Creative Engineering Director

Criticalmass; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Maternity and parental leave extraDays

Competitive benefits packages

Vacation, compassionate leave, sick, &

Flex days

Access to online services for families

Diversity and Inclusion Board with 12

Internal learning and development

Enterprise-wide employee discounts

Job summary

Critical Mass is seeking a Creative Engineering Director to own the discipline of turning ideas into scalable design systems across websites, emails, social and in-platform interfaces. You will mentor Creative Engineering Leads, ACEDs, and engineers, define the vision, and drive AI adoption, ensuring accessibility and security standards across accounts.

You will also lead client-facing storytelling and new business opportunities, building trusted relationships and shaping technical narratives

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in creative technology or a related field with leadership
• Proven experience mentoring managers and engineers
• Deep expertise in design systems architecture across multiple formats
• Experience using AI to solve client challenges and improve workflows
• Strong ability to translate complex technical work into clear stories for executives

Responsibilities

• Define the vision for scalable design systems across websites, emails, social, and in-platform interfaces
• Lead and mentor Creative Engineering Leads, ACEDs, and engineers
• Champion AI adoption and toolsets across accounts
• Ensure compliance, accessibility, and security standards across teams and clients
• Represent the function in new business and client relationships
• Own the narrative in high-stakes presentations to C-suite audiences

Skills

Design systems leadership

People leadership

AI adoption

Executive storytelling

Client relationships

Team building

Presentation narrative

Job description

Role

Creative Engineering is the discipline that turns ideas into systems, the connective tissue between concept and code, between craft and scale. As a Creative Engineering Director, you own that discipline across accounts. You set the standards, define the vision for how our design systems are built, and make sure every team under you is pushing the same bar for craft, speed, and innovation.

Internally, you're building the bench. You manage and mentor Creative Engineering Leads, Associate Creative Engineering Directors, and the Engineers coming up behind them, setting the standard for how design systems get built and how AI gets used, not as a novelty, but as a tool that makes the work better and the team faster.

You Will

Ecosystem & Systems Leadership

• Define the vision for complex, scalable design systems that hold up across websites, emails, social, in-platform interfaces, and every format in between


• Set the strategy for how Dynamic Creative Optimization and dynamic content are applied across accounts, guiding teams on when it's the right tool for the job


• Identify ways AI can solve client challenges or improve workflows across the function, and champion the adoption of new tools and platforms


• Champion compliance, accessibility, and security standards across teams and clients

Client & Business Leadership

• Represent Creative Engineering with clients and in new business creating compelling stories that win pitches and organically shape new opportunities within your craft


• Build trusted relationships with clients as the go-to voice on what's technically possible


• Own the narrative in high-stakes presentations, translating complex technical work into a story any audience can follow

Team Leadership & Culture

• Manage and mentor Creative Engineering Leads, Associate Creative Engineering Directors, and engineers across the function, building a leadership pipeline beneath you


• Lead the innovation agenda for the function piloting new tools, formats, and processes before they become standard


• Champion talent development and culture, creating an environment where engineers want to grow and stay

Craft & Quality

• Set and enforce the bar for technical craft across every team you oversee


• Stay close enough to the work to catch what's broken and coach the fix, you lead by example, not just by title

You Have

• 10+ years of experience in creative technology, front-end development, or a related field, with a track record of leading teams and functions


• Proven experience managing and mentoring managers (CE Leads, ACEDs) as well as individual engineers


• Deep expertise in design systems architecture, with experience defining vision and strategy across websites, emails, social, and in-platform formats not just execution


• Experience using AI to solve client challenges and improve workflows, with a point of view on where the function should invest next


• A strong presentation narrative for internal and external audiences you can walk a room of engineers or a room of C-suite clients through the same idea


• Experience representing a function in new business and client relationships


• A track record of building and scaling teams, processes, and standards across accounts

What we offer:

• Maternity and parental leave extra days


• Competitive benefits packages


• Vacation, compassionate leave, sick days, and flex days


• Access to online services for families and new parents


• Diversity and Inclusion Board with 12 affinity groups


• Internal learning and development programs


• Enterprise-wide employee discounts


• And more…

At Critical Mass, we value our employees and offer competitive compensation and benefits packages. If you're looking for a challenging and rewarding opportunity to make a significant impact on the lives of our employees,

The Talent Team at Critical Mass is focused on ensuring we provide the best training, onboarding, and employee experience possible! Our new hires & employees are the future of our organization, and we want to set you up for long-term success. In an effort to do so, we expect our team towork from anoffice a minimum of 3 days a week.

The ask stems from our want to:

• Strengthen opportunity for continuous learning


• Improve collaboration and team relationships.


• Increase employee engagement

This work model balances the need for individual flexibility while maintaining the relentless customer focus we provide at CM. We understand that not everyone may feel comfortable with this expectation, so we ask that you please let us know immediately if there are any concerns so we can help navigate accordingly.