Head of Design, Adobe Creative
Adobe · San Francisco, California ·
- Seniority
- C level
- Category
- Design
- Experience
- 15+ years
- Company size
- 1000+
- Salary
- USD 200,200 – 289,900 / year
Leads Adobe’s in-house creative studio to set design standards, integrate AI into workflows, and elevate brand expression across campaigns, products, and global moments. Oversees teams, systems, and partnerships to ensure cohesive, high-quality creative output.
Our Company
Empowering everyone to create.
Adobe empowers everyone, everywhere to imagine, create and bring digital experiences to life. From creators and students to small businesses, global enterprises and nonprofit organizations, customers choose Adobe products to create, collaborate, grow, and build remarkable experiences.
We are looking for curious, ambitious makers who want to help define world-class creativity in this new era. We believe the craft is more essential than ever while AI should help people create more, explore more, and unlock new possibilities while keeping creators at the center of the creative process.
Adobe is amplifying human ingenuity with AI.
Our Team
Adobe Creative is Adobe’s in-house brand-creative engine, developing the ideas, campaigns, and assets that power Adobe’s brand and business. We are part of the broader Content & Creative (“C&C”) organization. We work alongside Adobe Content, which focuses on publishing and audience development through owned, earned, and partner channels; an Experiences team, which oversees Adobe’s real-world moments; and shared service teams spanning Video, Talent, Partnerships, and Production.
Together, C&C commissions and produces work while equipping teams across Adobe’s Global Marketing Organization and the company to create, adapt, and distribute high-quality work with greater speed and consistency.
The Opportunity
Adobe makes the tools the world uses to create. Our own creative work should set the standard for what those tools make possible. Adobe Creative is looking for a visionary Head of Design to define design excellence for Adobe and build the practice, systems and culture that bring it to life across everything we create.
You will lead design across our creative, content and experiences, from high-velocity everyday work to major global campaigns, product launches and Adobe’s most visible moments. You will raise the quality of the work at every scale, creating greater coherence without making it repetitive or predictable.
Working upstream, you will establish the principles, frameworks, and practices that help teams make stronger design decisions earlier. You will translate them into tools, templates, and AI-enabled workflows that help internal teams and external partners deliver exceptional work at scale.
The Head of Brand owns Adobe’s identity architecture and core brand system. You own the design practice and creative expression across the work, ensuring the brand is interpreted and brought to life with exceptional craft, intelligence and imagination.
Design leadership at Adobe extends beyond traditional graphic design. It includes typography, image-making, art direction, motion, digital behavior, spatial experience, editorial thinking, emerging technology, and the creative use of AI.
You are a maker first. You remain close to the tools, the teams, and the work. Your authority comes from your eyes, your judgment, and your ability to make the work better.
What You’ll Do
Set the Standard and Build the Practice
Define and hold the design craft standard across Adobe Creative.
Establish a clear point of view on world-class design in the age of AI.
Build shared principles for typography, image-making, art direction, motion, interaction and emerging visual practices.
Raise the design standard across everything we make, from high-velocity work to our most visible global moments.
Ensure the work feels connected and recognizably Adobe without becoming repetitive or formulaic.
Build frameworks, tools, and working practices that enable strong design decisions from the start.
Partner with the Head of Brand to translate Adobe’s identity system into distinctive and adaptable creative expression.
Partner with Production, Operations and Creative Technology to protect craft while supporting speed and scale.
Lead Design Across the Work
Lead design from early creative development through final execution.
Set the art direction and design craft across Adobe’s creative, content and experiences.
Shape Adobe’s most visible global campaigns, product launches, cultural moments and live experiences.
Ensure strong ideas scale across channels and formats without losing their intelligence or visual impact.
Partner with the Head of Campaigns to turn breakthrough ideas into compelling visual worlds.
Partner with the Head of Copy to develop visual and verbal expression as one connected creative system.
Direct agencies, design studios and specialist collaborators from a clear internal Adobe point of view.
Hold externally produced work to the same standard as internal creative.
Cultivate a world-Class community of Designers
Lead and develop Creative Directors, Associate Creative Directors, Art Directors, and Designers.
Build a strong leadership bench and clear pathways for makers to grow.
Recruit exceptional designers with diverse perspectives, multidisciplinary skills, and a deep commitment to craft.
Create a culture of direct feedback, high standards, experimentation, generosity, and continuous learning.
