Highwire

Highwire

Associate Creative Director, Motion & Design

California, United States · Director

Sponsorship not specified$110k-$150kDetected 34 days ago
PhotoshopIllustratorAfter EffectsInDesignDesign SystemsMotion DesignAccessibilityForecastingPremiere ProFinal Cut ProDaVinci ResolveBlenderCinema 4DLeadershipCollaborationPublic Speaking

About the role

  • Highwire's creative team sits within the agency's Innovation practice.
  • We believe the biggest ideas don't have to be the most complex, and we champion the importance of matching high-caliber creative delivery with strategic motivation.
  • You aren't just managing the work; you are setting the visual standard, leading pitches, and inspiring a talented team of designers and animators to push boundaries across social media, digital content, events, and interactive platforms.

Responsibilities

  • Creative Assessment & Execution: Lead the conceptualization and execution of high-impact design and motion concepts for web, social campaigns, event experiences, brand video, and digital products.
  • Motion Pipeline Ownership: Establish and optimize the agency's motion design standards and best practices, including building scalable motion asset systems (templates, modular components, reusable frameworks) that support high-volume output without sacrificing brand consistency or craft quality.
  • Own and continuously refine motion design workflows end to end (from storyboarding to final post-production), including capacity forecasting, escalation protocols, and bottleneck prediction across simultaneous high-volume workstreams.
  • Client & Pitch Leadership: Own creative presentations for major client accounts and high-stakes new business pitches. Effectively articulate the strategic "why" behind creative and motion-driven choices to non-creative stakeholders.
  • Account-Creative Alignment: Manage friction points between creative timelines and account or client demands, protecting production quality and team capacity while maintaining a collaborative cross-functional relationship.
  • Brand Guardianship: Act as the primary guardian of Highwire's own visual brand, while simultaneously ensuring clients' visual systems remain cohesive and forward-thinking across all mediums.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Digital Strategy and Copy leads to ensure copy and visuals work in perfect harmony to drive measurable business results.
  • Design Systems: Deep experience creating, scaling, and maintaining comprehensive digital and motion design systems.
  • We partner with ambitious companies and established brands t
  • We lead the creative strategy, design, and execution of powerful, valuable, and impactful ideas that drive business impact for our clients.

Requirements

  • You are an empathetic, inspiring leader.
  • You know how to give constructive, actionable creative feedback that elevates the work without crushing the creator's spirit.
  • You have direct management experience, including delivering structured performance feedback and development conversations.
  • You can point to specific examples of how you grew a team member's skill set or addressed underperformance directly.
  • You are an exceptional presenter and storyteller.
  • You can confidently sell bold creative concepts to C-suite clients and translate abstract strategic goals into concrete visual directions.
  • You have a track record of defending creative direction in the face of pushback rather than simply executing a brief handed to you.
  • Strategic Intuition: Strong understanding of UX/UI principles, digital accessibility standards, and multi-platform social media optimization.
  • you are setting the visual standard, leading pitches, and inspiring a talented team of designers and animators to push boundaries across social media, digital content, events, and interactive platforms.

Nice to have

  • Demonstrated direct people management experience, including conducting formal performance evaluations, is required.
  • Expert proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (After Effects, Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) and Figma.
  • Experience with 3D software (Cinema 4D or Blender) is a massive plus.
  • Experience with Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve is helpful.
  • Technical Mastery: Expert proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (After Effects, Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) and Figma.

Compensation

  • The salary range for this position is $110,000 to $150,000, with the final offer based on a combination of factors, including education, relevant experience, skills, prior training, internal equity, and local geographic market data.

Benefits

  • Foster a culture of continuous learning, creative experimentation, and technical growth, while holding the team to clear delivery and craft standards.

Company info

  • A thriving-under-pressure mentality with strong judgment for managing competing priorities across multiple concurrent projects.
  • Working knowledge of AI-integrated creative workflows, including comfort operating within human-in-the-loop guardrails for AI-supported concepting and production.
  • The salary range for this position is $110,000 to $150,000, with the final offer based on a combination of factors, including education, relevant experience, skills, prior training, internal equity, and local geographic market data.
  • This role also includes a competitive benefits package with medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k) matching, generous paid time off, and additional perks designed to support your overall well-being and growth. #LI-Remote
  • About Highwire
  • Highwire is a strategic marketing communications agency at the intersection of innovation and industry.
  • We weave insights into ideas, make ideas real, and combine multidimensional creativity with strategic storytelling so our clients stand out from the competition.
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This listing is sourced directly from Highwire's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.