Group Creative Director

Microsoft’s Creative, Advertising & Integrated Marketing team seeks a Group Creative Director - Art & Film to lead creative vision and craft for advertising and video storytelling across Windows, Devices and Services. The role partners with cross-functional teams and agency partners to shape major campaigns and hero creative, informed by audience and performance insights and guided by world-class filmmaking judgment.

Creative leadership and campaign ownership

• Set the creative ambition for major Windows, Surface and Services advertising campaigns, launches and cultural moments, leading work from brief and insight through concept, script, production and final delivery.
• Originate and shape breakthrough ideas with Copywriters, Art Directors, Creative Directors and agency partners.
• Create work that can extend across film, social, digital, OOH, DOOH, retail and emerging formats.
• Lead creatively through production and post-production, protecting the strength of the idea while improving distinctiveness, surprise and craft.
• Hold ideas, storytelling and execution to world-class standards, knowing when exceptional craft elevates and when simplicity and restraint strengthen.

Film and moving-image storytelling craft

• Lead creative development of film and moving-image storytelling across live action, animation, motion design and VFX.
• Bring advanced judgment to narrative structure, shot selection, editorial rhythm and pacing, color and grade, music, sound design and finishing.
• Make clear creative decisions that shape emotional impact from concept through final delivery.

Audience insights and creative performance signals

• Understand modern viewing behavior across broadcast, streaming, YouTube, social and emerging platforms.
• Use audience-retention curves, drop-off points, completion rates, qualitative research and other creative-performance signals to understand how audiences experience the work.
• Translate signals into creative hypotheses around openings, narrative clarity, pacing, product integration and emotional payoff.
• Balance evidence with creative instinct, using data to sharpen judgment rather than replace it.

Partnering, talent development, and team culture

• Partner with creative production leadership to identify and engage exceptional directors, production companies, cinematographers, editors, VFX artists, animators, composers and sound designers.
• Lead and mentor Creative Directors, Editors and Motion Graphics artists.
• Provide hands-on, specific creative direction that materially improves both the idea and its execution.
• Build a culture of rigorous critique focused on not only what should change, but why.
• Develop talent with deep expertise in advertising, filmmaking, art direction and motion storytelling.
• Champion ambitious ideas while knowing when subtraction, restraint and simplicity strengthen the work.

Cross-functional collaboration and executive presentation

• Partner closely with creative leaders across copy, design, production, strategy, IMC and advertising to create work where idea, story, craft and brand expression reinforce one another.
• Collaborate with Creative Strategy to translate customer, cultural and business insight into creative opportunity.
• Work with creative production leadership across development, production and post to realize the creative ambition at the highest level of craft.
• Partner with Integrated Marketing, Advertising, Media, Product Marketing, Social, Retail and Communications to turn ideas into connected customer experiences.
• Present and defend creative work with senior leaders, articulating the central idea and the creative reasoning behind key executional decisions.

Minimum requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree or Certificate in Design, Fine Arts, Human Computer Interaction, Visual Communications or related art field AND 8+ years experience in art design or a related art field working on computer games or entertainment OR equivalent experience.
• 5+ years people management experience (e.g., serving as a Lead Artist, Art Manager, Creative Director, etc.).
• 12+ years of experience in advertising, creative direction, art direction, film or related creative disciplines, including significant experience at Creative Director, Group Creative Director or Executive Creative Director level.
• An exceptional portfolio of advertising and filmmaking demonstrating both outstanding ideas and a highly developed command of filmmaking craft, including compelling storytelling, performance, cinematography, editorial judgment and pacing, color and grade, music, sound design and finishing.
• A body of work showing the ability to turn strong creative ideas into beautifully crafted films that hold attention, create emotion and leave a lasting impression.

Additional qualification areas

• Deep experience developing integrated campaigns for globally recognized consumer brands.
• Demonstrated creative leadership across the complete filmmaking process, from concept and script through production, editorial and finishing.
• Experience collaborating directly with directors, production companies, cinematographers, editors, VFX studios, composers, sound designers and other specialist creative partners.
• Ability to give precise, constructive creative direction across multiple disciplines while protecting the central idea.
• Strong understanding of contemporary culture, entertainment, social platforms and changing audience behavior.
• Exceptional taste, creative judgment and communication skills.
• Experience at a creatively recognized advertising agency, production-led creative company or equivalent in-house creative organization.
• A portfolio that includes recognized, culturally resonant or category-defining advertising and film work.
• Experience leading creative for technology, entertainment, gaming, consumer electronics or other highly competitive consumer categories.
• Fluency in interpreting creative-effectiveness research and behavioral signals, including audience-retention data and attention patterns, with the judgment to distinguish meaningful creative insight from optimization noise.
• Experience with emerging production techniques and AI-assisted creative workflows across ideation, pre-visualization, production and post-production.
• Strong relationships across the advertising and film-production community.
• A track record of attracting, developing and inspiring exceptional creative talent.

Location and compensation

• Location: Seattle, WA (onsite)
• Compensation: USD 142,800 - 331,200 per yearly