Keep senior design leaders close to the work and protect meaningful time for making.
Build flexible teams around the creative opportunity rather than fixed structures.
Connect designers across the organization, so knowledge, tools, and creative learning are shared.
Advance AI-Native Design
Define Adobe Creative’s point of view on how AI changes design practice, craft and authorship.
Build AI-native workflows that expand creative possibility and accelerate iteration without lowering the standard.
Establish principles for evaluating AI-assisted work through originality, intention, taste, craft and brand distinction.
Define where AI can support scale and where human authorship and judgment remain essential.
Partner with Product as a creative customer zero, testing emerging capabilities through real work and translating learning into useful feedback.
Ensure teams understand responsible AI, provenance, creator rights and Content Credentials.
Represent Design Across Adobe
Represent design in executive and cross-functional forums.
Translate creative direction and craft decisions into clear, actionable choices.
Advocate for design to be involved earlier in strategic, product and creative development.
Connect design excellence to audience impact, brand distinction and business value.
Present work with clarity, confidence, and conviction.
What You Need to Succeed
15+ years of experience in design, art direction, or multidisciplinary creative leadership.
A world-class portfolio demonstrating exceptional craft across creative, content and experiences.
Significant experience as a senior design leader, Executive Creative Director, Design Director or equivalent.
Meaningful industry recognition through D&AD, Cannes Lions, The One Show, ADC, AIGA or equivalent.
Experience leading design across both high-velocity output and major flagship work.
A track record of building design practices, systems and teams, not only reviewing finished work.
Exceptional taste and the ability to explain clearly why work succeeds or falls short.
Deep expertise in typography, art direction and image-making, with strong fluency across motion, digital, spatial, editorial and emerging design practices.
Experience translating brand systems into distinctive and evolving creative expression.
Experience directing agencies, design studios, and specialist partners.
Deep fluency with Adobe Creative Cloud, Firefly and generative AI workflows.
A clear point of view on how AI changes design practice, authorship and creative scale.
A commanding presenter who can communicate the value of design to senior executives.
A genuine and current understanding of culture, design, technology, art, fashion, entertainment and creator communities.
A track record of building multidisciplinary teams, developing future leaders and maintaining a high standard through speed, ambiguity and change.
About Adobe
Adobe empowers everyone to create through innovative platforms and tools that unleash creativity, productivity and personalized customer experiences. Adobe’s industry-leading offerings including Adobe Acrobat Studio, Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, Creative Cloud, Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Experience Manager, and GenStudio enable people and businesses to turn ideas into impact, powered by AI and driven by human ingenuity.
Our 30,000+ employees worldwide are creating the future and raising the bar as we drive the next decade of growth. We’re on a mission to hire the very best and believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. At Adobe, we believe that great ideas can come from anywhere in the organization. The next big idea could be yours.
Let’s Adobe together
At Adobe, we believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. Learn more about Adobe life, including our values and culture, focus on people, purpose and community, Adobe for All, comprehensive benefits programs, the stories we tell, the customers we serve, and how you can help us advance our mission of empowering everyone to create.
Adobe is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. Learn more.
Adobe aims to make our Careers website and recruiting process accessible to any and all users. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation to navigate our website or complete the application process, email [email protected].
AI Use Guidelines for Interviews:
Our interviews are designed to reflect your own skills and thinking. The use of AI or recording tools during live interviews is not permitted unless explicitly invited by the interviewer or approved in advance as part of a reasonable accommodation. If these tools are used inappropriately or in a way that misrepresents your work, your application may not move forward in the process.
At Adobe, we empower employees to innovate with AI — and we look for candidates eager to do the same. As part of the hiring experience, we provide clear guidance on where AI is encouraged during the process and where it’s restricted during live interviews. See how we think about AI in the hiring experience.
Expected Pay Range:
Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $131,500 - $286,550 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process. In California, the pay range for this position is $197,900 - $286,550 In New York, the pay range for this position is $197,900 - $286,550At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans. Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).
In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.
State-Specific Notices:
California:
Fair Chance Ordinances
Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances.
Colorado:
Application Window Notice
If this role is open to hiring in Colorado (as listed on the job posting), the application window will remain open until at least the date and time stated above in Pacific Time, in compliance with Colorado pay transparency regulations. If this role does not have Colorado listed as a hiring location, no specific application window applies, and the posting may close at any time based on hiring needs.
Massachusetts:
Massachusetts Legal Notice
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.