WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

As the APLA (Asia, Pacific and Latin America) Art Direction Lead - Women’s, you are both an outstanding creative and a collaborative teammate with a passion for world class art direction, and an obsession for craft. Focused on concepts, stories, and execution alongside a Brand Narrative Lead, you will drive creative excellence and collaboration across projects through to production and delivery — ensuring that the team delivers innovative creative solutions against the seasonal strategy and across all appropriate channels.

You are connected to youth culture & the creative industry — this ever-expanding knowledge, network, and interest both inspire and drive your creative thinking. Your expertise is centered on adapting and/or extending global ideas and concepts, and directing the following: photography, motion, styling, graphic design, experiential design, retail design, and social. You’re also not afraid of working within new areas, being proactive, pushing your thinking to deliver innovative storytelling. You have experience socializing a vision for creative concepts with cross-functional partners in functions like Brand Marketing. You also have experience working at scale, especially being on set leading large photo shoots — and can handle your own time management effectively to deliver on deadlines. You enjoy crafting the details all the way to delivery.

You are an experienced creative who can direct agencies as well as horizontally lead the vision for creative projects in partnership with Narrative Leads, Designers and writers— both internal creative talent and external creative partners. You have an ability to both understand and participate in strategic conversations while leading others through the creative process. In this role, you will directly manage Designers!

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

• Work with the Studio Creative Lead and Designers to develop visual directions aligned against seasonal to year-long narratives.
• Lead a variety of projects, working closely with Narrative Leads, Writers, Designers, Studio Managers, and Creative Producers to deliver a well-crafted and innovative creative vision. Drive excellence and collaboration across multiple projects simultaneously.
• Partner with global and territory teams to adapt and or extend global campaigns and ideas, and push design to new places.
• Deliver end-to-end creative concepts across Product Launches, Brand Stories, Retail Executions, and Consumer Events working from concept through to production and delivery with premium executions at all levels, across all channels. This includes: Seasonal Stories/Products, Always On Consumer Concepts, Purpose Stories, Sport/Cultural Moments, Social Media Content, with a keen eye to obsess contemporary photo and video content creation.
• Deliver best-in-class art direction through photography, video, and design in service of the concepts, consumers, and culture.
• Proven ability to define art direction for photography and video/film shoots, and creatively lead productions delivering against said art direction; from pre-production to on-set leadership + vision, and post-production delivery.
• Creatively direct, manage, and coordinate work with external creative partners to deliver high-caliber work across project expectations and Nike standards. Expertly manage and maintains relationships with: photographers, film directors, agencies, retouchers, editors, design studios, designers, illustrators, animators, stylists, set designers, hair & makeup artists, movement directors, and more.
• Support the Design team, providing inspiration, guidance, mentorship, and direction to more junior designers. Encourage excellence, ambition, and team spirit. Foster opportunities for individual development, performance management, and recognition.
• Develop and maintain relationships with internal Brand Marketing, Retail, Media and Digital partners.
• Help to drive and provide feedback to local teams on local creative executions.
• Ensure all projects are well-planned, creatively exceptional, and delivered on-time and within agreed budgets.
• Review project work for highest standards of quality, consistency, and success.

WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH

This role reports to the Studio Creative Lead. Day-to-day, you will partner closely with Brand Narrative Leads, Writers, Designers, Studio Managers, and Creative Producers as you orchestrate creative. This role also maintains relationships with colleagues in Brand Marketing, Digital Marketing, Retail and Media as well as the global creative studios.

Outside of Nike, you will collaborate with a range of individual creative partners and external agency partners.

WHAT YOU BRING

• Minimum 10+ years of agency or in-house creative team experience.
• Bachelor/Master’s Degree or equivalent experience in Design or related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• A passion for the Athlete*, Sport*, and Culture!
• Ability to build seasonal concepts and provide the team with both short and long-term vision. Create presentations that are clear, concise, and thoughtful.
• Digital-first mindset understanding the need for obsessing the user experiences and leading with digital design within the brand experience.
• Create compelling solutions when the way forward is not always clear
• Critical thinking and adept at connecting dots across multiple approaches, and outputs
• A driven, self-starter attitude
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Ability to present new ideas or seasonal concepts to small and large groups, including presenting to executive leaders and external partners.
• Proven ability as a manager and mentor, with a passion for developing everyone on the team to grow, improve, succeed, and advance toward collective and individual goals.
• Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills with a highly developed ability to cultivate relationships in an open, positive, and inclusive environment.
• Ability to lead team efforts while also working independently to deliver on individual responsibilities.
• Validated experience leading photography and video/film productions; from pre-production to on-set leadership and post-production.
• Highly developed curiosity and in-depth understanding of visual culture — past & present.
• Thorough contemporary understanding of how people engage with content, from digital products to environments & experiences.
• Understanding of the Brand Creative/Marketing process, and experience working and communicating directly with Brand Marketing partners.
• A sense of humor, positivity, and an entrepreneurial spirit.
• A strong portfolio of relevant work, with sharp focus on contemporary photo art direction and proven visual storytelling.
• Proficiency in creative tools such as Keynote, Figma, and Adobe Creative Suite.
• Ability to travel as needed.