Lead Designer (AI)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead Designer (AI)

Company: Nextiva

Location: Scottsdale, Arizona, United States

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Marketing Operations / Creative Production (AI-Focused)

Date Posted: May 27, 2026

Experience Level: Mid-Senior Level (5-10 years estimated)

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Spearhead AI-first creative production workflows, leveraging tools like Cursor and Claude to automate mundane design tasks and scale marketing efforts.

• Lead and mentor a team of designers and videographers, fostering an AI-native approach to creative execution and elevating output quality.

• Drive the design and production of high-quality marketing assets, including landing pages, ad creative, video, and brand storytelling, with a focus on AI-assisted ideation and execution.

• Steward and expand the company's recently launched brand identity, ensuring consistency and thoughtful additions across all touchpoints.

• Connect creative output directly to business results by partnering with growth, demand gen, and product marketing teams, using performance data to refine creative direction.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is "Lead Designer (AI)", the responsibilities and requirements strongly indicate a leadership role focused on integrating AI into creative production operations for marketing. This is not a pure design role but a hybrid operations and creative leadership position. The emphasis on "automating mundane creative tasks," "scaling campaigns," and "AI-first creative workflows" positions this role within the broader scope of marketing operations and GTM strategy, with a specialized focus on leveraging AI for enhanced efficiency and output.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design and produce a wide range of marketing creative, including landing pages, campaign assets, digital ads, email templates, video content, and brand moments, ensuring all work meets a high creative bar.

• Redesign and implement AI-first creative production processes, from ideation through final delivery, utilizing AI for concepting, copywriting, and creative exploration.

• Use AI tools (Cursor, Claude) to build and ship pages, assets, and internal tools, automating repetitive production tasks like ad variations and asset resizing to free up team time for strategic creative decisions.

• Manage and develop the creative team through a player-coach approach, overseeing daily operations, assigning work, unblocking team members, and ensuring projects remain on track.

• Onboard and mentor the team on AI-native tools and processes, setting expectations that AI-generated work is a starting point requiring refinement to a high standard.

• Define and document best practices, prompts, and patterns for AI-assisted creative that consistently produce strong results, sharing these across the marketing organization.

• Maintain and expand the company's new brand identity, enforcing consistency as it rolls out across various platforms and creating considered additions to the brand system.

• Collaborate with growth, demand generation, and product marketing teams to ensure creative efforts align with business objectives, drive awareness, engagement, and pipeline, and use performance data for iterative refinement.

• Develop repeatable, AI-driven processes to scale creative output for brand-consistent assets in volume, enabling the team to deliver more campaigns, channels, and variations without increasing headcount.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities emphasize a significant operational component to this design leadership role. The focus on "redesigning how creative gets produced," "automating repetitive production work," and "scaling creative output without scaling the team" highlights the operations management aspect. The requirement to define "repeatable, AI-driven processes" and "production workflows" is a clear indication of operations strategy implementation.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While not explicitly stated, a Bachelor's degree in Design, Marketing, Communications, or a related field is typically expected for a leadership role of this nature. Equivalent practical experience will also be considered.

Experience: Minimum of 5-10 years of progressive experience in creative production, marketing design, or brand management, with a significant portion involving team leadership and hands-on execution.

Required Skills:

• Proven creative leadership experience in a marketing, brand, or agency environment, with a history of leading teams and remaining hands-on with creative execution.

• Strong design taste and exceptional visual judgment; ability to define and consistently achieve a high creative standard.

• Fluency and daily practical experience using AI tools such as Cursor and Claude for creative development, ideation, and production.

• Demonstrated experience producing a variety of marketing creative assets: landing pages, campaign creative, digital ads, email design, brand identity elements, and video content.

• A robust portfolio showcasing functioning projects built with AI tools, including live landing pages, operational tools, shipped creative, or interactive prototypes.

• Comfort and proficiency working with code to build and ship working pages, particularly within environments like Cursor, without necessarily being a dedicated software engineer.

• A strong "builder" mindset, with a proven ability to improve systems and processes beyond just delivering individual creative assets.

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to take direction from senior leadership (CMO, Creative Director) and effectively translate it into team execution and clear project briefs.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience working within and extending established brand systems, understanding the balance between maintaining consistency and thoughtful innovation.

