Creative Director - Key Art

MACH27 is seeking a Creative Director - Key Art to provide hands-on, day-to-day creative leadership across the agency. This role sets and protects creative standards, guides pitches and projects, and ensures quality while maintaining operational efficiency, with mentorship, data-informed strategy, and thoughtful integration of AI tools into the creative workflow.

Responsibilities

• Set and uphold the agency-wide creative standard by defining excellence across all work types, communicating it consistently, and holding the team accountable on every project regardless of size, budget, or timeline.
• Pitch, ideate, and develop bold, culturally resonant campaigns that strengthen client brands and stand out in a competitive landscape.
• Lead creative teams through the full project lifecycle, from kickoff to post-mortem, delivering clear direction at each stage and making decisive calls when the team reaches an impasse.
• Drive creative strategy using qualitative and quantitative data, incorporating audience insights, performance data, and market intelligence, and communicating findings to leadership regularly.
• Build trust-based client relationships and act as a primary creative partner by understanding client business goals, audiences, and brands, and bringing consistent commitment to client success.
• Develop and grow the creative team through mentorship and structured development planning, with honest assessment of strengths and gaps and proactive communication to leadership when readiness or resourcing is insufficient.
• Own agency brand standards across visual identity, creative style, and tone of voice, ensuring consistency, integrity, and freshness across all client deliverables.
• Partner with the CEO and business development team on agency promotional and marketing efforts across social channels, pitch documents, and RFP proposals, including generating estimates and defining scope of work.
• Work with the CEO to develop and evolve agency-wide creative methodologies and processes that improve quality, efficiency, and team satisfaction over time.
• Establish and evolve standards for AI tools within the creative workflow by evaluating emerging tools strategically and ensuring AI enhances quality and efficiency without replacing original thinking.
• Advise PMs on timeline, resourcing, and scope as a senior operational partner to support work health and velocity.
• Lead client and leadership conversations about campaign strategy and creative solutions with fluency and real-time problem-solving, supporting both existing clients and new business prospects.
• Model and cultivate a feedback culture with specific, actionable positive and constructive feedback delivered as an ongoing daily practice.
• Manage departmental capacity proactively so the team is never idle when client work is light, ensuring internal projects are queued and ready to assign.
• Maintain departmental financial health by understanding P&L, monitoring time booking across projects, and flagging proactively when hours trend over or resources are misallocated.
• Identify and manage freelance and vendor talent such as photographers, retouchers, and outside creative resources, ensuring work meets agency standards and stays within budget.
• Partner with HR to recruit, hire, and onboard creative talent aligned with agency standards, creative ambitions, and long-term capacity needs.
• Do work that earns recognition, with MACH27 noting Clio Gold and Silver awards and expecting similar ambition in every brief.

Requirements

• 13+ years of experience as a creative leader with key art expertise.
• A portfolio demonstrating a career-long record of creative excellence, conceptual leadership, and award-caliber work across formats, genres, and campaign types.
• Expert knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, with the ability to engage at a production level to provide technically informed creative direction.
• Strategic command of project management tools and agency operations, using data from tools such as Asana or Monday.com to guide team structure, resourcing, and creative output.
• Deep expertise in key art and entertainment marketing, including multi-platform campaign development across theatrical, streaming, gaming, music, live events, and emerging formats.
• Proven ability to develop and implement creative methodologies, brand standards, and agency-wide processes that improve quality, consistency, and team performance over time.
• Strong photography technical skills (compositing, problem-solving, color grading, light and shadow) at a level that informs how others are directed.
• Expert knowledge of the business side of design, including budgeting, scoping, profitability, client economics, and departmental P&L and time reports.
• Proven track record mentoring and managing diverse creative talent.
• Strong client-facing presence as a trusted creative and operational partner.
• Ability to move fluidly between creative vision and operational execution.
• Exceptional communication with clients, leadership, and team members, including clear, consistent feedback delivered with care.
• Highly organized, proactive management of departmental time and capacity with an ability to anticipate gaps and keep the team productive.
• Strategic approach to talent, speaking up early when a gap threatens delivery and not waiting for missed deadlines.
• Culturally attuned, forward-looking perspective across entertainment, design, technology, and culture.
• Established approach to AI tool standards across the creative team: strategic evaluation, informed adoption decisions, and emphasis on original thinking.
• Growth mindset with investment in team development.
• Executive-level fluency in Google Suite, including real-time development of high-stakes presentations.

Technologies

• Adobe Creative Suite
• Asana
• Monday.com
• Google Suite

Compensation

• Starting base compensation range: $158,863 - $265,000 annually (selected city).
• Compensation may vary based on certifications, location, prior experience, and qualifications.
• MACH27 uses Aon Radford as the primary compensation database for benchmarking.

Benefits

• Full benefits package (health/dental/vision/HSA).
• $50,000 fully company-paid life insurance policy.
• 401(k) with a 4% match (no vesting period).
• 25 Days of Paid Time Off (PTO), plus twelve national holidays and additional early release days.
• Yearly performance, compensation, and inflation adjustment.
• Potential year-end bonus.
• Employee wellness benefits and mental health support.
• Flexible location and hours policy.
• Yearly employee development fund.
• Transparent Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and culture initiatives.
• Regular employee engagement events.
• Mentorship focused development.
• Creative office space near downtown Culver City.

About MACH27

MACH27 is a Los Angeles-based creative and design agency providing services in entertainment creative, multi-platform design packages, digital advertising strategy, key art design, print, out-of-home, photo and video content production, brand campaign ideation, and production.

Location

Culver City, CA (onsite).