{"id":2056176,"url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-creative-director-design","title":"Creative Director, Design","company":{"id":18,"name":"Microsoft","domain":"microsoft.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/microsoft","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Eightfold","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":68,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-08T05:49:30Z"}},"role":"Design","role_family":"Design","seniority":"head","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Mountain View, United States","Washington, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":142800,"max":296400,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":296400},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Windows","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-06T17:38:14Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-07","last_verified_at":"2026-10-08T21:43:32Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"OverviewMicrosoft’s Creative, Advertising & Integrated Marketing team is looking for a Creative Director, Design to join the design organization supporting Windows, Surface and Services.\nReporting to the Head of Design, you’ll translate brand vision and visual identity into distinctive, scalable design systems and exceptional customer-facing experiences. You’ll lead the design expression of major campaigns, launches and brand initiatives across digital, web, social, OOH, retail, experiential, photography, product storytelling and other visual touchpoints.\nYou are first and foremost a design creative: a conceptual thinker, systems builder and exceptional visual craftsperson with deep expertise in brand identity, typography, composition, imagery and art direction. You know how to take a powerful idea and build a visual system around it, creating work that is both creatively distinctive and capable of scaling across channels, markets, and formats.\nThis is a hands-on creative leadership role. You’ll lead design projects with internal teams and agency partners, establish compelling visual directions, and guide work from early exploration through refinement, production and final delivery. You’ll collaborate closely with Creative Directors in Copy and Art & Film to ensure campaign ideas and brand systems strengthen one another without losing the integrity of either.\nYou’ll be accountable for raising the quality and consistency of design across the work you lead while helping the Head of Design evolve the broader visual expression of Windows, Surface and Services.\nResponsibilities\nKey Responsibilities\nTranslate brand strategy, consumer insights, cultural observations and product truths into distinctive, relevant and memorable design ideas.\n\nLead the design expression of major campaigns, launches and brand initiatives across digital, web, social, OOH, retail, experiential, photography, product storytelling and other customer-facing touchpoints.\n\nDevelop visual concepts and design systems that reinforce the central creative idea while building recognition and equity for the brand.\n\nWork in close partnership with the Head of Design to evolve and apply the visual identity systems for Windows, Surface and Services.\n\nTurn foundational brand principles into compelling and scalable visual expressions, including typography, color, composition, layout, imagery, iconography, graphic language and other design elements.\n\nLead internal design teams and agency partners from brief through visual exploration, system development, production and final delivery, inspiring exceptional craft at every stage.\n\nEstablish the design direction for projects, providing clear creative guidance, thoughtful critique and actionable feedback to designers, art directors and external partners.\n\nDevelop and art direct photography, key art, illustration, typography and other visual assets required to support brand and campaign design systems.\n\nPartner with the Creative Director, Art & Film to ensure the design system and film expression share a coherent visual world, while respecting clear ownership of filmmaking, directing, production and motion-led storytelling within the Art & Film function.\n\nPartner with Creative Directors in Copy to ensure language, hierarchy, typography and visual expression work together as a unified experience.\n\nCollaborate with Integrated Marketing, Product Marketing, Retail, Digital, Product Design and other internal partners to create cohesive design experiences across customer touchpoints.\n\nPresent and represent design thinking to creative leadership, marketing partners and senior stakeholders, clearly articulating the rationale behind the work and advocating for the strongest design outcome.\n\nLead and creatively direct brand design agencies, design studios, photographers, illustrators, typographers, image-makers and other specialist partners.\n\nEnsure final work adheres to the core design idea and established brand principles while allowing room for experimentation, evolution and creative innovation.\n\nIdentify opportunities to improve existing design systems, tools and frameworks so teams can execute with greater clarity, consistency and quality.\n\nMaintain a strong point of view on contemporary brand design, typography, image-making, technology, fashion, culture and visual communication, bringing that perspective into the work.\n\nLead multiple design initiatives simultaneously while maintaining creative clarity, systems coherence, high standards and exceptional attention to detail.\n\nMentor designers and art directors, helping them strengthen their conceptual thinking, systems thinking, visual judgment and executional craft.\n\nContribute to a design culture centered on ambition, rigor, curiosity, collaboration and world-class craft.\n\nYou must submit a portfolio to be considered for this role.\nQualifications\nRequired Qualifications:\nBachelor's Degree or Certificate in Design, Fine Arts, Human Computer Interaction, Visual Communications or related field AND 8+ years experience in art design or a related art field working on computer games or entertainment OR equivalent experience. \nPreferred Qualifications:\nCreative Director, Design Director, Associate Creative Director or equivalent at a leading brand design studio, advertising agency or in-house creative team at a consumer organization.\n\nAn outstanding portfolio demonstrating excellence in brand identity, visual systems, campaign design, typography, image-making and visual storytelling.\n\nSignificant experience developing design systems and visual expressions for major consumer brands, campaigns, launches or culturally relevant products.\n\nDeep hands-on expertise in typography, composition, color, layout, photography, image-making, identity design and visual systems.\n\nDemonstrated ability to translate a foundational brand identity into flexible campaign and launch systems that work across multiple channels, formats and customer touchpoints.\n\nExperience building scalable design systems that maintain clarity and distinctiveness across global markets, audiences and execution partners.\n\nExperience leading design initiatives from early creative exploration through system development, production, implementation and final delivery.\n\nExperience directing multidisciplinary design teams, agencies, studios, photographers, illustrators, typographers and other specialist creative partners.\n\nStrong conceptual thinking and the ability to connect brand strategy, customer insight and product truth to a clear visual idea.\n\nExperience partnering with copywriters, advertising creatives, filmmakers, marketers and other disciplines while maintaining a clear point of view on design.\n\nAbility to present, defend and evolve design ideas with creative leadership, cross-functional partners and senior business stakeholders.\n\nExceptional visual taste, attention to detail and a strong point of view on contemporary design, technology and culture.\n\nExperience developing or evolving identity and design systems for nationally or globally recognized consumer brands.\n\nExperience leading the design expression of high-profile integrated campaigns, product launches and brand initiatives.\n\nCreative leadership experience within a leading brand design studio, advertising agency, consumer brand, in-house creative organization or a combination of these environments.\n\nExperience developing large-scale campaign systems that extend across digital, web, social, OOH, retail, experiential and other customer-facing channels.\n\nExperience applying foundational visual identity systems to campaign and launch work without compromising brand consistency or creative ambition.\n\nExperience developing photography frameworks, key art systems, typographic systems and distinctive approaches to product storytelling.\n\nExperience balancing long-term brand stewardship with the distinct creative needs of individual campaigns, launches and business priorities.\n\nExperience mentoring designers and art directors while raising the standard of conceptual thinking, systems thinking and visual craft.\n\nExperience building productive relationships with leading design studios, agencies, photographers, illustrators, typographers and creative talent.\n\nArt IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $296,400 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000 - $331,200 per year.\nCertain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:\nhttps://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay\nThis position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.\nMicrosoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.","description_format":"text","description_chars":9647,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Console Games","Cloud Platforms (IaaS & PaaS)","Gaming Consoles","Developer Tools"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-07T23:48:13Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":63,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.632,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":19,"reasons":["conf:1","stale_co","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-08T05:49:30Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":296400,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-creative-director-design","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-creative-director-design.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-09T00:32:27Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":713,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":4287,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-10T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":18},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=18"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-creative-director-design"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-creative-director-design"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-creative-director-design"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/microsoft-creative-director-design\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-creative-director-design"}]}