Creative Lead - Visual Merchandising

About the role

You will define the visual language and creative direction for Spotify's global merchandising ecosystem, ensuring that every pixel across playlists, share cards, video titles, podcasts, and audiobooks tells a coherent and compelling Spotify story. You will partner with the Platform team to translate complex data and infrastructure capabilities into human-centered visual experiences that feel instantly recognizable and deeply engaging to hundreds of millions of listeners. You will lead the conception and execution of artwork, visual systems, and creative frameworks that scale across markets, devices, and contexts while preserving a distinct Spotify personality. You will champion experimentation and rigorous creative testing, using insights to continuously refine the visual language that shapes how users discover and interact with audio. You will mentor and elevate a multidisciplinary creative community, fostering collaboration between designers, strategists, producers, and technologists to raise the bar for visual storytelling. You will stay ahead of creative and technological trends, including the evolving role of AI in ideation, production, and personalization, and determine how these advancements can enhance rather than replace human creativity. You will own the long-term vision for visual merchandising standards and systems, balancing bold creative ambition with the operational realities of a global platform. You will act as the trusted creative voice at the intersection of product, brand, and engineering, ensuring that every visual decision aligns with Spotify's strategic goals and cultural values.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define and own the end-to-end visual merchandising strategy for Spotify, translating business objectives and platform capabilities into a cohesive creative vision that scales globally.

Partner with product and engineering leaders to identify opportunities where visual design can unlock new value, turning complex platform data into intuitive and inspiring experiences for creators and listeners.

Lead the conception and production of artwork, visual systems, and frameworks that underpin playlists, share cards, video titles, podcasts, and audiobooks across all touchpoints.

Establish and evangelize design standards, component libraries, and production workflows that ensure consistency, efficiency, and quality as the platform grows in complexity.

Champion the integration of emerging technologies, including AI-assisted creative tools, into the production pipeline while safeguarding brand integrity and creative excellence.

Collaborate with data and research partners to translate insights into visual decisions, using experimentation to validate concepts and optimize performance over time.

Mentor and guide a multidisciplinary creative team, providing clear direction, actionable feedback, and a strong creative rationale that elevates the entire organization's design capabilities.

Influence product roadmaps by articulating the creative implications of new features, timelines, and technical constraints, and by proposing realistic and impactful design solutions.

Act as the primary creative partner for cross-functional stakeholders, aligning diverse teams around a unified visual language that reflects Spotify's personality and mission.

Drive the development of scalable creative systems and processes that support rapid experimentation, localization, and personalization without compromising coherence.

Proactively identify creative risks and opportunities, challenging assumptions and proposing innovative approaches that keep Spotify's visual presence ahead of the curve.

Champion inclusive and accessible design practices, ensuring that visual experiences are perceivable, operable, and meaningful for the broadest possible audience.

Contribute to the broader creative community at Spotify by sharing best practices, building tools, and fostering knowledge exchange that raises the standard for visual storytelling.

Evaluate and recommend tools, vendors, and partners that enable high-quality, efficient, and scalable visual production in line with Spotify's global ambitions.

Define and communicate clear creative success metrics in partnership with product and analytics, using insights to continuously refine and evolve the visual merchandising strategy.

Requirements

You have a proven track record of leading creative strategy and visual design for large-scale consumer products or platforms, with a strong portfolio demonstrating your ability to work at global scale.

You have deep expertise in visual design systems, illustration, motion, and typography, and you understand how these elements work together to create cohesive brand experiences.

You have experience translating complex technical or data-driven concepts into clear, compelling visual narratives that resonate with both expert and non-expert audiences.

You have a strong background in managing and mentoring creative teams, providing strategic direction, thoughtful feedback, and practical production guidance.

You are fluent in the language of product design, user experience, and front-end implementation, and you know how to collaborate effectively with engineers and product managers.

You have a demonstrated history of building and maintaining design systems and visual standards that enable speed and consistency across multiple products and markets.

You are comfortable making decisions in ambiguous environments, balancing creative ambition with business impact, and advocating for design quality under tight deadlines.

You have a strong understanding of accessibility principles and are committed to ensuring that your creative work is inclusive and usable by diverse audiences.

You are passionate about experimenting with emerging technologies, including AI tools, and thinking critically about their role in the creative process without sacrificing originality or humanity.

Nice to have

You have experience working in music, audio, media, or entertainment environments, where user expression and discovery are central.

You have experience building and scaling design systems and component libraries in digital products.

You have worked with data visualization and information design, turning complex datasets into intuitive visual experiences.

You have experience with motion design, 3D, or video production, and you understand how these disciplines intersect with brand and interface design.

You have worked closely with AI tools in creative production and can discuss their opportunities and limitations from a practitioner's perspective.

You have a strong understanding of localization and internationalization considerations in visual design, including typography and cultural nuances.

You have contributed to open design systems or shared creative tooling, and you are passionate about enabling other teams through reusable assets and clear guidelines.

Practical notes

Full-time role based in our London office.

This role requires collaboration across time zones and occasional travel within Europe for stakeholder meetings or industry events.

Candidates must be eligible to work in the United Kingdom without sponsorship at this time.