Creative Director (contract)

Mindgrub Technologies is an award-winning digital agency specializing in AI-enabled digital transformation through strategy, creative, product development, emerging technology, and customer experience. We partner with enterprise organizations to design and build digital products, platforms, applications, campaigns, content ecosystems, and modern customer experiences that solve complex business challenges and create measurable impact. Who You Are You are a creative leader who understands how design, storytelling, technology, and AI are reshaping digital products, experiences, and modern brands. You create thoughtful, high-quality work while helping teams move faster, collaborate more effectively, and think strategically. You know when refinement matters, when experimentation matters, and how to balance both. Clients trust your perspective. Teams rely on your leadership, judgment, and ability to bring clarity to ambiguity. You’re collaborative, constructive, and able to work independently while supporting the people around you. You’re comfortable leading product experiences, applications, websites, campaigns, brand systems, creative operations, and multidisciplinary teams. You bring modern design sensibilities, familiarity with UX/UI and accessibility best practices, and a portfolio that demonstrates sophisticated visual design and thoughtful UX thinking. You’re curious about emerging technologies, but grounded enough to separate meaningful innovation from hype. You believe AI should support creativity, exploration, and execution, not replace thoughtful creative work. You lead with curiosity, accountability, empathy and a team-first mindset. Position Overview The Creative Director is responsible for the overall vision, brand quality, user experience direction, and design operations strategy for Mindgrub and its portfolio of client engagements. This role focuses on creative quality, digital experience direction, and the continued evolution of modern creative workflows. The Creative Director works closely with executive leadership, production, and go-to-market teams to ensure creative work is effective, scalable, and aligned with business goals. A key part of this role is helping guide Mindgrub’s continued evolution toward AI-enabled creative operations and modern production workflows. This includes identifying practical opportunities for generative AI, automation, rapid prototyping, and emerging creative tools to improve quality, collaboration, efficiency, and scalability. The ideal candidate brings experience in digital product design, UX, accessibility, analytics strategy, storytelling, brand leadership, content, and multidisciplinary creative leadership within an agency, consultancy, or technology-focused organization. This role reports to the Head of Production and collaborates closely with executive leadership throughout the organization. Responsibilities Brand & Creative Leadership: Guide the continued evolution of Mindgrub’s brand across products, campaigns, marketing, thought leadership, and client-facing experiences Maintain creative standards across all channels and touchpoints Lead the development of thoughtful, differentiated, and strategically aligned creative work Facilitate presentations, workshops, reviews, and creative discussions with clients and internal stakeholders Help strengthen client relationships through quality, consistency, storytelling, and user experience Product & Experience Strategic Direction: Help define the user experience and strategy for digital products, platforms, applications, websites, and emerging interactive solutions Lead UI designers in modern product and responsive web design, enhancing brands through digital experiences Establish scalable design systems, interaction models, and experience standards Partner with engineering, product strategy, and production teams to ensure creative vision carries through to shipped experiences Provide guidance on accessibility, usability, storytelling, and customer experience best practices Support enterprise client engagements requiring strategic creative and UX leadership AI, Workflow & Production Leadership: Help evolve AI-enabled creative and production capabilities throughout the organization Introduce practical workflows that improve creative quality, operational efficiency, collaboration, and scalability Evaluate emerging tools and technologies related to design, video, ideation, prototyping, and production Establish thoughtful standards for responsible and effective use of AI within creative workflows Guide teams through evolving technologies while maintaining creative judgment, originality, and brand integrity Oversee creative direction for product, application, web, and digital experience initiatives, along with supporting campaigns, content, and brand work Improve creative operations and production workflows to support scalability and execution quality Team Leadership: Mentor and support multidisciplinary creative talent spanning design, UX, content, analytics, video, and production Help teams strengthen both creative craft and technology fluency Identify evolving skill needs and growth opportunities Support hiring, onboarding, mentoring, and professional development efforts Foster a culture of curiosity, accountability, experimentation, collaboration, and continuous learning Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with sales, marketing, engineering, product strategy, and production teams to align strategy and execution Translate business goals, technical requirements, and customer needs into compelling creative solutions Participate in planning sessions, innovation initiatives, workshops, and leadership collaboration Actively participate in in-office collaboration days and strategic planning sessions Requirements 5+ years of experience in a Creative Director or senior creative leadership role Proven leadership of multidisciplinary creative teams within agencies, consultancies, product companies, or technology-focused organizations Background in digital product design, UX/UI, branding, storytelling, content systems, and creative strategy Demonstrated success improving creative operations, production workflows, and organizational processes Familiarity with accessibility standards and UX/UI best practices Hands-on experience with Agile workflows and collaboration tools, including Jira and Confluence Fluent with modern creative tools such as Figma and Miro and evolving workflows related to design, video, prototyping, and production Ability to integrate generative AI technologies into creative, content, product design, or production workflows Familiarity with platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Runway, Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, Figma AI, Canva, and related tools is preferred. Advanced proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite Excellent communication, presentation, facilitation, and client leadership skills Ability to lead multiple workstreams and multidisciplinary teams simultaneously Systems-thinking and problem-solving abilities Understanding of digital ecosystems, evolving customer behaviors, and AI-driven experience trends Portfolio demonstrating leadership across digital products, mobile and web applications, campaigns, brand systems, or experience-driven work spanning multiple mediums and teams Strategic thinker with a collaborative, adaptive, and team-oriented approach Success in This Role Looks Like High-quality creative work delivered efficiently and consistently Thoughtful digital experiences across products, applications, websites, campaigns, and platforms Creative workflows that improve collaboration, scalability, and execution quality Teams that continue learning and adapting as technologies evolve Client relationships strengthened through innovation, execution quality, and strategic partnership Compensation $70.00 - $90.00 USD per hour based on experience, portfolio strength, leadership background, strategic capabilities, and technical expertise. Base compensation will be determined based on a variety of factors including skills, education, certifications, geographic location, and overall experience relevant to the role. Inclusivity without exception | At Mindgrub we value and encourage mutual respect and acceptance. We know we all have something to contribute. We work every day to ensure all are welcome, and that we treat all people with fairness and dignity. No phone calls or recruiters, please. #LI-Remote