Creative Director, Original Photography & Visual Strategy

Lex; Greater London; On-site; GBP 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple in London is seeking a Creative Director to lead Original Photography, setting the visual direction for our work while running the operational engine that makes it possible. This role pairs craft with execution and oversees a team of Photo Art Directors and Producers across markets and formats.

You will own production budgets, scheduling and cross-functional delivery, partnering with Finance, Brand and Production Ops to scale and streamline processes.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a creative leader in photography or a visually-driven discipline, with a track record demonstrating a journalistic, story-first visual sensibility and fluency in cultural/aesthetic trends.
• Extensive experience managing and developing a team of art directors and/or producers, or similar creative/production teams.
• Demonstrated ability to own budgets and operational process, not just creative output.
• Comfort partnering with Brand, Design, Finance, Business Affairs, and Production Ops, with the ability to speak both creative and operational language.
• Hands-on experience leading performance management and workload planning.
• Experience standing up or scaling a creative function's operating model, standards, team structure.
• Experience building or maintaining a visual system at scale across multiple markets or product lines.

Responsibilities

• Visual strategy: Act as the organisation's leading voice on photography trends, emerging aesthetics and cultural shifts, and turn those insights into clear creative direction.
• Vision & strategy: Define a strategic point of view across projects, grounded in LOB-specific insights and design principles.
• Creative direction: Partner with Design to interpret the brand vision, and give creative direction and feedback on original photography so that design intent, scalability and clarity are maintained.
• Storytelling: Translate business needs into visuals that capture real moments and tell a story.
• Visual system: Build and maintain a scalable visual system that holds up across geos, apps and formats.
• Team leadership: Lead, evaluate and develop a team of Photo Art Directors and Producers, raising the bar on their work and delegating against team capacity.
• Budget and process: Own budget oversight for photography projects, and partner with Finance, Business Affairs and Production Ops to streamline process, scaling and budgeting.
• AI and innovation: Investigate how AI is changing the photography landscape, and use it to improve efficiency and creativity without compromising the quality or authenticity of original work.
• Process improvement: Explore tools that improve efficiency on set and in workflows, and contribute to studio-wide initiatives on culture, processes and innovation.

Skills

Creative leadership

Team leadership

Budget management

Photography expertise

Brand alignment

Cross-functional collaboration

Story-driven visuals

Global/geo experience

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Production tools

Job description

Apple in London is seeking a Creative Director to lead Original Photography, setting the visual direction for our work while running the operational engine that makes it possible. This role pairs craft with execution and oversees a team of Photo Art Directors and Producers across markets and formats.

You will own production budgets, scheduling and cross-functional delivery, partnering with Finance, Brand and Production Ops to scale and streamline processes.