AI Art Director / Creative Specialist

VML South Africa; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 45,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Job summary

VML is seeking an AI Art Director / Creative Specialist to craft high-quality AI-generated visuals for campaigns, reporting to the Creative Director (AI). You will collaborate with art directors, copywriters, and production teams to generate assets inside WPP Open and stay at the forefront of AI tooling.

We value a strong aesthetic sense, disciplined prompting, and ethical AI practices. The role offers a hybrid schedule with four in-office days and opportunities to work with global brands.

Qualifications

• Strong eye for photography, composition, lighting, and color.
• Deep understanding of generation process and prompts.
• Brand briefs and style guides interpretation.
• Visual continuity across assets.

Responsibilities

• Generate on-brand static visuals, storyboards, and assets for pitches.
• Apply iterative prompting, image-to-image, and parameter tuning.
• Maintain lighting, style, color, characters, and objects across assets.
• Collaborate with studio, video editors, and directors on AI assets.
• Support client decks and presentations with visuals.
• Explore new tools and improve output quality.

Skills

Aesthetic Taste

Design Eye

Image & Video Generation

Ethical AI Practices

Tools

Google Imagen

Midjourney

Stable Diffusion

Adobe Creative Suite

Job description

Who We Are

VML is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brandsto drive growth. VML is celebrated for its innovative and award‑winning human‑first work for clients including AstraZeneca, Colgate‑Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca‑Cola Company, and Wendy's. In 2026, VML was namedCampaign’s Global Network of the Year and ranked #2 Creative Network of the Year at Cannes Lions. VML’s global network spans 55+ markets with principal offices in Buenos Aires, Kansas City, London, New York, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore.

VML is part of WPP, the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. Powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform WPP Open, WPP unites cutting‑edge media intelligence and data solutions, creativity, production, enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel.

For more information, please visit www.vml.com and follow along on LinkedIn #WeAreVML.AI

Art Director / Creative Specialist

Reports to: Creative Director, AI

Department: Creative / Agency Studio

Role Overview

We are looking for anAI Art Director / Creative Specialistto create high‑quality static visuals, campaign imagery, and video clips for our clients. Reporting directly to the Creative Director (AI), you will collaborate with Art Directors, Copywriters, Studio, Production, and Account teams to handle hands‑on AI asset generation.

Above all,this role requires excellent aesthetic taste, a strong eye for design, and a structured approach to model execution.You don't just rely on "lucky prompts"—you understand how AI models interpret inputs, how to control them through refined iteration processes, and how to consistently pull the highest‑quality outputs out of generative tools.

You will work primarily insideWPP Open, our enterprise AI hub, while staying active with external AI tools and models to keep our work at the forefront of the industry.

Key Responsibilities

• Campaign & Pitch Visuals:Work with Art Directors, Copywriters, and Creative Directors to generate on‑brand static visuals, storyboards, and presentation assets for pitches and campaigns.
• Model Execution & Optimization:Apply disciplined generation techniques (iterative prompting, image‑to‑image, parameter tuning, multi‑step generation) to reliably achieve commercial‑grade results.
• Visual & Character Consistency:Maintain consistency in lighting, style, color, characters, and objects across multi‑asset campaigns and video clips.
• Studio & Video Production:Partner with studio designers, video editors, and directors to concept, generate, and refine AI image and video assets for final campaign production.
• Account & Presentation Support:Assist Creative and Account teams by creating visual assets that elevate client decks and presentations.
• Model Exploration:Master WPP Open’s model stack while experimenting with new external tools, models, and execution methods to improve output quality.

Requirements

• Aesthetic Taste & Design Eye:A strong eye for photography, composition, lighting, and color. You know how to make AI generations look realistic, premium, and authentic—avoiding obvious AI artifacts.
• Execution & Process Knowledge:Deep understanding of the generation process—knowing how to troubleshoot bad outputs, refine prompts, manipulate parameters, and use image‑to‑image or video‑to‑video techniques to get precise results.
• Brand Understanding:Ability to review a brand brief or style guide and generate assets that fit the brand's aesthetic identity.
• Visual Continuity:Proven ability to achieve visual continuity (keeping the same character, object, or visual style consistent across multiple frames/generations).
• Multi‑Model Experience:Hands‑on experience with core image and video generation tools:
  • Image Models:Google (Nano Banana/Imagen), OpenAI (GPT Image), Adobe Firefly, Stable Diffusion, ByteDance (Seedream), Midjourney.
  • Video Models:Google Veo, OpenAI Sora, ByteDance Seedance, Runway, Luma.
  • Prompting/Text:Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, OpenAI GPT.
• Basic Post‑Production Skills:Ability to use Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Premiere) to clean up, crop, composite, or color‑correct AI outputs when needed.
• Ethical AI Practices:A clean, ethical approach to AI generation, respecting copyright and brand safety.

Portfolio Requirement

To be considered, candidatesmust submit a portfoliodemonstrating:

• AI Image & Video Generation:High‑quality examples of both static images and AI video clips.
• Visual & Character Continuity:Examples showing character, product/object, or style consistency maintained across multiple images or video frames.
• Execution & Process:Examples showing how you guided, iterated, or engineered prompts/inputs to move from an initial raw generation to a refined, commercial‑ready output.

The base salary for this position at the time of this posting may range between the values at the bottom of this posting. Individual compensation varies based on job‑related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications.-$45,000—$95,000 CAD

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.