Creative Director

Overview

Creative Director, Global Creative

Microsoft's Brand & Advertising organization is building the future of in-house creative excellence. We're looking for a Creative Director on our newly established Global Creative team — a world-class in-house capability at the intersection of brand strategy, advertising, production, and global storytelling.

This Creative Director will be a founding member of something genuinely new: an in-house creative capability built to produce breakthrough work at the scale and standards Microsoft's businesses demand. Reporting to the General Manager, Global Creative, this leader will own the creative output of a major discipline or portfolio area — partnering across Microsoft to deliver integrated, on-brand work across every touchpoint.

This is a rare opportunity to help shape the model from the inside, set the creative standard, and prove that in-house can be best-in-class.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities

Creative Leadership & Creative Direction

• Set and uphold the creative bar for your portfolio — driving quality, craft, innovation, and cultural relevance across all output

• Lead end-to-end creative development across brand campaigns, advertising content, digital, social, video, and experiential touchpoints

• Serve as a senior creative voice in brand and advertising decisions, ensuring work reflects Microsoft's brand ambition and drives measurable business impact

• Concept, direct, and ship work hands-on alongside your team — modeling the standard rather than only directing it

Operations & Stakeholder Management

• Partner with internal business stakeholders to translate briefs into breakthrough creative, running efficient brief-to-output and review processes

• Collaborate with agency partners and external vendors on assigned work, contributing to the right blend of in-house and external resourcing

• Manage your portfolio's project budgets and resourcing, delivering on time, on scope, and within plan

• Help build the team's operating rhythms, creative review frameworks, and quality benchmarks as the org scales

Innovation & AI

• Integrate AI-powered tools and workflows into your creative production responsibly and ambitiously — helping define what AI-enabled creative looks like at Microsoft's scale

• Stay ahead of emerging creative technologies, platforms, and cultural trends, and bring that perspective into the work

Executive Partnership

• Present creative work, strategy, and rationale to senior stakeholders, including CVP- and VP-level partners

• Partner with the GM, Global Creative and peer Creative Directors to ensure creative coherence, resource alignment, and shared priorities across the team

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction, User Experience, Interaction Design, or related field AND 6+ years experience working in product or service design

• OR Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction, User Experience, Interaction Design, or related field AND 8+ years experience working in product or service design

• OR equivalent experience (e.g., demonstrated experience working in product or service design or using design thinking to solve problems).

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in a senior creative role at an in-house creative organization, top-tier advertising agency, or comparable organization

• A portfolio demonstrating breakthrough creative work across brand advertising, content, and digital — with clear evidence of range, craft, and impact at scale

• Proven ability to lead concept-through-delivery on complex, multi-channel campaigns

• Experience managing project budgets and articulating creative rationale and ROI to senior stakeholders

• Executive communication and influencing skills, with experience presenting to VP- and CVP-level leadership

• Experience inside an in-house creative organization at a global technology or consumer brand company

• Demonstrated experience integrating AI tools into creative workflows in a meaningful and responsible way

• Background spanning both brand marketing and advertising creative disciplines

• Experience working alongside agency partners in hybrid internal/external models

• Advanced degree in design, marketing, communications, or a related field

Product Design IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800.00 - $274,800.00 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000.00 - $304,200.00 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations. (