AI-Savvy Creative Director (who Leans Heavily Towards Web/Digital)

Taoti is Looking an AI-Savvy Creative Director with Strong Web/Digital Chops

The headline pretty much sums it up.  We're looking for a hands-on creative director who leans more web/digital than brand/advertising.  Not that you'd never get involved with brand or ad creative direction, but our team is already strong in those areas, and our need is more in the web and digital design practices.  We're looking for someone that really gets modern web design methods and can drive innovative designs using cutting edge techniques.  We're also looking for someone who already uses AI extensively as part of their process and can help redefine how we approach our design/build methodology.

The Selection Rubric

We'll make this easy for you so that you know exact what we're looking for in this role and can tune your application accordingly (in rough order of priority):

1. Above all, you need to have best-of-show design chops.  We want to see modern, innovative websites you've designed--the kind of sites that win awards.
2. A big part of a CD's role (at least here) is to help sell your creative process and vision, both internally and externally.  So we're looking for a big personality, high energy, extroverted type of person who can be compelling in a client meeting or sales pitch while also being a internal cheerleader for the team.  Notice this is number two on our prioritized list.
3. Taoti has embraced AI more so than most agencies.  So we want someone who can really help be a change agent when it comes to incorporating (if not reinventing) how we do what we do while leveraging AI.  When applying, please be explicit and detailed in talking about your process, tools, etc, and how/where AI fits into them.
4. Taoti understands the difference between leadership and management.  And while they often come in the same package, sometimes they don't.  And that's okay too.  We definitely want a creative leader.  If you're a good manager as well, that's icing on the cake.  Admittedly, we have a leadership void on our creative team that we would like to fill at some point.  So if managing others is something you're good at and enjoy, there's a fast track opportunity to take over the creative team in that regard.  But if we have to pick between a good subject matter leader vs. a good manager, we choose leader.

Those are the must-haves.  Nice-to-haves include:

• Good marketing, advertising, and brand design chops (which implies the ability to bring compelling editorial and copy to the table without always needing to relying on a separate copy writer)
• An intrinsic sense of user experience principles and strategies
• Experience with live action video production (ie, TV commercials)
• An inclination to favor (and ability to create) video and animation over static imagery
• Social media design experience

The Day-to-Day

Team Taoti is a collection of doers.  So we want someone who is hands-on and enjoys being in the weeds with the client work.  The day-to-day will be more about producing actual work and deliverables than it will be about delegating to others.  Granted, by definition, a creative director directs.  So it's not that you won't have a team to work with.  But expect to get your hands dirty on a daily basis.

"Get my hands dirty with what types of projects/clients?," you ask?  Good question.  We recommend you check out our portfolio, as it's a pretty good cross section of clients and project types.  https://taoti.com/portfolio/

To give you some back-of-napkin stats, about 60% of our business is in web design and development. (The rest being marketing, advertising, branding, etc.) About 90% of it is in the DC area.  DC itself (across almost two dozen contracts) is our biggest collective client (for example, we just finished redesigning all the dc.gov websites and are agency of record for DC Lottery.)  We're mainly a B2B type of shop.  We do a fair amount of government work and non-profit/association work.  Our commercial and B2C portfolio is smaller but growing.  We typically develop in Wordpress, Drupal, Webflow (to a much smaller extent), but have recently been experimenting publishing direct from Claude to production and bypassing CMSs altogether.  (Note: one of the challenges of this job is to make 'typical CMS-driven websites' not look like typical CMS-driven websites.)

What’s the corporate culture like?

“Fun but focused,” as one Taotian put it, is a great way to sum up our culture.  We’re a fun and casual shop.  The kind of place where you can wear whatever, bring your dog to work, come and go as you please, and have autonomy over your own day for the most part.  But we take the work seriously and believe deeply in the ethos to make meaningful and measurable impacts for our clients.  All the perks and shenanigans and borderline irreverent tone are fun, but to really fit in here, you need to be committed to the work and the results it generates.  

