Head of Brand Design - Adobe Creative

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 brand should set the standard for how identity evolves in this new era. Adobe Creative is looking for a visionary Head of Brand Design to define the future of Adobe's identity, ensure the best of the Adobe brand is consistently integrated into the AI systems and technology we build, and build the internal team, systems and culture that bring it to life. This is a role for a world-class brand designer, identity architect and systems builder with exceptional taste, craft and imagination.

You will own Adobe's identity architecture and core brand system across an increasingly complex portfolio of products, audiences, experiences, and surfaces. You will ensure the brand remains distinctive, coherent and unmistakably Adobe while continually evolving.

Working upstream, you will define the principles, visual codes and architecture of the brand. You will translate them into adaptive tools and machine-readable systems that can be applied consistently by internal teams, external partners, templates and AI-enabled workflows. Brand leadership at Adobe extends beyond static guidelines. It includes identity, typography, color, imagery, motion, digital behavior, spatial expression, portfolio architecture, governance and the role of AI in applying brands at scale.

The Head of Brand Design owns Adobe's identity architecture and core brand system, including the principles that govern visual and verbal identity. The Head of Design owns the design practice and visual expression across Adobe Creative's work; the Head of Copy owns the copywriting practice and creative expression of Adobe's verbal identity; and the Head of Campaigns owns the campaign platforms and central ideas that bring the brand to market. You partner closely with each to ensure the system enables distinctive creative expression without fragmenting the brand.

You are a maker first. You remain close to the tools, the teams and the work. Your authority comes from your taste, your judgment and the strength of the systems you build.

What You'll Do

Define Adobe's Brand for the New Era

• Own Adobe's identity architecture and core brand system.
• Establish a clear point of view on what a modern, adaptive global brand should be in the age of AI.
• Define the principles, visual codes and behaviors that make Adobe unmistakably Adobe.
• Own the governing principles of Adobe's verbal identity, naming architecture, nomenclature and tone of voice, partnering with the Head of Copy on creative application.
• Ensure the brand remains coherent across products, audiences and experiences without becoming rigid or predictable.
• Build a system capable of supporting both flagship creative expression and everyday execution.
• Continually evolve the brand based on culture, technology and the changing ways people create.

Build the Brand System Upstream

• Build the identity frameworks, tools and working practices that enable teams to make strong brand decisions from the start.
• Translate brand strategy into practical systems across typography, color, imagery, motion, composition, behavior and verbal principles.
• Create modular and adaptive tools that support speed, scale and creative flexibility.
• Move Adobe beyond static guidelines toward structured, machine-readable brand logic.
• Partner with Creative Technology, Product, Production and Operations to embed brand principles into tools and workflows.
• Turn learning from real-world applications into improvements to the system.

Lead Brand Expression Across Adobe

• Lead the development and evolution of Adobe's corporate, portfolio and product brand expression.
• Shape Adobe's most visible identity systems and brand expressions across products, campaigns and real-world moments.
• Partner with the Head of Design to ensure Adobe's identity system is interpreted with exceptional craft, intelligence and imagination across Adobe Creative's work.
• Partner with the Head of Copy to translate Adobe's verbal identity, naming principles, nomenclature and tone of voice into distinctive creative expression across Adobe Creative's work.
• Partner with the Head of Campaigns to ensure campaign platforms stretch and advance the brand without fragmenting it.
• Partner with Content and Experiences leaders so Adobe's brand system supports publishing and real-world expression with clarity and flexibility.
• Ensure the system performs across digital, physical, spatial, motion and emerging AI-enabled surfaces.
• Hold externally produced brand-system work to the same standard as internal brand work.

Build a World-Class Brand Team

• Build and lead Adobe's in-house team of Brand Design Directors, Art Directors, Brand Systems Designers and Brand Designers.
• Build a strong leadership bench and clear pathways for makers to grow.
• Recruit exceptional brand designers with diverse perspectives, strong craft and rigorous systems thinking.
• Create a culture of high standards, experimentation, direct feedback and creative generosity.
• Keep senior brand leaders close to the work and protect meaningful time for making.
• Build flexible teams around identity, systems, expression and emerging brand needs.
• Reduce dependence on external agencies for Adobe's core brand thinking and creative authorship.

Advance AI-Native Brand Systems

• Define Adobe Creative's point of view on how AI changes identity, governance and brand application.
• Build brand systems that can be understood and applied by people, templates and AI-enabled workflows.
• Establish principles for evaluating AI-assisted brand output through distinctiveness, coherence, craft and human judgment.
• Define where automation can support scale and where human authorship and intervention remain essential.
• Partner with Product as a creative customer zero, testing how brand logic can be embedded into emerging tools and experiences.
• Ensure teams understand responsible AI, provenance, creator rights and Content Credentials.

Represent Brand Across Adobe

• Represent Adobe's brand system and identity in executive and cross-functional forums.
• Translate identity and brand decisions into clear, actionable choices.
• Advocate for brand to be involved earlier in product, portfolio and business decisions.
• Connect brand distinction and coherence to recognition, trust, preference and long-term value.
• Present work with clarity, confidence and conviction.

What You Need to Succeed

• 15+ years of experience in brand design, visual identity or multidisciplinary brand leadership.
• A world-class portfolio of identity systems for iconic global brands.
• Significant experience as a Design Partner, Executive Creative Director, Global Brand Design Director or equivalent.
• Meaningful industry recognition through D&AD, The One Show, ADC, Cannes Lions or equivalent.
• Exceptional taste, visual judgment and systems thinking.
• A track record of building identity systems that are both beautifully designed and operationally rigorous.
• Experience navigating portfolio architecture, product brands and complex global organizations.
• Experience building or significantly transforming an in-house brand capability.
• Deep expertise in identity, typography, color, image-making and motion, with strong fluency across digital, spatial and emerging brand practices.
• Experience developing modular, adaptive or machine-readable brand systems.
• Experience directing brand 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 brand creation, governance and application.
• A commanding presenter who can communicate the value of brand 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 brand 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 - $286,550


At 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.