Creative Director, Visual Media Strategy (Product, Design & Marketing)

Apple; Culver City (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple is seeking a Creative Director, Visual Media Strategy to lead a new team focused on the creative and editorial strategy for photo, video, illustration, and generative content across Apple services. This leadership role sets the creative bar, editorial POV, and systems that enable exceptional visuals to reach every surface.

You will lead the formation of a practice that combines experts in visual trends, curation, licensing, and art buying, and you'll collaborate with Brand, Design, and

Qualifications

• 12+ years in visual media leadership across consumer tech or media.
• Strong editorial judgment and ability to set direction across a large brand.
• Experience directing visual content strategy across large media libraries.
• Proven people leadership and team development.
• Ability to synthesize domain expertise with business needs.
• Experience influencing product direction and user engagement.
• Clear communicator with senior leadership presentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the new visual strategy function and set its operating model.
• Define editorial direction and ensure brand integrity.
• Partner with Brand and Design to push creative execution.
• Define how generative AI tools integrate into workflows.
• Oversee art buying, licensing, and original artwork creation.

Skills

Visual media leadership

Editorial judgment

People leadership

Strategic synthesis

Job description

Summary

At Apple, extraordinary ideas become products, services, and experiences that shape culture. Bring passion and precision to your craft, and there’s no limit to what you can build.The Content Design team supports Apple Services and defines the content experience across some of Apple's most visible products. We focus on how people consume, create, and connect across all our applications.We're looking for a Creative Director, Visual Media Strategy to lead a new team centered on the creative and editorial strategy for photo, video, illustration, and generative visual content across Apple services.This is a leadership and strategy role. You’ll head a new practice that brings together experts in visual trend forecasting, imagery curation, research & licensing, and art buying and you’ll define how this new team operates. You'll set the creative bar, the editorial point of view, and the systems that let exceptional visual content reach every surface. Your scope starts focused on key services and scales from there.

Description

The right person has exceptional taste and strong strategic instinct. You anticipate shifts in the visual landscape before they fully emerge, translate cultural and product signals into clear direction, and know how to make generative AI a serious tool within each domain area to drive ever-better work. And you know how to bring people along with you, nurturing talent and paving new ways of working.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the organization's leading voice on visual trends, emerging aesthetics, and cultural shifts.
• Translate those insights into actionable creative direction for your teams.
• Define and stand up a new visual strategy function: set its operating model, priorities, and output standards.
• Partner with Brand and Design to interpret brand vision and push creative execution further.
• Define how generative AI tools integrate into existing curation, research, licensing, and art buying workflows.
• Set quality, ethical, and brand-integrity standards for their use.
• Contribute creative direction to high-visibility projects across photography, video, and generative art.
• Direct the curation and evaluation of photo, video, illustration, and multimedia, holding a high bar for taste, originality, inclusivity, and technical execution.
• Oversee art buying: sourcing, commissioning, licensing, and creation of original artwork and illustration, including through generative AI workflows.
• Guide curation informed by performance metrics, cultural insights, and product priorities, supporting evergreen needs and seasonal or tentpole moments.
• Develop repeatable programming concepts and signature collection approaches that build identity and amplify launches across the app ecosystem.
• Maintain deep knowledge of the commercial art landscape.
• Proactively identify illustrators, visual trends, and emerging creative approaches at the leading edge.
• Oversee content systems that let creative work reach every surface: sourcing frameworks, taxonomy, lifecycle planning, and governance.
• Drive requirements for CMS platforms, DAM, metadata standards, and automation tooling that support curation at scale.
• Establish quality rubrics, review workflows, and editorial calendars that enable global consistency without flattening cultural relevance.
• Ensure licensing compliance, usage rights documentation, and clear processes that reduce legal exposure while increasing speed to market.
• Manage partner relationships (stock houses, boutique agencies, independent creators, AI-driven platforms) and oversee vendor selection and contract terms.
• Partner with Data Science and Strategy to interpret engagement signals, refine curation, and measure performance over time.
• Collaborate with International teams to ensure visual media reflects local aesthetics and cultural nuances.
• Synthesize domain expertise with business needs and product context to identify opportunities others miss, and drive them to completion.

Minimum Qualifications

• 12+ years in visual media leadership (photo, video, illustration, or multimedia) within creatively driven environments such as consumer technology, publishing, streaming/media, or creative agencies serving those industries.
• Strong editorial judgment and demonstrated ability to set creative direction across a large brand or product ecosystem, not just select content within it.
• Experience building and directing visual content strategy across large-scale media libraries or digital platforms.
• Proven people leadership: experience managing, developing, and unifying creative teams.
• Demonstrated ability to synthesize domain expertise with business needs to identify improvement opportunities and drive them to completion with initiative, even without pre-defined roadmaps.
• Experience defining or evolving a visual media strategy that directly influenced product direction, brand perception, or user engagement.
• Clear, effective communicator with experience presenting to senior and executive leadership and aligning cross-functional partners.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficiency in generative AI image tools and workflows (prompting, evaluation, governance), with the ability to maintain brand integrity and quality standards.
• Experience with CMS, automation tools, metadata standards, cataloging, and taxonomy practices.
• Familiarity with a wide range of content sources, from enterprise providers (Getty, AP, Shutterstock) to boutique agencies to individual contributors and AI-driven platforms.
• Experience with enterprise-level vendor negotiations and partner management in media/content.
• Experience overseeing art buying, illustration commissions, or artwork licensing programs end-to-end.
• Track record on high-visibility, executive-facing creative projects with cross-functional senior stakeholders.
• Understanding of image and video rights, licensing, and clearance processes.