Senior Manager - Creative Direction

Majid Al Futtaim; Dubai; On-site; AED 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

Majid Al Futtaim is seeking a Senior Manager of Creative Direction in Dubai to translate corporate narratives into distinctive visual identities and campaigns. You will lead creative decisions across Brand, Communications, Social, Events, and multimedia production, ensuring output aligns with group standards and governance.

The role introduces AI-enabled workflows and reusable assets to accelerate delivery.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required in design-related field.
• 8–10 years progressive experience in creative direction or brand leadership.
• Strong portfolio showing corporate campaigns, visual identities, and multimedia work.

Responsibilities

• Define the creative direction for corporate campaigns, leadership communications, digital content, events, social formats, and multimedia productions.
• Transform strategies into clear concepts, campaign territories, and visual storytelling approaches.
• Develop visual identities, design systems, toolkits, templates, and reusable brand assets.

Skills

Creative direction

Brand strategy

Visual identity

Brand governance

Visual storytelling

Campaign development

Design systems

Agency management

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Design, Marketing, Visual Communication, Creative Direction, or related field

Job description

Job Snapshot

Role: Senior Manager - Creative Direction

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Industry: Graphic Design

Function: Creative Direction-Lead

Experience: 8-10 years

Job Type: Full-time

Job Details

Country: United Arab Emirates

City: Dubai

Industry: Graphic Design

Function: Creative Direction-Lead

Salary: 35000-50000 Estimated salary range based on similar jobs in the job city; please confirm the final offer with the employer.

Gender: Any

Candidate Nationality: Any

Job Type: Full-time

Role Context

The Senior Manager - Creative Direction will translate Majid Al Futtaim’s corporate narrative, reputation priorities, and communication strategies into distinctive visual identities, campaign platforms, storytelling frameworks, and design systems. The position provides creative leadership across internal and external communications while ensuring every output remains recognizable, accessible, technically sound, and aligned with Group brand standards. Working across Brand, Corporate Communications, Social, Events, Leadership Communications, and multimedia production teams, the manager will guide creative decisions from initial concept through final delivery. The role will also establish practical standards, reusable assets, and AI-enabled production methods that help teams respond faster without compromising creative integrity.

Key Responsibilities

• Define the creative direction for corporate campaigns, leadership communications, digital content, events, social formats, and multimedia productions.
• Convert communication strategies and business objectives into clear creative concepts, campaign territories, and visual storytelling approaches.
• Lead the development of visual identities, design systems, campaign toolkits, templates, and reusable brand assets.
• Review creative briefs and provide direction on concepts, layouts, typography, imagery, motion, tone, and audience relevance.
• Ensure consistent brand expression across presentations, social media, websites, internal platforms, films, events, reports, and campaign materials.
• Establish quality standards for work produced by internal teams, agencies, freelancers, designers, and production partners.
• Guide creative teams through ideation, concept development, design refinement, production, and final approval.
• Collaborate with Brand, Corporate Communications, Internal Communications, Social, Events, and leadership offices.
• Balance creative ambition with communication clarity, accessibility, production feasibility, timelines, and budget requirements.
• Oversee campaign adaptations across markets, formats, languages, platforms, and audience segments.
• Protect brand consistency while allowing creative flexibility for different communication objectives.
• Introduce AI-powered tools for ideation, visual exploration, content adaptation, versioning, and workflow acceleration.
• Develop governance controls for responsible AI use, asset quality, intellectual property, and brand compliance.
• Use campaign results, engagement metrics, audience behavior, and stakeholder feedback to improve creative effectiveness.
• Identify underperforming creative approaches and recommend changes to messaging, visual treatment, format, or distribution.
• Manage creative agencies, specialist studios, freelancers, and external production partners.
• Evaluate external creative proposals, scopes, timelines, costs, and production capabilities.
• Provide clear feedback and ensure external partners deliver against agreed creative and technical standards.
• Maintain creative documentation, approval processes, source files, templates, and asset libraries.
• Monitor emerging design, content, multimedia, and artificial intelligence trends relevant to corporate communications.
• Mentor creative professionals and encourage stronger conceptual thinking, design craft, collaboration, and accountability.

Ideal Profile

• Bachelor's degree in Design, Marketing, Visual Communication, Creative Direction, or a related field.
• 8-10 years of progressive experience in creative direction, brand design, campaign development, or multidisciplinary creative leadership.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating corporate campaigns, visual identities, digital content, events, social media, and multimedia production.
• Proven ability to lead an end-to-end creative function from briefing and concept development through delivery and evaluation.
• Advanced understanding of brand strategy, visual identity systems, typography, composition, storytelling, and design governance.
• Experience directing creative work for internal communications, executive messaging, reputation campaigns, and external audiences.
• Demonstrated success managing agencies, freelance specialists, studios, and production partners.
• Strong knowledge of digital creative formats, motion design, presentation systems, event branding, and multimedia workflows.
• Practical experience introducing AI-assisted creative tools while maintaining quality, governance, and brand control.
• Ability to assess creative performance using campaign data, audience insights, and stakeholder feedback.
• Confident communication and presentation skills with the ability to influence senior leaders and cross‑functional teams.
• Strong judgment when balancing creative quality, stakeholder expectations, production constraints, and deadlines.
• Experience establishing toolkits, templates, creative standards, and scalable production systems.
• Leadership approach that develops talent, promotes constructive critique, and encourages original thinking.

Skills Set

• Creative direction
• Brand strategy
• Visual identity development
• Corporate communications
• Campaign development
• Creative strategy
• Design systems
• Brand governance
• Visual storytelling
• Digital creative production
• Multimedia production
• Social media creative
• Event branding
• Executive communications
• Art direction
• Creative quality assurance
• Agency management
• Freelancer management
• Creative briefing
• Concept development
• Campaign toolkits
• Template development
• Accessibility standards
• Performance-led creative optimization
• AI-powered design tools
• Creative workflow automation
• Stakeholder management
• Team leadership

Why Join Us

This role provides the opportunity to shape the creative expression of a prominent regional organization across leadership communications, enterprise campaigns, digital channels, events, and reputation‑building initiatives. The successful candidate will influence how complex corporate messages are transformed into memorable and effective audience experiences. The position offers senior creative ownership, exposure to diverse business sectors, and the ability to introduce modern design systems and AI‑assisted production practices. It also provides a stable platform for building creative teams, strengthening governance, and establishing standards that influence communications across the wider Group.

About the Company

Majid Al Futtaim is a leading regional organization with businesses across retail, shopping malls, communities, leisure, and entertainment. Its Corporate Communications function develops campaigns, executive content, events, internal engagement, and multimedia communications that express the Group’s strategy, culture, achievements, and reputation.