Senior Art Director

tms; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 93,000 - 98,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

tms is seeking a Senior Art Director to lead creative strategy and execution for a fun, highly visual CPG candy brand and a diverse beauty, personal care, and home portfolio.

You'll shape visual direction across campaigns, launches, e-commerce, social, and photography/videography, partnering with the Creative Director and teams to deliver standout work that resonates with consumers.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of art direction and design experience in an agency or brand environment.
• Exceptional design and brand-building skills with experience developing brand identities and visual systems.
• Proficient in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign; strong experience with Figma and/or Sketch.
• Strong command of typography, color, composition, and UX; motion graphics a plus.
• Portfolio showing creative concepting, storytelling, and execution across channels.

Responsibilities

• Lead large design initiatives and product launches with high craft standards.
• Direct photoshoots and video shoots; develop shot lists and mood boards.
• Oversee retouching to ensure polished, consistent final delivery.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align on creative direction.
• Mentor designers and partner with clients to bring concepts to life.

Skills

Art direction

Brand building

Adobe CC

Figma

Sketch

Typography

Color theory

Storytelling

Photo direction

Video direction

Presentation skills

Client collaboration

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Airtable

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

Job description

About Us

tms unites technology, marketing, and sourcing to drive transformational change for the world's leading brands. With more than 1,400 employees across 28 countries, we offer an impressive range of solutions - from inspiration and innovation to category management and delivery.

About Us

Operating as a creative agency, a strategic consultancy, a sourcing business, and a technology provider, we engage with over 110 million customers every single day for our clients, including McDonald's, T-Mobile, O2, Starbucks, and adidas. Most importantly, we're a place where you can achieve great things, and be recognized as the best.

What Matters The Most

Breakthrough, business-driving ideas come from extraordinary people with the freedom to be their most authentic selves at work. Authenticity and diversity are critical elements of our business. They can only be realized when we create access and equity for all. We foster a culture of inclusion and belonging and aspire to be ever-evolving. tms is a place where brilliant people are better together. If you want your ideas to be heard and to contribute to a culture of inclusion and authenticity, bring us your voice! Visit us at tmsw.com.

Role Overview

Today, we're looking for a Senior Art Director who brings big ideas, exceptional design craft, and a strong point of view to everything they create. In this role, you'll split your time across two exciting consumer businesses—from a fun, highly visual CPG candy brand to a diverse portfolio spanning beauty, personal care, and home.

Working closely with the Creative Director and design team, you'll help shape visual direction across campaigns, product launches, e-commerce, social, digital, photography, and video. From dreaming up the big idea and building mood boards to directing shoots and obsessing over the final details, you'll have a hand in bringing the work to life from start to finish.

We're looking for someone who is equally energized by creative thinking and great design - a natural storyteller who wants to build brands, create compelling presentations, deliver memorable consumer experiences, and turn products into things people want to engage with.

You'll work closely with copywriters while having an opportunity to mentor designers, collaborate with cross-functional teams and clients, and oversee photo and video productions from concept through delivery.

If you're a designer at heart, love pushing creative boundaries, thrive in a fast-moving environment, and want the opportunity to make a visible impact across some seriously fun consumer brands,we'd love to meet you.

Digging a Little Deeper

• Take on large design initiatives and product launches, ensuring every project meets a high craft bar and reflects the big-picture brand vision.
• Direct large-scale photoshoots and video shoots, including the development of shot lists, style references, mood boards, and storyboards.
• Oversee and direct retouching with the studio team to ensure final delivery is polished and consistent.
• Bring a passion for the Beauty and Food space, using category-specific insights to drive compelling creative.
• Partner closely with our DEX/Strategy, and Account/Ops teams to align on content hierarchy and approvals, and to ensure copy and visuals ladder up to the creative vision
• Help build best-in-class PDP (Product Detail Page) experiences that drive purchase intent by seamlessly blending visuals and copy
• Extend campaign and product narratives across channels: design and adapt visuals for retail placements, site, paid/social content, and other brand touchpoint - ensuring the messaging stays consistent while the execution fits each format.
• Collaborate with the Creative, Studio and client stakeholders to ensure visual direction aligns to the product - supporting related needs like packaging, toolkits, social/paid content and other retail content.
• Interpret and implement visual brand guides, translating them effectively throughout all brand communitcations
• Utilize organizations tools like Airtable and Digital Asset Management (DAM) programs to manage content and dynamic creation workflows

Skills And Experience

• 4+ years of art direction and design experience in an agency or brand environment, with a strong background in CPG, retail, e-commerce, digital commerce, and/or consumer brands.
• Exceptional design and brand-building skills, with experience developing brand identities, visual systems, and large-scale brand and product guidelines. Packaging and POP/display experience is a plus.
• Expert-level proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) and strong experience with Figma and/or Sketch.
• Strong command of design fundamentals including typography, color, photography, composition, layout, hierarchy, and user experience. Motion graphics experience is a plus.
• Proven creative concepting and storytelling skills, with a portfolio that demonstrates fresh thinking, strong visual storytelling, and exceptional execution across a range of projects and channels. Experience with kids, character, gaming, or promotional design is a plus.
• Experience directing photo and video production, including developing storyboards, building creative treatments, and partnering with production teams, photographers, directors, stylists, and talent to bring creative concepts to life.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate and sell a creative vision, while collaborating with clients and cross-functional partners.
• Highly organized with an exceptional eye for detail, able to manage multiple projects, priorities, and deadlines while maintaining a high creative bar and never losing sight of the bigger picture.

Starting salary between $93,000 and $98,000

Total Rewards

Benefits

Our total rewards philosophy integrates programs for compensation, benefits, recognition, learning and development, corporate culture, corporate citizenship and work-life balance. While individual program components may differ by country, some things remain constant:

• Our commitment to rewarding results
• Opportunities to work with talented and driven individuals at every level of our company who respect each other, treat each other fairly and hold one another accountable for our customers'-and our company's'-success

There's more ...

Generous Medical, Dental, Vision And Other Great Benefits

• Paid parental and medical leave programs
• 401(k) with a company match component and profit sharing
• 15 days of paid time off plus company holidays
• Hybrid work model
• Tuition reimbursement and student loan repayment assistance
• Inclusive employee resource groups

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Recruiting Agencies

tms does not accept agency resumes submitted by third-party vendors unless a valid agreement has been signed and the tms Talent Acquisition Team has granted authorization for submissions for a specified position. Please do not submit or forward resumes to our site, tms employees, or any other company location. tms is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.