Art Director

OpenKrill; United States; On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Kettle is seeking an Art Director to lead digital design for major Bay Area client projects. You will collaborate with Creative Directors, Designers, Copy, UX, and Production to translate the creative North Star into a clear, ownable design direction.

You will guide visual development while mentoring designers and presenting to senior stakeholders. This onsite role requires coordinating across teams, delivering pixel-perfect digital experiences, and driving design quality while staying ahead of

Qualifications

• Significant experience in digital design and art direction.
• Excellent collaboration and communication with cross-functional partners.
• Strong client collaboration and presentation skills.
• Mastery in Photoshop and Illustrator, proficiency in Keynote; experience with Figma and Sketch.
• Experience mentoring designers at varying levels.

Responsibilities

• Lead visual development and design direction for end-to-end digital projects.
• Partner with Creative Directors, Designers, Copy, UX, and Production to deliver pixel-perfect work.
• Translate creative concepts into actionable design directions your team can own.
• Present concepts and defend design decisions to senior clients and stakeholders.
• Mentor designers and guide workstreams across engagements.

Skills

Digital design

Art direction

Collaboration & communication

Client presentation

Mentoring designers

Tools

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

Keynote

Figma

Sketch

Prototyping

Job description

Kettle is a team of passionate, fearless creatives focused on delivering great products, redefining best-practices, and providing new opportunities for our clients.

We are hiring Art Directors to join our team designing end-to-end digital website projects for one of our largest clients, a Bay Area based creative tech company. In this embedded role, you’ll partner with Creative Directors, Designers, Copy, UX, Production, and our client to create world‑class digital experiences. You’ll help translate the creative North Star into a clear and own‑able design direction, lead the visual development of projects, and guide Designers through execution. You’ll be hands-on in the work while also acting as a creative lead for your project or workstream. If the term conceptual digital design and detailed execution resonates with you, then this role may be a fit.

These roles require team members to be onsite 5 days per week, for 2-3 months at a time, for specific projects. At other times during the year, the team is remote.

Candidates should have:

• Significant experience in digital design and art direction, with a strong track record of leading projects and delivering pixel-perfect digital work
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills with cross‑functional partners, including Design, Copy, UX, Motion, Production, and Account
• Strong client collaboration and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate and defend creative and design decisions to senior‑level clients and stakeholders
• Mastery in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Keynote, proficiency in Figma and Sketch, with additional motion, prototyping, or emerging creative technology experience a plus
• Experience mentoring and guiding designers of different levels, including through formal and informal feedback and reviews
• While not required, bonus if you have experience both in‑house and with creative agencies

We’d like to know that you can:

• Drive the creation of distinctive, forward‑thinking, on‑brand digital design solutions that answer the brief and bring something extra to the work
• Translate the creative North Star into a clear visual direction that Designers can understand, build from, and ultimately own
• Partner closely with Copy and other creative disciplines to develop simple, relevant concepts and experiences where the writing, design, UX, and art direction feel completely connected
• Confidently communicate and present complex design concepts and digital interactions to both internal teams and senior client audiences
• Understand and challenge client needs to ensure the integrity and excellence of the work
• Work through exploration and execution, providing clear feedback while giving them room to solve and contribute
• Work with cross‑functional leads to prioritize work and resources across engagements based on short and long‑term needs
• Stay ahead of emerging design practices, technologies, and design culture, identifying opportunities to elevate both design quality and user experience
• Champion an agile design process and establish best practices that raise the quality and consistency of work
• Actively solicit, interpret, and incorporate feedback from diverse sources, using it to improve design outcomes and mentor less experienced designers
• Be both a collaborative lead and a highly proactive individual contributor

The target range of base compensation for this role is $110k - $140k. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and location.