Creative Director, Art

Company Description

Visa is a world leader in payments and technology, with over 259 billion payments transactions flowing safely between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities in more than 200 countries and territories each year. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive while driven by a common purpose – to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

Make an impact with a purpose-driven industry leader. Join us today and experience Life at Visa.

Job Description

We’re looking for a Visionary Creative Director to join us in our continued mission to build a best-in-class global creative studio for VISA and the clients we serve.

The ideal candidate will have come from an art background as well as have a strategic mindset with a proven track record of leading highly successful campaigns and teams - either within advertising agencies or at brand-side internal creative studios. This person should have experience running and supporting award winning advertising campaigns (on a global scale is a plus), with a deep understanding of creative that works throughout the funnel.

They must have a passion and a portfolio to prove how their creative campaigns have been used to influence culture and be a part of cultural conversation. Fresh unique thinking in this space is a must. Craft and Art is crucial. They must be strategic in their thinking and have the ability to articulate and execute strategy through creative output. They must be ahead of all trends and ensure that the brands that they touch are current, innovative, and always looking forward.

They must have the ability to build, hire, and mentor a talented team that consistently produces innovative and cohesive creative across the full spectrum of the media mix. They need to be able to thrive in a fast-paced environment and must be comfortable guiding internal creative teams and production partners but also willing to roll up their sleeves to do the work when necessary.

Effortless collaboration is a must - as this role will work closely with clients and internal teams to ensure best in class creative is implemented. This candidate must have a genuine appetite for building: for building and motivating people, for building a culture that fosters creativity; for building teams; and for building new capabilities.

What you’ll do:

Build a Center of Creative Excellence

• Lead by example by putting the craft into concepting, creating, rolling up your sleeves to do the work when necessary and inspiring others with clear guidance in art direction.
• Build and maintain key relationships with senior Marketing executives by demonstrating a deep understanding of campaign needs and a commitment to driving creative excellence across all touchpoints through the funnel.
• Consistently deliver best in class creative 360 campaigns for the VISA brand and Client Marketing.
• Consistently innovating and staying ahead of advertising trends and capabilities to ensure VISA is always a future forward brand.
• Influence and inspire teams across the globe with beautifully crafted and strategic creative campaigns.
• Care deeply about every part of the funnel – Upper funnel, middle and lower funnel – every asset matters.

Build relationships

• Help lead, inspire, and collaborate with internal teams and client partners
• Provide thought partnership to business partners and regularly make recommendations on directions to improve area under scope
• Help build client relationships with a skillset of strong presentation skills to influence creative decisions and guide creative.

Build upon a culture that fosters remarkable creativity

• Contribute to an environment that fosters remarkable creativity by providing inspiration, thought leadership, and mentorship for the creative department.
• Maintain a culture where people love to work (and want to come and work), feel they can flourish, and are proud of what they contribute
• Support the development of remarkable ideas - across a variety of marketing touchpoints - that resonate with our audiences, earn an outsized share of cultural conversation, and create competitive advantage.
• Influence and achieve consensus on direction, priority, and decision making of area under scope
• Ensure quality output in all creative output.

This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

• 10 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 8 years of work experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters/ MBA/JD/MD) or at least 3 years of work experience with a PhD
• 10-12 years of work experience in the advertising industry and a strong portfolio of creative work

Preferred Qualifications

• 12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 8-10 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6+ years of work experience with a PhD

• Deep agency-side or brand side experience working with or at global brands.
• Thought leader of highly successful creative, brand development, and multichannel marketing campaigns.
• Experience leading campaigns that have driven outsized business results and won recognition in the industry.
• Experience working and living in multiple countries as well as managing teams across geographies to have an informed market-first view to global marketing.
• Excellent people leader with proven ability to manage teams, the work, and influence outcomes in highly matrixed organizations with multiple stakeholders.

This position is not eligible for sponsorship.

Additional Information

Work Hours: Varies upon the needs of the department.

Travel Requirements: This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.

Mental/Physical Requirements: This position will be performed in an office setting.  The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.

Visa is an EEO Employer.  Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status.  Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.

Visa will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable local law, including the requirements of Article 49 of the San Francisco Police Code.

U.S. APPLICANTS ONLY: The estimated salary range for a new hire into this position is 173,100.00 to 235,000.00 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this position may be eligible for bonus and equity. Visa has a comprehensive benefits package for which this position may be eligible that includes Medical, Dental, Vision, 401 (k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and Wellness Program.

Client-provided location(s): San Francisco, CA

Job ID: c506dcee-d48f-4cda-b65b-ed463845e137

Employment Type: OTHER

Posted: 2025-09-08T16:13:29