Senior Art Director

Welcome to the MILK MAKEUP FAM:

At Milk Makeup, we’re all about cool clean beauty fueled by creativity. Born out of Milk, a creative hub in downtown New York City, innovation, self-expression, and community are at the heart of everything we do. We believe beauty isn’t about how you do your makeup, it’s what you do in it—and how you Live Your Look—that matters.

Who YOU are:

• Community connector: You’re always thinking about how to improve your and your community’s future. You’re passionate about building a global community where everyone can feel seen and inspired in beauty.

• Courageous but chill: Wherever you come from, you’re driven by the hardworking New York spirit that Milk embodies. You’re flexible and ready to get the job done, but you’re humble and make moves thoughtfully. You strive for quality, have fun doing it, and always have the greater good of the brand in mind.

• Fearlessly innovative: You’re not afraid to take calculated risks and enjoy problem solving. You’re down to disrupt the status quo and innovate in order to raise the bar. You value a forward-thinking space that encourages you to lead change, never follow.

• Champion of self-expression: You’re creative at heart and are always genuinely you. You live your look and want to grow with people who celebrate individuality.

• Inclusive + mindful: You believe an open mind is always the best place to start and value active listening. You embrace differences and help foster a safe working environment for yourself and your peers.

The ROLE:

Responsible for building and maintaining Milk Makeup social brand experience. Supports Executive Creative Director in developing creative strategy to support business goals for organic and paid social, from concept to execution across all platforms.

What YOU’ll do:

• Brand Builder: Partners with Executive Creative Director to develop and build strong visual brand to support brand positioning and social strategy. Functions as brand manager to ensure consistency across all social platforms. Develops visual standards/codes (including art direction, tone and manner, graphics, typography, video, curated UGC, commissioned and organic content).
• Strategic Thinker: Partners with Executive Creative Director to support 360 creative and marketing strategy to achieve social-focused business objectives. Deep understanding of social landscape, data, analytics, trends and social best practices within beauty. Work very closely with Director of Social to drive integration of marketing goals and brand expression across all channels to foster and grow our online community, expand our reach and convert clients.
• Creative Collaborator: Partners closely with Editorial, Campaign and Product Development teams to develop creative concepts for robust 360 client experience. Partners with Creative Operations to align on appropriate creative production strategy and content creators to ensure accurate execution of creative vision. Including but not limited to art direction across still and motion beauty shoots, product shoots, tiktok content, how-to’s)
• Social Expert: Passionate and proficient in all things social. Speaks language of social media and understands how to drive business and achieve results in the social space. Ahead of the curve in terms of social ideation and best-in-class creativity across each platform. Knows how to win in the space.
• Cross-functional Partner: Builds and maintains relationships with cross-functional partners to ensure strategic objectives are met. Regularly meets and collaborates with various cross-functional teams including Brand & Product Marketing, Influencers, Social Marketing, Retail & EDU. Will be directy connected to Direcor of Social Marketing and Influencer teams to align on social goals and build robust UGC/Creative partner content model across organic and paid.
• External Partner: Partners with outside agency and vendors when appropriate including: Socially-focused strategic and production agencies (i.e. tiktok strategic agency). Manages agency relationship to ensure work is aligned with brand and agency is leveraged in effective manner.
• Inspirational Mentor: Leads with creative vision and inspires team to think strategically and create exciting elevated creative solutions that function for the business. Educates team in creative expertise and knowledge including social-first content and best practices, creative direction, art direction, photography, video, design and typography.
• Thoughtful Manager: Manages direct reports to ensure projects track to schedule, creative adheres to vision and executes properly. Assigns workload and responsibilities to team in thoughtful manner to develop direct reports and build effective creative team.
• Skilled Presenter: Represents creative team in a variety of settings: large/small groups, direct reports, managers, formal presentations.
• Leadership:
• Review and approve key creative strategies, content plans, and production proposals developed by the Social Creative team, ensuring alignment with brand objectives, innovative content creation, and effective execution across all social platforms.
• Conduct regular performance reviews, offer constructive feedback, and actively engage in the development of the Social Creative team in line with the company's performance engagement expectations.
• Embody and champion the behavioral values outlined in the MMU DNA, fostering a positive and inclusive team culture that reflects the company's core principles and promotes strong collaboration with internal and external partners.

Why you’ll love being part of MILK MAKEUP:

• Flexible time off: We provide a generous PTO program, paid company holidays, summer fridays, and more.

• Health + wellbeing support: We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, a wellbeing reimbursement, wellbeing speaker series, and a 6% 401k company match.

• Family accommodations: We offer a generous parental leave program of up to 20 weeks of 100% paid leave to care for and bond with your child.

• Employee care: We offer employees 100% paid leave for up to 12 weeks following their own illness.

• Professional growth + development: We have a comprehensive program to support your growth at Milk Makeup, lunch + learns, DEI led training sessions, and a learning and development program.

• Hybrid work model: We provide flexibility to support individual work styles, balance business needs, and ensure we live our values. We have a strong (and chill!) office culture in Soho with a dog-friendly environment and a well-stocked kitchen of snacks and drinks.

• MMU swag: We want you to get familiar with our new drops and re-up on any of your fave products.