• Familiarity with design systems, design tokens, or component libraries, and their application in scalable creative production.

• Background in B2B SaaS, technology, or high-growth environments, understanding the unique demands of these sectors.

• Experience evaluating, adopting, and implementing new creative technologies for a team.

• Interest or experience in motion design, video production workflows, or interactive storytelling.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "fluency in Cursor and Claude as primary creative tools" and "a portfolio of functioning projects you've built with AI tools" indicates a highly specialized requirement. The "comfort working in code" and "builder mindset" point towards an operational excellence expectation within the creative function, where efficiency and automation are paramount. This suggests the role is less about traditional graphic design and more about operations management of AI-powered creative output.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• AI-Native Workflows: Showcase projects where AI tools (Cursor, Claude, etc.) were integral to the ideation, design, and production process. Demonstrate how AI enhanced efficiency, creativity, or scalability.

• Functional Prototypes/Live Assets: Prioritize examples of completed and deployed work, such as live landing pages, functional web components, interactive prototypes, or automated ad variations, rather than static mockups.

• Code-Assisted Design: Include examples where you leveraged code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or specific Cursor/Claude integrations) to build or refine creative assets, demonstrating practical application of coding comfort.

• Brand System Integration: Present instances where you applied or extended an existing brand system, illustrating your ability to maintain visual consistency while innovating.

• Process Improvement Case Studies: If possible, include a case study detailing how you identified an operational bottleneck in creative production and implemented an AI-driven solution to improve efficiency, speed, or quality.

Process Documentation:

• AI Workflow Design: Documented examples of how you've designed or redesigned creative production workflows to incorporate AI tools effectively, from initial concept to final delivery.

• Prompt Engineering & Pattern Definition: Evidence of developing and refining prompts or patterns for AI tools to achieve consistent, high-quality creative outputs.

• Automation Implementation: Examples of automating repetitive design tasks (e.g., asset resizing, template population, ad variation generation) using AI or scripting.

• Performance Data Integration: Demonstrations of how you've used performance data to iterate on creative assets and inform future design directions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for a "portfolio of functioning projects you've built with AI tools" and "working landing pages, live tools, shipped creative, or interactive prototypes" is a significant differentiator. This moves beyond traditional design portfolios to a demonstration of operational output and practical application of AI in a production environment. The emphasis on "process documentation" and "AI-native workflows" further solidifies the operations-centric nature of this role.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: Based on the Lead Designer title, extensive AI and creative production responsibilities, team management duties, and the location in Scottsdale, Arizona, a competitive salary range is estimated to be between $110,000 and $160,000 annually. This estimate considers industry benchmarks for similar lead creative/design roles with operational responsibilities in a tech company, factoring in the specialized AI skill requirements and the cost of living in the Scottsdale area.

Benefits:

• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive health plans including medical, dental, vision, and telemedicine coverage.

• Insurance: Life, disability, and supplemental indemnity plans to provide financial security.

• Work-Life Balance: Flexible Time Off for salaried employees, Paid Sick Time, Paid Parental Bonding Leave, and paid holidays, supporting employee well-being.

• Financial Security: 401(k) with company match, Health Savings Accounts with company contributions, and Dependent Care FSA for financial planning.

• Employee Support: Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and various wellness initiatives to support mental and physical health.

• Professional Growth: Access to ongoing learning and development opportunities, including training on new creative technologies and AI tools, and clear career advancement paths.

Working Hours: The role is expected to be a full-time position, typically around 40 hours per week. Given the emphasis on "onsite five days per week" and "working together onsite," a standard office schedule is anticipated, with potential for some flexibility depending on project needs and team collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: A salary range has been estimated based on typical market rates for a Lead Designer with significant leadership and specialized AI responsibilities in a tech company located in Scottsdale, AZ. The benefits listed are directly extracted from the provided job description, highlighting a comprehensive package designed to support employee well-being and professional growth.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology (SaaS, Communications, AI-First) - Nextiva operates in the competitive tech landscape, focusing on AI-first solutions for customer experience and team collaboration. This industry context demands innovation, rapid adaptation, and a strong emphasis on leveraging technology for business advantage.

