Creative Director, Head of Emerging Experiences

Summary

Marcom is the creatively led global team that oversees Apple's consumer-facing marketing. We ensure the flawless development and execution of world-class communications across all medias and platforms. Every day, hundreds of millions of Apple customers around the world interact with our products. We drive the strategy and creative work that provide both new and existing customers with simple, engaging, and inspiring marketing experiences.

Marcom's Creative Technology Group is a research and development studio, prototyping forward thinking experiences that leverage emerging technologies to advance Apple's global marketing communications. This nimble, multi-disciplinary team of creative technologists, artists and designers works together to drive innovation in evolving fields such as spatial and generative computing. We partner with teams across the company to evolve how we work with emerging technologies to improve our internal workflows and customer facing experiences.

About the role

The Creative Director leads teams of product designers responsible for conceiving and validating new and emerging, customer-facing experiences across platforms, including web, native, spatial, and generative AI.

As a senior leader, they help to drive early stage design and product strategy across the organization while remaining deep in the detail of the teams' interface design, prototyping, and creative exploration. They contribute to the customer experience strategy for Marcom, shaping how emerging technologies manifest as intuitive, compelling interfaces for Apple's customers.

Their deep technical fluency paired with a strong product design sensibility inspires the team and others across Marcom to push the boundaries of what's possible at the intersection of AI, emerging technologies, and world-class customer experience design.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the heads of emerging technologies and product management to lead the CTG team and roadmap.
• Lead, mentor, and empower teams of product designers, experience and design strategists, fostering an environment of continuous learning, agile adaptation to new technologies, and rapid prototype development.

Champion the end-to-end quality of customer-facing proof-of-concepts, driving alignment across Marcom divisions while developing world-class interactive experiences grounded in a deep understanding of generative AI, interface design, and human-computer interaction principles.

Define and supervise the creative roadmap for new and emerging, customer-facing initiatives, including design systems, interaction patterns, and interface frameworks that advance Marcom's creative pursuits across platforms including web, native, spatial and generative AI.

• Act as the primary creative communicator, simplifying concepts into clear, actionable insights for both technical and non-technical partners.
• Lead the handoff of validated customer-facing concepts to product design and engineering teams across Marcom and Apple, ensuring the original design intent is preserved through to production.
• Establish and maintain strategic partnerships with key cross-functional stakeholders within a multi-disciplinary design studio, using exceptional communication, presentation and organizational skills.
• Anticipate emerging technological and design trends and translate their customer- facing potential into actionable opportunities, proactively steering teams towards innovative solutions that set industry standards.
• Build and scale team capabilities through strategic hiring, development programs, and processes that enhance team agility, productivity, and the continuous integration of emerging technologies.

Minimum Qualifications

• At least 10 years experience in a creative technology, product design, or R&D environment, with an emphasis in delivering customer-facing experiences that leverage emerging technologies.
• Experience leading teams of designers and creative technologists within a creative agency or dynamic, tech-driven environment.
• Demonstrated success in product and design strategy and organizational leadership.
• A diverse portfolio showing excellence in customer-facing interface design and interaction across web and native Apple platforms, including projects that demonstrate the thoughtful application of generative AI.
• Ability to rapidly adapt and implement new technologies in service of intuitive, high-quality customer experiences.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to build trust and influence while advocating for your ideas.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science, or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Record of leading large-scale, cross-functional initiatives with the ability to guide design and technical development from early concept through to customer-ready execution.
• Exceptional ability to create hi-fidelity interactive prototypes and think rigorously through complex interaction design challenges at the intersection of AI and customer experience.
• Ability to cut through ambiguity and find a path forward, despite uncertainty or challenges.
• Deep knowledge of interaction design principles, design systems, and the technical constraints that shape customer-facing experiences across Apple platforms.
• Fluency in modern prototyping tools and front-end technologies, with the ability to work fluidly alongside engineers and designers to realize high-quality interfaces.
• Working knowledge of generative AI capabilities and how they can be applied to create novel, meaningful customer interactions.
• Experience defining and evaluating the design quality of AI-powered interfaces, including an understanding of model behaviors that impact the customer experience.
• Experience in executive-level communication and influence, with the ability to drive organizational transformation through technology adoption.
• Diligent, flexible, resourceful, and independent with a strong work ethic and organizational skills.