Microsoft

Art Director

Microsoft$102K — $202K *
Media
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree or Certificate in Design, Fine Arts, Visual Communications, or related field with 2+ years of experience, or equivalent experience.
  • Preferred: 5+ years of experience in art direction, visual design, or related creative disciplines.
  • Portfolio showcasing strong conceptual thinking and visual storytelling across social and digital campaigns.
  • Experience in developing social-first and creator-led campaigns and directing creative talent.
  • Strong understanding of social platforms and audience engagement.

Responsibilities

  • Develop visual concepts for integrated marketing campaigns focused on social-first and creator-led content.
  • Translate briefs into compelling ideas through partnership with writers, strategists, social leads, and marketers.
  • Art direct creator partnerships and various content productions to ensure strategic alignment.
  • Create scalable visual languages and campaign assets for diverse platforms.
  • Incorporate audience insights and cultural trends to enhance relevance in creative work.
  • Adapt campaign ideas for multiple channels while retaining core creative themes.
  • Present concepts clearly to stakeholders, integrating feedback while maintaining creative integrity.

Benefits

  • Access to a range of professional development opportunities.
  • Work in a collaborative, supportive environment that fosters creative excellence.
  • Participate in exciting projects at the intersection of technology and creativity.
Full Job Description
Overview

The Commercial Brand, Creative, and Customer Marketing team is seeking an Art Director to help bring Microsoft's commercial marketing to life through compelling visual storytelling, social-first ideas, and creator-led content. This role develops and executes audience-first creative across integrated campaigns, social platforms, creator partnerships, digital experiences, and emerging formats, translating strategy into distinctive visual work that drives engagement and business impact.

This creative brings strong visual craft, cultural awareness, and deep experience developing social-first and creator-led content. They understand how audiences engage across platforms and can translate brand, business, product, and technology stories into visually compelling work that feels native to social channels while maintaining creative excellence and brand consistency.

Blending conceptual thinking with hands-on execution, this role partners closely with writers, strategists, marketers, social and creator teams, producers, and agency partners to shape ideas from brief through launch. This individual is equally comfortable art directing others and creating content themselves, moving from concept through final execution for select social, creator, and rapid-response opportunities. They can art direct creators, shoots, and production partners; build visual systems that scale across formats; and use modern design and AI-enabled tools to create, prototype, iterate, and raise the quality of the work.

Responsibilities

Job Responsibilities

  • Develop visual concepts and creative solutions for integrated marketing campaigns, with a particular focus on social-first, creator-led, and culturally relevant work.


  • Partner with writers, strategists, social and creator leads, and marketers to translate briefs into compelling ideas and platform-native executions.


  • Art direct creator partnerships, content captures, productions, photography, video, motion, and editorial shoots to ensure strategic alignment and a high level of craft.


  • Create visual languages, design systems, storyboards, layouts, and campaign assets that can scale across social, digital, video, experiential, and emerging formats.


  • Apply audience insights, platform behaviors, cultural trends, and brand standards to inform creative decisions and strengthen relevance.


  • Adapt integrated campaign ideas for channels including LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and emerging platforms without losing the core creative idea.


  • Present concepts and creative rationale clearly to partners and stakeholders, incorporating feedback while protecting the integrity of the work.


  • Collaborate with internal production teams, creators, and external agencies to deliver work with consistency, efficiency, and creative excellence.


  • Use AI-enabled creative tools and workflows across ideation, image and video generation, iteration, and production, and share repeatable learnings with the broader team.


  • Create and produce select content end-to-end, from concept through final execution, particularly for social, creator, executive, and rapid-response opportunities.


  • Develop storyboards, social assets, presentations, motion explorations, and lightweight creative directly using modern design and AI-powered tools.


  • Operate as both an art director and maker, moving fluidly between concepting, directing, prototyping, and hands-on content creation.


  • Contribute to a culture of craft, curiosity, experimentation, and constructive creative feedback.


Qualifications

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree or Certificate in Design, Fine Arts, Visual Communications, Human Computer Interaction, or a related art field AND 2+ years of experience in art, design, advertising, content creation, or a related creative field, OR equivalent experience.


Preferred Qualifications

  • 5+ years of experience in art direction, visual design, advertising, social content, or related creative disciplines.


  • Portfolio demonstrating strong conceptual thinking, visual storytelling, and polished execution across social, creator, digital, and integrated campaign work.


  • Experience developing and art directing social-first and creator-led campaigns, including directing creators, photographers, videographers, and production partners.


  • Strong understanding of social platforms, creator ecosystems, audience behaviors, internet culture, and content formats.


  • Experience creating or directing work across video, motion, photography, illustration, typography, layout, and design systems.


  • Ability to translate complex products, services, and technologies into clear, relevant, and engaging visual stories.


  • Experience collaborating with writers, strategists, marketers, social teams, product teams, and production partners.


  • Ability to balance strategic thinking and conceptual development with hands-on creative execution.


  • Experience working in fast-paced, multidisciplinary environments and managing multiple workstreams and deadlines.


  • Experience leveraging AI-powered creative tools and modern design workflows.


  • Portfolio demonstrating both creative direction and hands-on content creation.


  • Experience independently creating content across design, social, presentation, motion, video, or AI-enabled formats.


  • Proven ability to move from idea to finished asset with limited oversight in fast-moving environments.


  • Strong communication, presentation, collaboration, and feedback skills.


Art IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $133,800 - $219,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

About Microsoft

Microsoft is an American multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services. Microsoft’s devices and consumer (D&C) licensing segment licenses the Windows operating system and related software, Microsoft Office for consumers, and the Windows Phone operating system. The company’s computing and gaming hardware segment provides Xbox gaming and entertainment consoles and accessories, second-party and third-party video games, and Xbox Live subscriptions; surface devices and accessories; and Microsoft PC accessories. Its phone hardware segment offers Lumia smartphones and other non-Lumia phones. Its D&C segment provides Windows Store, Xbox Live transactions, and Windows phone store; search advertising; display advertising; Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal; first-party video games; and other consumer products and services as well as operating retail stores. Microsoft’s commercial licensing segments license server products, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (CALs); Windows Embedded; Windows operating system; Microsoft Office for business, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and related CALs; Microsoft Dynamics business solutions; and Skype. Its commercial segment offers enterprise services, including premier support services and Microsoft consulting services; commercial cloud comprising Office 365 Commercial, other Microsoft Office online offerings, Dynamics CRM Online, and Microsoft Azure; and other commercial products and online services. The company markets and distributes its products through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, as well as online.

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Join Microsoft today and be part of a company that values innovation, leadership, and diversity in its workforce. As a global leader in technology and digital transformation, Microsoft offers unparalleled job opportunities that propel your career to new heights.

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Learn more about Microsoft
Size
181,000 employees
Market Cap
$1,762.4 billion
Industry
Net Income
$51.3 billion
Founded
1975
5 Year Trend
+15.5%
Revenue
$153.2 billion
NASDAQ

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