Technical Creative Director, Generative Imagery Systems

Apple Inc.; Culver City (CA); On-site; USD 205,800 - 378,800; Full time

Job summary

Apple Inc. seeks a Technical Creative Director for Generative Imagery Systems in Culver City, CA. You will guide AI-driven imagery across products, shaping visual modes and quality benchmarks with Design and Product teams.

You will lead cross‑functional groups of artists, technologists, and engineers to build scalable pipelines and rigorous evaluation frameworks, while prioritizing ethical, human-centric visual storytelling.

Qualifications

• Deep experience guiding generative imagery in product contexts.
• Ability to lead diverse teams across design, ML/AI and engineering.
• Strong creative vision combined with technical know-how.
• Proven track record translating technical possibilities into creative direction.
• Experience shaping ethical and responsible generative media.

Responsibilities

• Co‑develop creative direction for AI-generated imagery across Apple platforms.
• Lead generative artists, technologists, and designers in cross‑functional projects.
• Build scalable creative pipelines with quality control and consistent style.
• Create evaluation frameworks to measure quality of AI imagery.
• Explore new formats and applications with product and platform teams.
• Collaborate on standards for responsible generative work including provenance and bias.
• Align strategy with Design, ML/AI, Marketing, and Engineering.
• Bridge sourced, captured, and generated imagery into a coherent ecosystem.

Skills

Generative AI leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Creative direction

Artistic critique

Technical storytelling

Job description

Technical Creative Director, Generative Imagery Systems

Culver City, California, United States Design

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 products 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 Technical Creative Director, Generative Imagery Systems, to lead work at the intersection of generative AI, visual craft, and product storytelling. This role will help define what AI‑made visual media looks like when it's held to Apple's standard of quality, intentionality, and humanity. You'll shape both the what and the how of generative visuals at Apple, working alongside Design, ML/AI, Marketing, and Engineering teams, across photorealism, illustration, motion, texture, spatial media, and formats that don't exist yet. You come from a technical or computational background but think like an artist and communicate like a creative leader. You thrive in deeply collaborative environments where the best outcome comes from combining perspectives, not working in isolation. This is a rare opportunity to help define a creative discipline at the moment it's being born, inside a company where craft and intentionality aren't aspirations but requirements.

Description

As Technical Creative Director of Generative Imagery Systems, you will:

• Co‑develop the creative direction for how generative AI produces imagery worthy of Apple's in‑product experience, working with Design and Product teams to align on visual modes, styles, and quality benchmarks
• Lead and collaborate with generative artists, creative technologists, tool developers, and generative systems designers across projects that require tight cross‑functional coordination
• Partner with Engineering and tool development teams to build creative pipelines that allow generative work to be produced at scale with consistency, quality control, and stylistic precision
• Co‑create evaluation frameworks with Design, ML/AI, and QA partners that codify what "good" looks like for AI‑generated imagery, and build shared systems to measure and enforce it
• Explore new formats and applications alongside product and platform teams, charting where generative imagery goes next across spatial computing, interactive experiences, and emerging platforms
• Collaborate with policy, legal, and ethics partners to develop standards for responsible generative creative, including provenance, bias, and representation
• Align generative creative strategy with teams across Design, ML/AI, Marketing, and Engineering through ongoing partnership and shared planning
• Work with sibling content teams to build bridges between sourced, captured, and generated imagery, ensuring a coherent creative ecosystem

Minimum Qualifications

• Deep, hands‑on fluency with generative models (diffusion, transformer‑based synthesis, procedural systems, or related architectures) and practical understanding of how model architecture, training data, and parameter choices manifest in visual outcomes
• Experience building or directing creative tools, custom pipelines, or production workflows that harness ML/AI for visual output at scale, including control mechanisms, fine‑tuning methods, and reproducibility infrastructure
• Knowledge of inference and deployment considerations: compute tradeoffs, optimization techniques, and how they constrain or enable creative decisions
• Experience designing evaluation systems for generated imagery, whether quantitative metrics, structured human review, or both
• A refined visual eye and a body of work that demonstrates taste, craft, and a point of view, in any format (portfolio, generative art, research, tools, experimental projects)
• Experience building teams or practices from zero in ambiguous, emerging spaces, with a track record of bringing cross‑functional partners along from the start
• Ability to translate technical possibilities into creative direction that non‑technical partners can rally around and contribute to
• A deep sense of responsibility about the ethical, cultural, and societal implications of generated imagery

Preferred Qualifications

• A point of view on where generative imagery is headed in 3-5 years, and the conviction to make bets
• Background in adjacent fields: VFX pipelines, computational photography, real‑time rendering, creative coding, or technical art direction
• Direct experience training models or contributing to model development, not just using existing tools
• Understanding of data provenance, rights‑cleared training, and responsible model infrastructure
• Exposure to emerging areas: video generation at scale, 3D asset generation, spatial/volumetric content, or audio‑visual synthesis
• A history of thriving in matrixed, cross‑functional environments where influence matters more than authority

At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $205,800 and $378,800, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.

Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple’s discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You’ll also receive benefits including: Comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses — including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Learn more about Apple Benefits.

Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.

Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek to promote equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. Learn more about your EEO rights as an applicant.

At Apple, we believe accessibility is a fundamental human right. You’ll find that idea reflected in everything here — in our culture, our benefits and our digital tools. By welcoming as many perspectives as possible, we help you build a career where you feel like you belong.

Learn about accessibility in Apple’s workplace.

Learn about reasonable accommodations for job applicants.

Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.