Full-Time
Director of Photography
tarte cosmetics
Makeup and skincare brand
Compensation Overview
$120k - $160k/yr
New York, NY, USA
In Person
Five days in-office per week required.
 Creative Production |
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- 10–12+ years of professional photography experience, with significant experience in beauty, fashion, lifestyle, or consumer brands.
- Proven experience developing and executing photography for large-scale campaigns, product launches, brand marketing initiatives, and social-first content.
- A strong portfolio demonstrating excellence in on-model photography, beauty imagery, portraiture, and visual storytelling is required.
- Experience collaborating with senior creative and marketing leadership on integrated campaigns and brand initiatives.
- Previous experience mentoring creative teams, freelancers, agencies, and external production partners.
- Deep expertise in lighting, composition, color theory, retouching direction, and photographic production workflows.
- A strong understanding of integrated marketing, digital content creation, social media trends, and consumer engagement is required.
- Experience leveraging artificial intelligence-enhanced creative and retouching tools to support production efficiencies and asset refinement while maintaining the integrity of model imagery, authentic product representation, and responsible visual storytelling.
- Exceptional creative judgment with the ability to balance brand consistency and innovation.
- Proficiency with industry-standard photography equipment, capture software, Adobe Creative Suite, and asset management workflows.
- Excellent communication, presentation, organizational, and project management skills.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment while managing multiple high-priority initiatives simultaneously.
- Portfolio and social media handles are required for consideration.
- Partner with the Vice President of Creative Marketing, Global Marketing, and International teams to develop and execute photography concepts for major brand campaigns, product launches, seasonal initiatives, social moments, influencer programs, events, and integrated marketing activations.
- Collaborate on the evolution of the brand’s photographic visual identity, ensuring consistency while driving fresh and innovative creative approaches across all channels.
- Translate marketing objectives and campaign strategies into compelling visual narratives that resonate with consumers and strengthen brand equity.
- Contribute to photography concepts, shot lists, mood boards, casting recommendations, and visual storytelling approaches.
- Maintain awareness of industry trends, emerging aesthetics, cultural moments, and best practices in beauty, fashion, and digital content creation.
- Lead the creative execution of on-model campaign, lifestyle, editorial, social, e-commerce, and promotional photography.
- Partner with Marketing and Creative teams to support key launches, hero campaigns, retail initiatives, influencer collaborations, brand events, and tentpole marketing moments.
- Direct all aspects of photography shoots, including lighting, composition, talent direction, posing, and image selection.
- Ensure imagery showcases product performance, brand storytelling, and consumer engagement opportunities.
- Collaborate with Creative Leadership, Producers, Production, Design, Social, and Video teams to ensure integrated creative execution across formats and platforms.
- Partner with the Global Marketing team to ensure photography assets support global market needs while maintaining brand consistency.
- Mentor and inspire photographers, freelancers, and creative partners while fostering a collaborative and innovative working environment.
- Provide creative direction and feedback throughout all stages of production and post-production.
- Help establish photography standards, workflows, and best practices that support efficient and high-quality content creation.
- Build partnerships across departments to align creative vision with business objectives.
- Collaborate with Creative, Marketing, and Production teams on pre-production planning, including creative development, casting, location scouting, budgeting, scheduling, and resource allocation.
- Partner with Production teams to ensure efficient execution of shoots while maintaining creative standards.
- Support photography budget management and vendor relationships to maximize creative impact and operational efficiency.
- Oversee image review, retouching direction, asset management, and final photography deliverables.
- Ensure photography assets are delivered accurately, on time, and according to brand standards.
- Perform live event photography and turn around retouched, brand-ready imagery on-site.
- Maintain and evolve the brand’s visual identity across photography.
- Ensure imagery reflects the brand’s values, aesthetic, and consumer positioning across social media, e-commerce, retail, public relations, paid media, influencer content, and marketing materials.
- Champion innovation in photography techniques, technologies, and creative processes to elevate brand storytelling and consumer engagement.
- Manage multiple high-priority initiatives simultaneously.
Operating as a consumer makeup and skincare brand, tarte cosmetics focuses on its stated market and service model. It develops and markets cosmetics sold through its own ecommerce channels and retail partners. Product development, creative, digital commerce, marketing, supply chain, wholesale, and customer teams bring collections to market. Work includes formulation and product, brand and content, ecommerce, retail partnerships, operations, technology, and finance. The profile is tarte cosmetics and not every third-party retailer carrying the products.
Company Size
N/A
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
New York City, New York
Founded
2000
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- June 2026 Creaseless Creamy Concealer and Shape Tape Stick deepen the hero lineup.
- Dunkin’s June 2025 Guava Girl Summer launched through Ulta, tarte.com, and TikTok Shop.
- Kellie Crowther’s 2026 unedited video drove $161,397 sales and ranked Tarte top-eight in skincare.
What critics are saying
- February 2026 Bora Bora backlash keeps Tarte exposed to creator-culture blowups.
- Tarte’s racism and insensitive-post history keeps reputational damage one viral mistake away.
- If influencer trust collapses, Tarte loses its cheapest growth engine and brand identity.
