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San Diego, California, United States
Onsite
Not Available
Interactive work only earns its keep when someone actually stops, engages, and remembers it. That's the standard we hold ourselves to, and it's what this role exists to protect. As Creative Director, Interactive Experiences, you'll be the creative owner of everything we build that people touch, tap, walk into, or play with, from event installations to product launch apps to connected retail moments.
You're equally comfortable pitching the big idea in a client boardroom and sitting with a design team debugging why an interaction feels one beat too slow. We're looking for someone who can hold both altitudes at once: setting a creative bar for the whole studio while staying hands-on enough to shape the details that make an experience feel effortless. Your toolkit spans spatial storytelling, sensory and environmental design, and interactive technology, and you know how to weave all three into experiences that hold up whether someone spends five seconds or five minutes with them.
This is a leadership role with real creative stakes. You'll guide a team of designers and technologists, sit at the table with client leadership, and help define what "interactive" means for our studio as the tools and platforms we design for (AR, VR, connected hardware, generative AI, and whatever comes after) keep shifting.
Shape the Creative Vision
Lead People and Client Relationships
Push the Work Forward
Own the Details That Make It Real
10+ years or more in a creative role focused on interactive, digital, or experience design, including several years directly managing a team
Strong personal taste backed by a portfolio that shows range across interaction design, visual design, and concept development
Direct experience partnering with enterprise or consumer technology clients, and comfort navigating the layers of stakeholders that come with that kind of account
Willingness to get into the tools yourself. This isn't a role where you only review other people's Figma files
A working understanding of what's actually possible on today's hardware and software, so your ideas are ambitious but buildable
Real, current experience using AI tools as part of your own creative process, not just an interest in the idea of them
Comfort working across the full arc of a project, from early concept sketches through rapid prototyping to a finished, fabricated, on-site experience
Familiarity with the broader interactive and immersive landscape (AR, VR, projection, sensor-driven installations) even if your day-to-day tools are mostly digital
A portfolio piece that clearly moved the needle on how long people engaged with an experience
Recognition from peers or industry press for work you led
Clients who ask for you by name when something new and difficult comes up
Background in large-scale experiential production
Located in Seattle or San Diego
Gigantic Playground is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Gigantic Playground recruits qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, status as a protected veteran, or genetic information.
Gigantic Playground participates in the E-Verify program. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form (I-9) upon hire.