Creative Director

As a member of the Barbarian Creative department you will influence changes in consumer behavior through ideas, creativity and the use of interactive media. You will make a difference to digital communications, marketing, advertising and inspire the best global brands to be more adaptive.  

You will lead creative teams, using your collective ideas, creativity and language to produce concepts and experiences that make a difference to consumers’ behavior and to our client’s brands. You will provide leadership for the American Express team and Barbarian’s other brand accounts, reviewing and pushing the work to ensure the quality of concept and content. You will understand a brand’s look and feel to establish TOV, art direction, style and communication strategy. You will represent Barbarian as a primary creative contact across several growth clients, managing client and team expectations with the goal of creating creative work of the highest possible standard. 

Contributing to Barbarian’s creative mission to push yourself, push your teams, and push the work; you will be excited about being part of our success. You will thrive when faced with new challenges and will constantly strive to improve the way our work gets done.    

Core Responsibilities & Success Metrics

• Lead concept development and craft high-quality output across campaigns, digital platforms, social media, and experiential projects.
• Translate client briefs and strategic insights into compelling, on-brand experiences and storytelling.
• Provide hands-on guidance to Associate Creative Directors, and art/copy teams of all levels, reviewing work and elevating quality.
• Collaborate with creatives, strategists, PMs, and account teams to ensure integrated, cohesive creative solutions.
• Actively contribute to brainstorms, ideation sessions, and concept workshops, pushing innovative and culturally relevant ideas.
• Present creative concepts to clients, clearly articulating the rationale, strategic creative with confidence.
• Ensure all deliverables maintain consistency in brand voice, tone, and style across all touchpoints.
• Manage multiple projects simultaneously, balancing deadlines, priorities, and team resources.
• Mentor and develop creative talent, providing constructive feedback and coaching to enhance skills and performance, as well as guide career growth.
• Stay current with cultural trends, emerging platforms, and industry best practices to keep creative work fresh and forward-thinking.
• Support new business efforts by contributing to or leading pitch concepts, decks, and messaging strategies.
• Uphold Barbarian’s creative mission to push yourself, push each other, and push the work – for yourself, in client interactions, in team leadership, and most importantly, in the work.

Qualifications & Experience

• Proven experience working as a Creative Director on various projects, for various clients, at varied scale. 
• Experience in B2B marketing preferred.
• Experience in financial industry marketing preferred. 
• A successful track record of leading creative teams and projects, including experience in digital channels.
• Experience working in a creative/agency environment is advantageous.  
• A degree, or similar, in Advertising/ Advertising Communication, Design, Creative Technology or other related area of study preferred.  
• Wide experience with video/film/radio/animation, casting and attending shoots/recordings; as  well as experience in, and enthusiasm for, a broad range of online or offline work; including, ad campaigns, online campaigns, digital experiences, social media content, microsites, websites or mobile.  
• Experience nurturing and growing client relationships. 
• Experience contributing to new business development and working across varied internal teams on new business pitches.  
• Exceptional presentation skillset & experience (visual and written). 
• Demonstrated success leading collaborative multi-functional teams across Art/Copy/Design, Project Management, Account Management, and more.  
• Experience with European and/or Global projects a plus.  
• A strong track record in large-scale project planning, including accurate estimation of costs and  timing, with limited overruns.  
• Extensive experience with all the relevant software packages and hardware
• Working knowledge of, and engaged fascination with emerging platforms a must. 

Barbarian Creative Competencies

Craft: Our creatives possess a strong bias to action and are dedicated to consistently delivering high quality work within required timeframes. We go the extra mile to ensure deliverables meet the highest standards. While we are positive, upbeat and committed to making a positive contribution to team morale, when it comes to work, we offer no mercy to the mediocre.

Innovation: All Barbarians display an enthusiasm for creating pioneering ideas and are excited by the challenge of moving in new (and potentially more difficult) creative directions. We are adept at analyzing and understanding what has worked in the past, and applying these learnings to future thinking.  

Accountability: We all have a strong sense of personal responsibility for our work, and that of our teammates. We proactively provide assistance (no matter the situation) to ensure consistent delivery of highest quality work within required timeframes. We balance specific client demands with project realities and reliably close the loop on all open issues in a timely manner. 

Communication: We possess strong Communication skills and ask open-ended questions to ensure our full understanding of one another. We present information effectively via multiple mediums, and are at ease presenting ideas or solutions in team meetings or the occasional larger group setting. We think issues through before acting, and know how & when to escalate. 


At Barbarian, we consider our people to be our greatest asset. We have benefits and policies in place to create an inclusive and inspiring environment. 

• Comprehensive medical benefits, including health & wellness support
• Competitive Parental Leave that gives you time to bond with your family. 
• 401k matching
• $5,000 employee referral bonus
• Financial incentive for new business introductions
• Flexible PTO

 

Location: NYC, hybrid

Salary range: $200K-$225K

The starting salary will match the skills and experience in the role assessed during the interview process.

Barbarian is an equal opportunity employer (EOE). We strongly support diversity in the workforce.