Company Size: Nextiva serves over 100,000 businesses and 1M+ users, indicating a significant, established mid-to-large-sized company with a global reach, despite being headquartered in Scottsdale. This size implies established processes but also opportunities for impact and growth within a structured environment.

Founded: Founded in 2008, Nextiva has a history of growth and evolution, recently undergoing a full rebrand. This suggests a company that is not static but actively invested in its future and brand positioning.

Team Structure:

• Creative Production Team: The role involves managing a "small team of designers and videographers," indicating a specialized unit within the broader marketing department.

• Reporting Structure: The Lead Designer will report to the Creative Director and CMO, placing them directly under senior marketing leadership and ensuring close alignment with strategic objectives.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Significant collaboration is expected with growth, demand gen, and product marketing teams, as well as potentially other marketing functions and engineering teams for code-related aspects.

Methodology:

• AI-Native: The core methodology is "AI-first," meaning AI is the default tool for ideation, concepting, and production, not an afterthought or experiment.

• Data-Driven Iteration: Creative output is expected to be connected to business results, with performance data used to refine direction and inform future work.

• Process Optimization: A strong emphasis is placed on building "repeatable, AI-driven processes" and improving "systems and processes" to scale output and efficiency.

Company Website: https://www.nextiva.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: The description emphasizes Nextiva's AI-first approach and recent rebrand, which are critical for understanding the company's current strategic direction and the context for this role. The team structure reveals a direct reporting line to senior leadership, suggesting high visibility and influence for this position.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role represents a Lead level position, bridging individual contributor (hands-on design and AI execution) with management responsibilities (team leadership, process development). It's a critical juncture for designers looking to move into operational leadership within creative functions, focusing on efficiency, automation, and strategic impact.

Reporting Structure: The Lead Designer reports directly to the Creative Director and CMO. This proximity to top marketing leadership offers significant exposure to strategic decision-making and provides a direct channel for influence.

Operations Impact: The role's impact is framed around scaling creative output without proportional headcount growth through AI automation, directly contributing to marketing campaign volume and efficiency. It also aims to connect creative work to tangible business results like awareness, engagement, and pipeline, demonstrating a clear link between creative operations and revenue generation.

Growth Opportunities:

• AI Creative Leadership: Define and lead the future of AI-native creative production, becoming a subject matter expert and thought leader in this emerging field within the company.

• Process Innovation: Drive continuous improvement in creative workflows, implementing new technologies and methodologies to enhance team productivity and output quality.

• Strategic Influence: Contribute significantly to marketing strategy through data-informed creative direction and the scaling of campaign efforts.

• Team Development: Mentor and grow a team of creative professionals, fostering their skills in AI tools and AI-assisted creative workflows.

• Brand Stewardship: Play a key role in the ongoing evolution and consistent application of Nextiva's new brand identity.

📝 Enhancement Note: The growth opportunities are framed around pioneering AI in creative operations, which is a highly sought-after and evolving area. The direct reporting line and emphasis on business results suggest potential for significant career advancement within Nextiva's marketing or operations leadership.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: This is an "onsite" role based at Nextiva's Scottsdale headquarters. The company emphasizes the benefits of working together onsite, such as "faster decisions, clearer communication, and stronger execution."

Office Location(s): The primary location is Nextiva's Scottsdale headquarters: 9451 E. Via de Ventura, Scottsdale, AZ 85256. This location is described as supporting a "highly collaborative, in-person team environment."

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The onsite expectation underscores a culture that values in-person collaboration, spontaneous ideation, and team synergy.

• AI & Tech Integration: While not explicitly detailed, the role's nature suggests a technologically advanced workspace equipped with necessary design software, AI tools (Cursor, Claude), and potentially coding environments.

• Team Interaction: Expect frequent interaction with the direct reports (designers, videographers) and close collaboration with senior marketing leadership and cross-functional teams.

Work Schedule: The role is full-time, with an "in-office expectation" of "five days per week." This indicates a structured work schedule designed to maximize in-person collaboration and operational efficiency.

📝 Enhancement Note: The strong emphasis on "onsite five days per week" and the rationale provided ("strengthens how we operate, enabling faster decisions, clearer communication, and stronger execution") highlight a company culture that prioritizes in-person collaboration for operational effectiveness in creative roles.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Likely involves a review of your resume and portfolio, focusing on AI experience, leadership, and relevant creative output.