What makes tarte cosmetics unique
- Maureen Kelly turned Shape Tape into a durable concealer franchise since 2010s.
- Tarte uses unpaid influencer trips and local creators for fast, organic reach.
- Dunkin’s June 2025 collab shows Tarte weaponizes pop-culture partnerships into retail velocity.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
401(k) Retirement Plan
Wellness Program
Paid Vacation
Paid Holidays
Hybrid Work Options
Employee Discounts
Company News
"i don't know why everyone cuts the videos" + The $803,000 Anti-Foundation Spark. i don't know why everyone that shows this product cuts the videos Creator @kelliecrowther triggered an inflection point by challenging beauty industry standards with unedited footage. Her video, which garnered $161,397 in sales, proved the product's efficacy in real-time without filters. This transparency-first strategy catapulted Tarte to the top 8 in the Skincare category within 28 days. tarte summer skin essentials - CC color-correcting tinted serum + creaseless SPF 30 mineral setting powder · Price: $79.00 · Launch date: 2026.6.1 · Commission: 0% Period: 2025-12-27 ~ 2026-06-24 Units sold
Tariff litigation expands as federal court weighs next move. (The Center Square) - Two new businesses have sued to block President Donald Trump's 10% tariffs, even as a federal appeals court considers whether to lift an injunction already protecting two small businesses and the State of Washington from paying them. The government disclosed the new lawsuits Monday in its reply brief, arguing that additional importers are waiting to file until the court decides whether to stay the underlying ruling. Cleaner's Supply Inc., a New York cleaning supply company, sued May 25, and Tarte Cosmetics, a U.S. cosmetics company, sued May 29. Both seek relief from the same tariffs a federal trade court struck down last month. The Court of International Trade ruled 2-1 on May 7 that Trump used improper economic benchmarks to justify tariffs imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 and permanently enjoined their application to spice importer Burlap & Barrel, toy company Basic Fun, and the State of Washington. The Federal Circuit entered an administrative stay on May 12, temporarily freezing the injunction while it considers whether to grant a full stay pending appeal. The Yale Budget Lab, a nonpartisan research center, has estimated the tariffs could cost the average U.S. household $600 to $800 annually. The Section 122 tariffs are Trump's second attempt to impose broad import duties after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in February that his earlier tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act exceeded his authority. Trump signed the Section 122 proclamation hours after that ruling. A lower court has now struck down the Section 122 tariffs as well, although that ruling remains under appeal, and the administration has argued the duties are necessary to stabilize U.S. trade policy during a transition to new tariff measures expected this summer. In its reply brief, the government argued the plaintiffs cannot agree on a single alternative interpretation of the statute and said the presidential proclamation relied on multiple economic measures beyond the trade deficit. It also contended the plaintiffs' position is internally inconsistent - arguing that if they expect to lose, they are not harmed by a stay, but if they expect to win, they may be unable to recover losses if the government prevails. Burlap & Barrel and Basic Fun argued in a filing last week that the harm from the tariffs extends beyond direct payments. The New York spice importer says it has paused hiring, scaled back shipments and delayed new product development. The Florida toy company says reduced margins could push it toward breaching loan covenants, potentially triggering costly renegotiations. Both argue those harms cannot be remedied by a later refund. Tarte Cosmetics raised similar concerns in its complaint, noting that "the availability and scope of refunds absent judicial relief remains uncertain." A coalition of 14 states led by Oregon argued the government's interpretation is fundamentally flawed, contending the term "balance-of-payments deficits" referred specifically to pressures on U.S. gold reserves under the fixed exchange-rate system that ended in 1973. The states also pointed to prior litigation in which the government described trade deficits as "conceptually distinct from balance-of-payments deficits," a position they say contradicts its current argument. Advancing American Freedom, a conservative group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, filed the only outside brief in the case supporting the plaintiffs. "No president should be able to exercise powers reserved to Congress on a whim," AAF General Counsel J. Marc Wheat said. The government also received an administrative notice Monday, warning it had failed to file a required document, cautioning the omission could result in dismissal. It filed the document hours later. With the briefing now complete, the Federal Circuit can rule at any time. The administrative stay keeping the tariffs in place for all plaintiffs remains in effect. The Section 122 tariffs are set to expire July 24. Locations. Currently in Knoxville
Last month, Dunkin', which like Baskin-Robbins is owned by Atlanta-based Inspire Brands, partnered with Tarte Cosmetics to launch a "Guava Girl Summer" line intended to promote Dunkin's Refreshers drinks, specifically its Pink Spritz Refresher made with guava, orange, and passion fruit flavors that was launched in May.
Dunkin' also recently collaborated with Tarte on a shiny, summery collection, and their Maracuja Juicy Lip Tint in Ice Pop and Maracuja Juicy Melt Mask could have a similar effect.
From May 30 to June 1, Miami's iconic W Hotel South Beach became a hotbed of sun, swimsuits, and supermodel-level glam, with Tarte stepping in as the official beauty partner for the 2025 SI Swimsuit Runway Show - and trust, they understood the assignment.