80Twenty is a boutique creative recruitment agency that connects high-growth companies with exceptional candidates.
Our client is an established, independent brand and experience agency headquartered in New York City. With over three decades of expertise, they partner with complex, high-stakes organizations across financial services, higher education, professional services, and technology. Their work spans brand strategy, digital platforms, and integrated experience design — delivered for clients who operate in industries where trust, clarity, and long-term relationships define success. The agency is known for a rigorous, human-centered approach to brand and experience, and a culture built on craft, collaboration, and intellectual curiosity.
About the Role
This is a creative leadership role — not a UX or production role. The Creative Director, Experience Design exists to close the gap between brand idea and digital experience, ensuring that what is promised in strategy comes alive across websites, customer journeys, content systems, and interactions. Reporting to the Chief Creative Officer, this CD will define the creative north star for each engagement and hold creative integrity from concept through launch. The role requires digital fluency and strong brand instincts, but the primary strength must be creative leadership and conceptual thinking, not UX execution.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead conceptual development across brand, web, and CX programs — establishing the creative north star for each engagement
- Translate brand platforms into experiential, visual, and narrative systems that scale across digital touchpoints
- Shape tone, mood, interaction feel, and experience personality; define the emotional arc of user journeys and interactions
- Direct motion language — transitions, reveals, and micro-interactions — that bring brand ideas to life
- Review and shape wireframes and prototypes for narrative alignment and creative integrity
- Partner with the UX/UI Lead, who owns IA, flows, and interface, to ensure ideas scale into structure without losing creative intent
- Collaborate with writers on messaging, narrative, and tone of voice across all deliverables
- Present and sell creative vision to senior decision-makers and clients with confidence and persuasion
- Maintain creative fidelity through the design-to-development handoff and QA process
- Mentor designers, elevate creative craft, and help shape a culture built on clarity, rigor, and collaboration
Qualifications
- 8–15+ years in brand, digital, or integrated creative roles with a portfolio demonstrating conceptual excellence and experiential thinking
- Demonstrated ability to direct the emotional flow of user journeys and shape interaction and motion language
- Comfortable reviewing Figma files, prototypes, and digital layouts; able to provide meaningful creative feedback on interface and interaction patterns
- Strong understanding of responsive behavior, component systems, and what is buildable — and where to push for creative ambition
- Experience leading brand systems and digital experiences end-to-end, from concept through launch
- Clear communicator with C-suite presence and strong presentation and storytelling skills
- Collaborative leader who can work across disciplines — UX, content, and engineering — without losing creative authority
- Commitment to accessibility, simplicity, and user clarity as core creative principles
Compensation & Benefits
- Base salary: $175,000 – $225,000 (flexible and commensurate with experience)
- New York, NY — Hybrid
- Full benefits package; details available upon engagement