Creative Director - Brand Narrative

Mercury Com; New York (NY); On-site; USD 170,000 - 237,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercury.com is seeking a Creative Director to build and lead the Brand Narrative function within Brand Creative. You will translate company strategy, product truths, customer insight, and cultural observations into original, film-led concepts for major launches and campaigns.

In this role, you will lead concept development from early exploration through delivery, collaborating with Product Marketing, Brand Marketing, design, and writing to shape ideas that resonate across film, social, and

Qualifications

• Strong foundation in art direction, design, or copywriting.
• Portfolio showing original concepts across formats.
• Ability to explain contribution and collaboration impact.
• Deep film experience and production instincts.
• Experience developing film-led ideas from concept through production.

Responsibilities

• Originate and lead major creative ideas with cross-functional partners.
• Create concepts for film, social, OOH, digital, experiences, and partnerships.
• Collaborate with Brand Design and Writing from exploration to delivery.
• Test ideas using rough scripts, prototypes, and AI tools.
• Build Brand Narrative with clear priorities and standards.

Skills

Art direction

Design

Copywriting

Film production

Leadership

Communication

Tools

AI tools

Job description

Mercury.com is seeking a Creative Director to build and lead the Brand Narrative function within Brand Creative. In this role, you will translate company strategy, product truths, customer insight, and cultural observations into original, film-led concepts for major launches and campaigns, carrying ideas through to finished work.

Location

New York, NY (onsite)

Compensation

USD 170,400 - 236,700 per year

Role Focus

In your first year, the work is expected to be roughly 70% leading creative development for the highest-priority launches and campaigns, and 30% building the Brand Narrative function.

Responsibilities

• Originate and lead major creative ideas, partnering with Product Marketing and Brand Marketing to shape the brief into original concepts grounded in audience, opportunity, and product proof.
• Create concepts that can express across film, social, out-of-home, digital, experiences, and partnerships.
• Bring ambitious ideas to life with the creative peers and the full studio, working alongside Brand Design and Writing leads from early exploration through delivery.
• Develop ideas collaboratively through thoughtful critique, making creative choices informed by each discipline’s expertise.
• Stay hands-on through your own craft, partnering closely with Motion and Production.
• For film work, remain closely involved across scripts, visual development, production, and the final edit.
• Build audience and distribution thinking into the idea, shaping how people discover, watch, and share the work.
• Collaborate with marketing partners to consider channels and viewing contexts from the beginning, ensuring the work belongs where people encounter it.
• Lead concept development and critique, pushing beyond the first good answer and learning quickly.
• Use rough scripts, prototypes, and AI tools to test ideas quickly and advance the strongest work.
• Know when to continue exploring versus when to commit, protecting what makes an idea compelling through feedback and production.
• Identify opportunities before a brief arrives by bringing curiosity about Mercury’s products, customers, and the wider world.
• Develop proactive ideas and cultural opportunities that help the brand say or do something meaningful.
• Help determine where creative ambition matters most by partnering early with Product Marketing, Brand Marketing, Product Design, Comms, and Insights.
• Recommend where Mercury should invest most creatively, informed by marketing and insights partners, and use results to inform what comes next.
• Build and lead Brand Narrative by defining the team’s purpose, priorities, creative standards, and working methods.
• Help hire and develop the team, shaping structure and capability.
• Set clear expectations and coach people to strengthen judgment and conceptual depth.
• Create a culture where the best idea wins, including experimentation, honest feedback, and contributions across disciplines.
• Practice generosity in leadership by sharing ownership and encouraging constructive creative challenge without turning creativity into credit competition.
• Establish practices that strengthen the work, including a clear path from insight and brief to concept and execution with close collaboration and useful critique.
• Develop relationships with external creatives and agencies to add distinctive perspectives or capabilities when needed.

Requirements

• A strong creative foundation in art direction, design, or copywriting.
• A portfolio demonstrating original concepts developed into ambitious, well-crafted work across multiple formats.
• The ability to explain your contribution, how ideas evolved, and how collaboration improved outcomes.
• Deep film experience.
• Experience developing film-led ideas from concept through production, with strong instincts for story, scripts, performance, pacing, and sound.
• An understanding of how creative decisions combine to make an audience feel something, not just make a film look good.
• A track record of deep creative collaboration with design and writing peers.
• Ability to lead ambitious multidisciplinary work from concept through production by building trusted partnerships.
• A clear point of view paired with active listening, constructive handling of creative disagreements, and recognition of when others strengthen the work.
• Evidence that collaborators shaped the outcome, not only what you originated.
• Strong taste, cultural awareness, and product curiosity.
• Experience finding the human truth in complex business or product contexts and translating it into something clear, surprising, and memorable.
• Experience developing creative people and shaping how a team works.
• Capability to give specific, useful feedback, set a high bar with care, and create conditions for creative risk-taking.
• Interest in building a new function, including the day-to-day practices that create its culture.
• Clear communication and sound judgment.
• Ability to rally people around an ambitious concept, explain the case for investment, and manage competing perspectives while protecting the idea.
• Comfort owning work in ambiguous situations while balancing creative ambition with the need to move forward.

Technologies

• AI tools

Benefits

• Mercury’s total rewards package includes base salary, equity (stock options/RSUs), and benefits.
• Salary and equity ranges are competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and updated regularly using reliable compensation survey data.
• New hire offers are based on experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers.
• US employees in NYC, Los Angeles, Seattle, or San Francisco Bay Area: $189,400 - $236,700 USD.
• US employees outside NYC, Los Angeles, Seattle, or San Francisco Bay Area: $170,400 - $213,000 USD.
• Canadian employees (any location): $179,000 - $223,700 CAD.

What You’ll Bring

• A strong creative foundation in art direction, design, or copywriting.
• Deep film experience.
• A track record of deep creative collaboration with design and writing peers.
• Strong taste, cultural awareness, and product curiosity.
• Experience developing creative people and shaping how a team works.
• Clear communication and sound judgment.

What Success Looks Like

• Within a year, lead major launches and film-led campaigns from original concept through finished work, with Brand Design and Writing as creative partners from the beginning.
• Ensure studio disciplines shape the work together, with audience and distribution informing the creative approach.
• Establish Brand Narrative with a clear identity, shared creative standards, and working practices that help the team test and develop stronger ideas.
• Build a pipeline of proactive opportunities alongside planned launches to expand how Mercury expresses product ambition through originality and cultural relevance.

Portfolio & Submission

• Include a portfolio featuring film-led work and broader campaign concepts.
• Describe your role in developing ideas, the choices you made through production, and how you brought the work to life with others.