Associate Creative Director

About Us Hovercraft is a dynamic and innovative creative design firm that partners with brands to craft compelling experiences through design, strategy, and technology. We specialize in creating standout visuals, interactive digital content, and impactful branding solutions that push the boundaries of creativity. The Role Hovercraft is looking for an Associate Creative Director to lead conceptual and design duties for our Experience Team. The ideal candidate has strong creative instinct, refined leadership skills and is as comfortable in front of clients as they are in front of a virtual white board. You can push the boundaries of what’s possible while giving clients the confidence that our vision and recommendations will be successful. ACDs at Hovercraft lead by example and drive projects forward by rolling up their sleeves and actively participating in their development. Days will be spent working closely with, and leading your design team to conceptualize and develop digitally-driven projects ranging from immersive environments, progressive UI, augmented reality, and 3D brand animations. This role requires a deep knowledge of progressive experience design principles, emerging technologies and the production techniques, and implications, of your ideas. As the creative lead, you will advocate for the design team by working closely with production, development, and animation leads in our Experience group to help ensure that projects reach their full potential and are executed on time and on budget. What You’ll Do Provide creative leadership and oversight of projects from inception to delivery, with a focus on those that are highly creative and/or strategic in nature. Lead and mentor designers, art directors and specialists while actively engaged in projects. Present work and communicate project development in an articulate and efficient manner to internal teams, clients and vendors. Work closely with clients to distill their asks and agenda’s into actionable, strategic briefs for Hovercraft creative teams. Inter-departmental collaboration with other leads for internal alignment of best practices and knowledge sharing. Collaborate with Producers and Executive Producers to determine project staff plans. Report to senior creative leads (Creative Director). What We're Looking For 8+ Years proven experience with a strong design background in an agency or studio setting, with a well-rounded portfolio of immersive, interactive and animation projects. Progressive creative vision, with strengths in concept and narrative. Understanding and active engagement with emerging technologies. Ability to direct small and large teams in both remote and in-person settings. Ability to collaborate effectively with Producers and keep creative development on brief. Drive and self-actualization to make an impact on the team and projects. A collaborative team player that is highly motivated, proactive and positive. Excellent organization and time management skills to stay on task & deadline. Comfort working on a variety of projects with varying timelines. The total average salary range for this position is $135,000 - $150,000 annually, plus comprehensive benefits. Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications assessed during the interview process (such as skills and prior industry experience, potential impact), market demands, and specific work location. The listed range is a guideline, and the range for this role may be modified. Hovercraft is a remote-first company, working primarily on Pacific and Mountain time. Anyone/anywhere in the United States is encouraged to apply. You must be eligible to work in the US. At this time, we are unable to support employment arrangements that require E-Verify participation, including STEM OPT extensions. Additionally, we are not currently offering employment visa sponsorship for this role. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without current or future employer sponsorship requirements. We appreciate your interest in our team and encourage candidates whose work authorization aligns with these requirements to apply. Recruitment Notice We use AI-assisted tools solely to help identify and highlight keywords related to critical design skills and relevant experience within applications. These tools support our recruiting team by improving consistency and efficiency; they do not make hiring decisions. All applications are reviewed by humans, and AI is not used in a discriminatory manner or to evaluate personal characteristics unrelated to job requirements.