Principal Creative, Growth Production

Overview

Local Produce is Instacart's in-house creative agency. We build brand storytelling that is strategic, fun, and fresh, and we make grocery shopping feel effortless across film, photo, social, product surfaces, and experiential moments.

We are hiring a Principal Creative, Growth Production to own the production engine behind our growth and direct response (DR) work. You will produce high-volume video and performance creative, run the operations that keep it moving, and build the systems that let the team scale without losing quality. You do the work and you oversee it. One week you are on set or in the edit review, the next you are rebuilding an intake process or negotiating a vendor rate card.

You will join a tight-knit core senior production team of 4 within a 10-person production org and a 40-person agency. You will work directly with senior stakeholders in Growth and Marketing, make judgment calls on creative, operational, and business affairs questions in real time, and set the bar for how we produce.

About the Job

• Own end-to-end production for growth and DR creative across video, photo, social, design, and AI-scalable formats, from brief through final delivery and platform-ready versioning.
• Run video production hands-on and at scale: testimonial, UGC, talent-led, short-form, and vertical content for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and paid media placements.
• Plan and produce for performance. Build modular shoots and asset systems that yield many cutdowns, hooks, and variants per production day, and work with Growth and Marketing partners to turn test results into the next round of creative.
• Translate briefs into production strategies, scopes, budgets, and timelines. Manage AICP-style bidding, cost tracking, and reconciliations to deliver on time and within budget.
• Build and maintain the creative operational systems for the growth team: intake and briefing, production calendars, asset naming and versioning, review and approval flows, delivery specs, and reporting. Document everything so the team can run it without you.
• Drive AI production workflows alongside traditional production. Know where AI tools speed up or replace conventional methods for iteration, versioning, and scale, and where they do not.
• Own Business Affairs responsibilities, including usage rights, licensing, talent and music clearances, and audit-ready deliverables, in partnership with Legal, Policy, and IP.
• Handle localization end to end: produce content in multiple languages (English and Spanish preferred) and manage the workflows that keep multilingual assets consistent and on time.
• Source, negotiate, and manage a diverse roster of production partners, including directors, DPs, editors, color, sound, finishing, music, and freelance creators, matched to the needs of each project and its budget.
• Lead pre-production and on-set operations: casting, locations, permits, insurance, releases, safety, and union and non-union compliance.
• Establish repeatable workflows, templates, and documentation in Airtable, Asana, and Frame.io. Mentor teammates and push continuous improvement across the production function.
• Flex into high-profile commercial and cultural projects as business needs shift.

About You

You are a producer who can do the work and run the operation around it. You are comfortable on set, in a bid, in a contract review, and in a spreadsheet that tracks 40 deliverables. You do not wait for a manager to make the call.

Minimum Qualifications

• 13+ years of end-to-end creative production experience delivering multi-channel campaigns (video, photo, social, digital) at an agency or in-house, with range across formats beyond traditional linear production.
• Direct experience producing growth, performance, or DR creative at volume, including short-form and vertical video, UGC, and iterative creative testing.
• Proven track record producing testimonial and brand content across multi-market shoots, with hands-on on-set leadership from pre-production through post.
• Demonstrated experience building creative operations: intake, workflow, templates, asset management, and reporting that a team adopted and kept using.
• Ownership of campaign budgets of $250K+ and experience managing 10+ external partners per project.
• Fluency in Business Affairs: usage rights, licensing, talent and music clearances, legal, policy, and IP approvals, and audit-readiness.
• Deep knowledge of production operations: schedules and call sheets, permits and insurance, talent and location releases, and SAG-AFTRA, union, and non-union workflows.
• Familiarity with AI production tools and workflows, and a point of view on how they are changing the craft.
• Proficiency with Google Workspace, Airtable or Asana, Frame.io, and basic Adobe Creative Cloud for review and markup. Ability to travel up to 25% for shoots.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in an in-house creative agency, partnering with Marketing, Growth, Product, Legal, Policy, and IP teams.
• Background in high-growth tech, marketplace, retail, or grocery, with fluency in both brand and performance objectives.
• Experience producing celebrity and talent-led work, UGC, and social-first formats for YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
• Familiarity with AICP bid forms, cost reporting, tax incentives, and multi-state production compliance. PMP or a recognized production certification is a plus.
• Bilingual in English and Spanish, with hands-on experience producing content in both languages.
• Comfort working at a senior scope, across domains, without close oversight, and with credibility at the senior stakeholder level.