• Creative/Technical Interview: Expect discussions around your approach to AI-driven design, proficiency with tools like Cursor and Claude, and problem-solving scenarios related to creative production challenges.

• Portfolio Review & Case Study: A deep dive into your portfolio, potentially presenting specific AI-built projects. You might be asked to walk through your process, demonstrate how AI was used, and explain the results.

• Team/Leadership Interview: Assessment of your management style, ability to mentor, and experience in building and leading creative teams, particularly in an AI-native context.

• Senior Leadership Interview: Final discussions with the CMO and/or Creative Director, focusing on strategic alignment, brand vision, and overall fit.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Focus on demonstrating functional projects. Ensure your portfolio clearly highlights what you built with AI, not just what you designed in traditional tools.

• Quantify Impact: Where possible, use metrics to show the impact of your AI-driven workflows or creative outputs (e.g., increased output volume, reduced production time, improved conversion rates).

• Explain the "Why" and "How": For each AI-assisted project, clearly articulate the problem, your approach using AI tools (including specific prompts or techniques if relevant), and the outcome.

• Code Comfort: If showcasing code-built pages, be prepared to discuss your coding process and comfort level.

• Brand Consistency: For brand-related work, demonstrate your understanding of brand systems and how you maintained or evolved them.

Challenge Preparation:

• AI Workflow Design: Be prepared to discuss how you would design or optimize an AI-driven creative workflow for a specific marketing campaign or asset type.

• Prompt Engineering: Consider how you would instruct AI to achieve specific creative outcomes or to generate variations of assets efficiently.

• Team Management in AI Context: Think about how you would onboard, train, and manage a creative team adopting new AI tools and workflows, addressing potential resistance or skill gaps.

• Brand Stewardship: Prepare to discuss how you would ensure brand consistency across AI-generated assets and expand a new brand system.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process and portfolio review emphasize practical, AI-driven execution and demonstrable results, moving beyond theoretical knowledge. The advice focuses on showcasing tangible AI application and operational efficiency.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• AI Ideation & Production: Claude, Cursor (primary tools for concepting, copywriting, building landing pages, prototyping, and shipping creative prototypes).

• Design Software: While not explicitly mentioned, proficiency in industry-standard design tools like Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects), Figma, or Sketch is likely assumed for refining AI outputs and for traditional design tasks.

• Coding Environments: Cursor, and potentially other code editors or IDEs, for building and shipping web pages and assets directly.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Performance Data Tools: Likely experience with web analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics) and marketing analytics dashboards to measure the effectiveness of creative assets and campaigns.

• A/B Testing Tools: Experience with tools for testing landing pages and ad creative variations to optimize performance.

CRM & Automation:

• Marketing Automation Platforms: Familiarity with platforms used for email marketing and campaign execution (e.g., HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot) to understand where creative assets will be deployed.

• Project Management Tools: Tools like Asana, Trello, Jira, or Monday.com for managing creative projects and team workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit mention of "Cursor and Claude as primary creative tools" and "building and ship[ping] creative prototypes in code" through Cursor makes these central to the technology stack. The assumption is that traditional design software and analytics tools are also part of the environment for a comprehensive creative production role.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• AI-First Mindset: Embracing AI as the default for creative production, driving innovation and efficiency through its application.

• Results-Oriented: A strong focus on delivering tangible business outcomes, connecting creative efforts to awareness, engagement, and pipeline growth.

• Builder Mentality: A proactive approach to improving systems, processes, and tools, rather than just executing tasks.

• Collaboration & Communication: Valuing teamwork, open feedback, and clear communication, both within the creative team and across departments.

• Agility & Iteration: Comfort with fast-paced environments, iterative development in the open, and treating feedback as a catalyst for improvement.

Collaboration Style:

• Player-Coach Approach: Leading by example, staying hands-on with creative work while guiding and mentoring the team.

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Actively collaborating with growth, demand gen, and product marketing to ensure creative strategies align with broader business objectives.

• Open Feedback Loops: Encouraging constructive feedback among team members and with senior leadership to elevate the quality of creative output.

