use them well
• Staying attentive and open to how AI and creative technology are evolving, and sharing that learning generously with colleagues

Understanding of the Japan Market

• A genuine, first-hand understanding of Japanese visual culture, typography, and business communication norms, and the sensitivity to know when convention should be honored and when new ideas may be gently introduced
• Comfort leading bilingual (Japanese/English) creative work, from kanji/kana typesetting to stakeholder conversations in either language
• An ability to connect global brand standards with locally nuanced expectations and sensibilities of the Japan market.

Leadership, Collaboration & Client Partnership

• Partnering with Creative Directors and consulting teams to understand business context and translate it into creative solutions that serve the work
• Exchanging perspective with Creative Managers across the global Design Studios network on shared projects and standards
• Mentoring senior creatives and team leads with encouragement, helping them grow into confident leaders in their own right

Building trusted relationships with internal clients and senior stakeholders - listening carefully, managing expectations, and safeguarding the integrity of the work

PART OF A GLOBAL CREATIVE COMMUNITY

Design Studios operates as one connected creative community across our offices worldwide, rather than as separate regional teams. In this role, you will join a global network of Creative Managers and Directors who meet regularly to share perspective, learn from one another's experience, and support each other in strengthening their respective studios.

• Regular collaboration with peers across geographies on shared projects and creative standards
• The opportunity to contribute your perspective to firm-wide creative practice, and to learn from colleagues facing similar questions in other markets
• A supportive network of experienced creative leaders navigating the same evolving landscape, including the responsible use of AI
• A meaningful path for continued growth within Design Studios' global leadership community

Boston Consulting Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity / expression, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under national, provincial, or local law, where applicable, and those with criminal histories will be considered in a manner consistent with applicable state and local laws.

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