Job Description

Who We Are

VML, part of WPP, is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brands to drive growth. VML is celebrated for its innovative and human first, award-winning work for blue chip client partners including AstraZeneca, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Wendy's. The agency is recognized by the Forrester Wave™ Reports, as a Leader among Marketing Creative and Content Service Providers, Commerce Services, Global Digital Experience Services, Global Marketing Services and, most recently, Marketing Measurement & Optimization. In addition, VML’s specialist health network, VML Health, is one of the world’s largest and most awarded health agencies. VML’s global network is powered by 26,000 talented people across 55+ markets, with principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney.

About WPP

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com

Who we are VML brand design:

Within VML is the Brand Design studio, a group that provides brand strategy, brand naming and brand identity for VML clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to emerging startups. We're a group of some of the strongest designers in the United States, widely respected across the agency for our purposefulness, our craft and our skills. We strive to create a place where our designers can do their very best work and grow their careers.

Brand Design is an extremely collaborative group and we aim to empower you to become a vital collaborator quickly. That means not only working closely with fellow designer but also presenting your work to clients, championing others’ work, staying in close communication with your team, giving and receiving constructive criticism and helping us educate colleagues about how best to work with the studio. We do our best to ensure every designer gets the full range of client experiences, working on projects of all sizes and touching as many parts of the design process as possible. While some of our designers have enhanced skills in specific areas that might be called upon for certain projects, we want all studio designers to be generalists with a growth mindset to continually improve existing skills and gain new ones.

Who we are looking for: 

VML is seeking a concept-driven, tech-obsessed, socially savvy Senior Art Director with a design focus to shape and deliver organic social content for a high-profile tech client in our Portland office.

As the Senior Art Director focused on social media, you will help shape the creative vision and deliver content for our client’s owned channels, bringing bold visual thinking, strong design sensibility, and a sharp eye for how culture shows up on pocket-sized screens.  

Equal parts idea-led and executional, you bring fresh visual perspectives, fluency in social-first formats and an instinct for what stops the scroll. You demonstrate solid content creation skills in your portfolio or personal feed with shooting, editing and design chops.

In addition to partnering closely with a Senior Copywriter as a true creative duo, you’ll take direction from creative leads, articulate visual direction for editors and animators, collaborate with strategy and account and engage directly with clients to present work that’s on brand, on trend and on time.

What you’ll do:

• Concept and Create | Translate creative direction into compelling, social-first visual executions across formats and platforms.
• Craft | Adapt brand systems to deliver polished, production-ready design with strong attention to detail, consistency and platform best practices.
• Client facing | Regularly connect with clients to create a partnership that builds trust in our thought leadership and ideas. Present your creative work and articulate the bigger creative idea behind it.
• Collaborate | Work with creative leads, art directors, copywriters, strategists, motion designers and social managers to bring ideas to life.
• Cultivate | Stay ahead of platform shifts, trends and creative best practices in the social landscape.

What you’ll need:

• Minimum 5 years of experience as a designer in an agency, in-house or brand environment, with a strong focus on social media work.
• A portfolio that demonstrates exceptional design craft, attention to detail and versatility across social platforms and formats, showing multiple pieces that demonstrate excellence in the above competencies. We would like your portfolio to show your design process and how you adapted it for various clients, in various project lengths on teams of various sizes and so forth.
• Strong understanding of social-first design principles, platform specs and what performs visually across channels.
• Ability to translate creative direction into clear, polished, production-ready design.
• Comfort designing across static and motion social assets.
• Ability to work under tight deadlines, manage multiple projects simultaneously, and collaborate as part of a fast-paced, cross-disciplinary team.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, with comfort articulating visual ideas to internal teams and collaborative clients.
• Patience and openness when addressing feedback from creatives, strategists, account leads and client-side stakeholders throughout the content development process.
• Passion for internet/tech culture, design, branding and how they intersect in the social space.
• High proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite and Figma required. Motion experience is a strong plus.

What we offer:

• Passionate, driven people | We champion a culture of people that do extraordinary work.
• Consciously cultivated culture | We aim to embody the behaviors to build an inclusive community that is in it together, bringing both positivity and active listening into the workplace as we simultaneously strive to empower creative bravery.
• Competitive benefits | What we offer full time hires ranges from the full spectrum of group health coverage options (medical, dental, vision) to a generous 401k match (100% dollar-for-dollar match, up to 5% of salary contribution), and a variety of paid time off offerings that reflect our investment in all aspects of your overall life balance and wellness.
• Growth-minded opportunities | We aim to nurture a culture of real-time feedback, growth-oriented mindset, and plenty of training opportunities through VML and WPP, so you can continue to grow personally and professionally.

The base salary range for this position at the time of this posting is indicated below. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications. We offer a competitive benefits package, click WPP Benefits for more details.

_ $60,000—$140,000 USD

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

VML is a WPP agency (NYSE: WPP). For more information, please visit   www.vml.com, and follow along on Instagram,  LinkedIn, and  X

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