• Knowledge Sharing: Documenting and sharing AI-native workflows, prompts, and patterns to uplift the entire marketing organization's capabilities.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company values, particularly "Drives Results," "Critical Thinker" (leveraging AI and automation), and "Right Attitude" (collaborative, resilient), align perfectly with the operational and leadership demands of this role. The emphasis on AI and process improvement is core to the operational culture.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Pioneering AI in Creative: Being at the forefront of AI integration in creative production means navigating uncharted territory, requiring continuous learning and adaptation as AI technologies evolve rapidly.

• Balancing AI Efficiency with Creative Quality: Ensuring that AI-generated outputs are elevated beyond "average" by human taste, judgment, and refinement, maintaining a high creative bar.

• Team Adoption of New Workflows: Guiding and mentoring a team through the adoption of AI-native tools and processes, addressing potential learning curves or resistance to change.

• Maintaining Brand Consistency at Scale: Applying a new brand identity consistently across a high volume of AI-generated assets requires robust systems and vigilant oversight.

• Measuring AI Impact: Clearly defining and quantifying the operational and business impact of AI-driven creative production, demonstrating ROI for new technologies and processes.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• AI Tool Mastery: Deepening expertise in cutting-edge AI creative tools like Cursor and Claude, and staying abreast of emerging AI technologies.

• Operational Excellence: Developing skills in process design, automation, and workflow optimization specifically within a creative production context.

• Leadership Development: Enhancing team management, mentorship, and strategic communication skills.

• Brand System Expansion: Gaining experience in evolving and expanding a comprehensive brand system for a growing tech company.

• Industry Trends: Staying informed about the intersection of AI, design, marketing, and business strategy through conferences, webinars, and industry publications.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges highlight the innovative and forward-thinking nature of the role, emphasizing the opportunity to shape the future of creative operations with AI. The growth opportunities focus on specialized AI and operations skill development.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your process for using AI tools like Cursor and Claude to move from an initial concept to a production-ready landing page or ad creative."

• "How would you ensure brand consistency across dozens or hundreds of AI-generated ad variations for a new campaign?"

• "What are the key operational steps you would take to automate repetitive design tasks for a marketing team, and what AI tools would you leverage?"

Company & Culture Questions:

• "How do you see AI shaping the future of creative production, and how does Nextiva's AI-first approach align with your vision?"

• "Describe a time you improved a creative production process. What was the problem, your solution, and the outcome?"

• "How would you mentor a designer or videographer who is new to AI-native workflows?"

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• AI Workflow Walkthrough: For each key project, clearly articulate the AI tools used, the specific prompts or techniques employed, and how the AI output was refined.

• Demonstrate Functionality: If possible, provide live links or interactive demos for landing pages, prototypes, or tools you've built.

• Quantify Impact: Present metrics that demonstrate the efficiency gains, scalability, or business impact of your AI-assisted work.

• Code Snippets/Discussion: Be prepared to briefly discuss or show code snippets if you're presenting a code-built asset, explaining your approach.

• Brand Extension Examples: Showcase how you've thoughtfully expanded or maintained brand systems.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview preparation focuses on demonstrating practical AI application, operational thinking, and leadership capabilities, all within the context of creative production and brand stewardship, reflecting the hybrid nature of the role.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Lead Designer (AI) position:

• Submit your application through the Nextiva careers portal via the provided URL.

• Curate Your AI Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest projects that best showcase your AI-native workflow, practical application of tools like Cursor/Claude, and demonstrable results (functional pages, shipped creative). Ensure these highlight your "builder" mentality and comfort with code.

• Optimize Your Resume: Tailor your resume to emphasize AI tool proficiency, creative leadership, process improvement initiatives, and experience with marketing asset production. Quantify achievements wherever possible.

• Prepare Your Portfolio Presentation: Practice walking through your selected portfolio pieces, clearly explaining the problem, your AI-driven solution, the execution process, and the impact. Be ready to discuss your coding comfort and brand stewardship approach.

• Research Nextiva's Brand & AI Strategy: Familiarize yourself with Nextiva's recent rebrand, their AI-first positioning, and their mission. Understand how your role contributes to their overall business objectives and customer experience goals.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

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