Associate Director - AI & Creative Transformation

Code and Theory is hiring an Associate Director to work at the core of content and creative transformation engagements within our Enterprise Transformation practice. You will map existing creative workflows, redesign them, and build the AI-powered pipelines that prove the new model works inside real client environments.

Building is not a differentiator in this role. It is the job. The right person comes from creative technology, production engineering, or applied AI in creative contexts — not from consulting alone. You operate inside the workflow, not above it.

Depending on the client engagement, this role operates in a forward-deployed capacity — embedded inside a client team, working alongside their creative directors, producers, MarTech leads, and engineers to redesign and ship workflows in real time. That is not a separate track or program. It is a mode this work requires, and the expectation is that you are ready for it when the account calls for it.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Map the creative workflow end-to-end: brief, concepting, production, review, localization, activation, measurement — find the bottlenecks the team has stopped seeing
• Diagnose root causes of operational friction: handoff failures, approval bottlenecks, tooling mismatches, governance gaps
• Redesign the workflow for target-state operations: AI-powered where it accelerates throughput, human judgment where it must stay in the loop
• Configure and integrate creative AI platforms against real brand and channel requirements: Adobe Firefly Services, GenStudio, ComfyUI, Figma plugins, Pencil, Typeface, Weavy
• Wire pipelines into the existing stack — DAM, CMS, Workfront, MarTech — so they run inside the team's day, not alongside it
• Build prompt architectures, agent workflows, and quality gates that hold up under production volume
• Demonstrate value fast: a working pipeline inside the client's actual process is more persuasive than any roadmap
• Stand up governance: brand safety, rights management, model selection, approval routing, audit trail — the conditions under which legal and brand can say yes
• Train the creative team on new workflows and measure the gains: throughput, cycle time, cost-per-asset, quality consistency
• Transfer capability so the new model continues to run after the engagement ends, measured and owned by the client team
• Support complex engagement scoping across creative operations, content supply chain, and MarTech
• Contribute reusable accelerators, tooling configurations, and methods that improve how the practice delivers

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• 5-10 years in creative technology, content operations, production engineering, or applied AI in creative contexts — with meaningful time spent actually building
• Track record of shipping in real environments: working pipelines, measured outcomes — not just designed solutions
• Experience bridging creative and technology teams — credible with a creative director in the morning and a MarTech lead in the afternoon
• Hands-on experience configuring creative AI platforms: Adobe Firefly Services, GenStudio, ComfyUI, Figma plugins, Pencil, Typeface, Weavy — against real brand and production requirements, not sandbox demos
• Working knowledge of DAM, CMS, Workfront, content APIs, and modern orchestration platforms
• Fluency with LLMs, prompt design, and automation tooling applied to creative and content workflows
• Ability to build a working proof of concept within the constraints of a client engagement — fast, focused, designed to move a skeptical stakeholder
• Deep understanding of how creative production actually works: brief to asset, where handoffs break, what brand and legal need to approve
• Familiarity with the Adobe ecosystem — Firefly Services, GenStudio, AEM, Workfront — is a strong differentiator
• Ability to engage credibly with creative directors, producers, brand operations teams, and MarTech leads
• Bias toward shipping: the working pipeline is the unit of progress
• Diagnostician first: understand exactly what is broken before designing the fix
• Comfortable working without a dedicated engineering team; you know when to build it yourself and when to pull in help
• Most useful inside the work, not above it
• Bachelor's degree required
• Willingness to travel within the US (10-20%)

ABOUT US

Born in 2001, Code and Theory is a digital-first creative agency that sits at the center of creativity and technology. We pride ourselves on not only solving consumer and business problems, but also helping to establish new capabilities for our clients. With a global client roster of Fortune 100s and start-ups alike, we crave the hardest problems to solve. We have teams distributed across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. The Code and Theory global network of agencies is growing and includes Kettle, Instrument, Left Field Labs, Create Group, Current, and TrueLogic.

Striving never to be pigeonholed, we work across every major category: from tech to CPG, financial services to travel & hospitality, government and education to media and publishing. We value the collaboration with our client partners, including but not limited to Adidas, Amazon, Con Edison, Diageo, EY, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lenovo, Marriott, Mars, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, and TikTok.

The Code and Theory network is comprised of nearly 2,000 people with 50% engineers and 50% creative talent. We’re always on the lookout for smart, driven, and forward-thinking people to join our team.

The compensation range for this role is $110,000 – $160,000 and spans multiple levels. We're open to hiring at the level that best matches the right candidate's experience. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, budget, and location.