Creative Director

Cantina; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and equity

Excellent health coverage

42 days of PTO; 15 vacation days, 10 s

Parental leave & fertility support

401(k) retirement savings plan

Lifestyle spending account – $500/mo

Complimentary lunch and snacks

One Medical membership

Job summary

Cantina in Los Angeles is seeking a Creative Director to own creative direction across original content, performance advertising, brand campaigns, and product storytelling. This is a hands-on role requiring you to write briefs, scripts, create assets, and direct editors and AI filmmakers.

You’ll recruit and lead a team of 10–25 creatives, develop video for paid and organic social, and turn product features into compelling hooks that drive engagement.

Qualifications

• A strong portfolio of video creative with measurable performance.
• Excellent storytelling instincts to establish a character, create tension, and deliver payoff quickly.
• Hands-on proficiency with video editing and motion design tools.
• Experience directing small creative teams and giving clear, actionable feedback.
• Understanding of creative metrics like hook rate, hold rate, CTR, CVR, and CPA.
• Practical experience with AI image, video, and audio production.
• Speed, taste, and willingness to try something strange if the idea is good.

Responsibilities

• Own creative direction across original content, performance advertising, brand campaigns, and product storytelling, defining our brand voice.
• Turn product capabilities into concepts people actually want to watch, share, and try.
• Recruit and lead a team of 10 to 25 creatives, including directors, editors, designers, writers, and AI filmmakers.
• Develop and produce video creative for paid social, organic social, product launches, and brand campaigns.
• Turn a product feature into a strong hook and clear story to drive trial.
• Write briefs, scripts, and treatments, build storyboards, and direct editors and AI filmmakers.
• Create and cut video, motion graphics, and AI-generated assets.
• Build testing plans with Growth to optimize concepts and CTAs.
• Develop platform-native creative with proper pacing and aspect ratios.
• Maintain a steady pipeline of fresh ideas and scalable formats.

Skills

Video editing

Motion design

Storytelling

Team leadership

Creative metrics

AI production

Idea generation

Job description

About Cantina:

Cantina is a new social platform founded by Sean Parker with the most advanced AI character creator. Our bots are lifelike, social creatures that can interact wherever people are online—across voice, video, and text. Create yourself, imagine someone new, or choose from thousands of characters to share infinitely scalable, personalized content and seamless group chat.

If you’re excited about how AI can shape creativity and social interaction, come help us build what’s next.

About the Role:

Cantina is looking for a Creative Director to own creative direction across original content, performance advertising, brand campaigns, and product storytelling. This is a hands‑on role: you’ll come up with the concept, write the script, generate assets, work through the edit, and keep pushing until it lands.

Some days you’ll direct a small team, and some days you’ll make the whole thing yourself.

What You’ll Do:

• Own creative direction across original content, performance advertising, brand campaigns, and product storytelling, defining our brand voice and making it recognizable everywhere.

• Turn product capabilities into concepts people actually want to watch, share, and try for themselves.

• Recruit and lead a team of 10 to 25 creatives, including creative directors, video editors, motion designers, visual designers, copywriters, screenwriters, producers, and AI filmmakers.

• Develop and produce video creative for paid social, organic social, product launches, and brand campaigns.

• Turn a product feature or consumer insight into a great hook, a clear story, and a reason to try Cantina.

• Write briefs, scripts, and treatments, build storyboards, and direct editors, designers, creators, and AI filmmakers.

• Make things yourself: cut video, create motion graphics, generate characters and scenes, experiment with voice and sound, and take concepts through to finished assets.

• Build performance creative testing plans with the growth team, testing concepts, hooks, offers, and calls to action, then using the results to decide what to make next.

• Develop platform-native creative with the right pacing, framing, captions, and aspect ratios for each placement.

• Keep a steady pipeline of fresh ideas and turn winning concepts into repeatable formats without running them into the ground.

What You’ll Bring:

• A strong portfolio of video creative, including performance advertising with measurable results.

• Great storytelling instincts: you know how to establish a character, create tension, and deliver a payoff in very little time.

• Hands‑on proficiency with video editing and motion design tools.

• Experience directing small creative teams and giving clear, actionable feedback.

• An understanding of creative metrics like hook rate, hold rate, CTR, CVR, and CPA, and how to use them to improve the work.

• Practical experience with AI image, video, and audio production, including the iteration it takes to get a usable result.

• Speed, taste, and a willingness to try something strange if the idea is good.

Compensation:

The anticipated annual base salary range for this role is between $250,000-$350,000. When determining compensation, a number of factors will be considered, including skills, experience, job scope, location, and competitive compensation market data.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary and generous company equity

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance – 99.99% of premiums covered by Cantina

• 42 days of paid time off, including:

  • 15 PTO days

  • 10 sick days

  • 15 company holidays

  • 2 floating holidays

• Generous parental leave & fertility support

• 401(k) retirement savings plan

• Lifestyle spending account – $500/month to use however you’d like

• Complimentary lunch and snacks for in-office employees

• One Medical membership, and more!