One note on culture: it's closely aligned with the brand.  So maybe you should check out our brand guide: Taoti - Brand Deck.pdf 

Pay particular attention to our values, differentiators, philosophy, and ethos.  If you're the right fit here, you should find yourself sitting there nodding your head as you read this stuff.  If you don't, that's okay.  But we're not looking to try to pound any square pegs into a round hole.   

Want to see what life at Taoti actually looks like?  Check out our Instagram or ‘about us’ video. 

So what's in it for you?

• Annual profit-sharing bonus (we take 5-10% of the company profit at the end of the year and split up (not necessarily evenly) between the top 20-30% of performers to reward those who are best at driving the company forward.)  The smallest bonus was still a 5 figure amount last year, for context.
  
• 5+ weeks of PTO (including 11 holidays).  This number goes up automatically with each year of tenure.
• 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance.  (50% for qualifying dependents.) 
• Paid family leave for men and women (including PTO plus short and long-term disability options.) 
• 3% retirement plan matching (plus access to a financial advisor).  
• Home buyer help (including a $1200 closing credit) 
• Mobile phone reimbursement 
• You can opt for a company-supplied PC or Mac laptop.
• Charitable contribution matching 
• Tax-free metro benefits 
• A sincere respect for work/life balance 
• Money and time off allocated for professional development (also increases with tenure) 
• A diverse team hailing from over 11 countries last time we checked 
• A very hip/cool/funky/quirky office space on Barracks Row, in the heart of Capitol Hill.  Just 2 blocks from the metro!  
  

Of course, the above is a quick list.  Our handbook covers all the gory details.

Job Logistics

We are looking for a full time, W2, in-house employee.  This role will report directly to the Chief of Staff and CEO and oversee a variety of other roles.  While much of the staff does get about 1.5 days of weekly telework, this is an important leadership position, and we generally need you here each day to mentor the team, help build culture, drive energy, collaborate with other departments, etc.  That said, occasional exceptions can be made for good reason (and frequently are).  Because a shitty commute isn't good for you or us, we generally will not consider anyone with more than a 45 minute commute (though exceptions can and have been made to that rule.  But we'd need a really compelling reason to flex on that, as tough commutes are always a strain on work life balance and employee happiness, regardless of what you tell us in the interview.  (Note: if you live somewhere else right now and plan to relocate for this role, please make sure you note that somewhere in your application.  Otherwise, you'll be ruled out on location alone.)

Our Hiring Process

We do not have a set date by when we're looking to fill the position.  It will stay open until we find the right person, even if that takes months. Candidates are initially screened by our selection committee (comprised of subject matter experts and senior leadership--not an HR person, and certainly not AI) and given a score of 1-5.  1-3 gets the polite 'sorry, but you didn't get the job' canned response--usually within 2-3 days.  4s and 5s stay in the queue for further consideration (we may reach out with specific questions or do our own internal due diligence.)  This part can take a while, so ironically, the longer it takes to hear from us, usually the better that is for you, as it means you're still in the mix (though if it gets to be 'weeks,' we do usually try to send a quick status update so you don't think we ghosted you.  When we feel we have a handful of candidates that we could truly envisioning hiring, we'll invite them in for an interview (or series of interviews.)  After which final selections / reference checks / negotiations will happen.  We promise to respond one way or another to all applications at some point so that you get some closure (unless you didn't take our application seriously or were clearly a bot, in which case we simply delete it without further processing.)

Next steps… 

If you’re qualified and interested, please apply on our website (www.taoti.com/careers.)  Please note that these job ads often get placed onto other websites with their own application systems (we’re looking at you Jooble!)  and some sites (looking at you Indeed!) have made up random salary ranges, so if you see one of those, know that it's not from us.  We aren't able to respond to applications that don’t come through our own website (Because we use software to manage our hiring process, and without it, it would be the wild west here. So please be sure you’re applying on our website.)   

Pretty please, no recruiters.