Roles we recruit
Seven practices, 27 functions. Start at the practice when you cannot yet name the title; go straight to the function when you can.
Browse all 229 roles Brief us on a seatFlat 15% of first-year base · shortlist in 10 working days
Eleven seats sit under creative, from the designer who builds campaign assets to the creative director who owns how the brand looks everywhere. We split them by the stage of the work each one owns, screen the thinking behind the portfolio rather than the final frame, and charge a flat 15% only once your hire starts.
Most creative briefs ask for a designer and describe three different jobs: campaign assets, motion, or the website and product. We start with what the team has to ship, then the title.
From brief to shipped work, and the seat that owns each stage
Moves: one brand across every campaign and channel
1 seat
The creative standard across every channel: concepts, art direction, the brand system and the team that produces against it, measured on work that is consistent and effective.
Brief us when work ships on time but looks like five different companies, or nobody can say no to a weak concept.
Hire a Creative DirectorMoves: work shipped on time and on budget
1 seat
Getting work made: scopes, schedules, budgets, vendors and shoots, from approved concept to final files in every format.
Brief us when good ideas stall in production, deadlines slip, or freelancers and agencies are managed by whoever has time.
Moves: campaign assets that hold the brand and perform
3 seats
Campaign and sales assets: ads, social, events, decks and one-pagers, built to the brand system at the pace marketing runs.
Brief us when your marketers are designing their own assets, or every request waits a week in a queue.
Hire a Graphic DesignerThe look of the brand across digital touchpoints: layout, type, color, iconography and the templates everyone else reuses.
Brief us when assets are on brand one at a time but nothing looks like a system, and templates do not exist.
Original illustration and iconography that makes the brand recognizable without a logo: spot art, hero images, diagrams and characters.
Brief us when your visuals rely on stock photos and screenshots, and the brand needs a style nobody else can download.
Hire an IllustratorMoves: watch time and video-led engagement
3 seats
Motion graphics for ads, launches, social and the website: animated explainers, logo stings and interface motion.
Brief us when static assets underperform in paid and social, and every animation goes out to an agency.
Hire a Motion DesignerCharacter and frame-by-frame animation, 2D or 3D, for explainers, product stories and campaigns that need more than motion graphics.
Brief us when you need animated storytelling at a quality that template tools cannot reach.
Hire an AnimatorCutting raw footage into finished video: webinars, customer stories, product demos and short clips, with sound, captions and color.
Brief us when recorded webinars, interviews and demos sit unedited, or video output depends on one agency.
Hire a Video EditorMoves: page conversion and task completion
3 seats
Page designs for the marketing site and landing pages: layout, hierarchy and the components developers build from.
Brief us when the site looks dated, new pages take weeks to design, or every landing page starts from a blank file.
Hire a Web DesignerThe visual layer of the product: screens, components, states and the design system the product team builds from.
Brief us when your product works but looks inconsistent, and engineers are making visual decisions by default.
Hire a UI DesignerHow people get things done in the product or on the site: research, flows, wireframes and testing that removes friction.
Brief us when users drop off in sign-up, onboarding or key flows, and nobody has watched them try.
Hire a UX DesignerMeasured on
Creative hiring runs on portfolios, and a portfolio shows the most polished final frame, not who made the decisions or what the work did. We screen for the thinking behind the work, the ability to hold a brand across many assets, and the pace a B2B marketing team runs at.
We pick two pieces and ask for the brief, the constraints, the rounds of feedback and what changed between draft and final. A finished frame without a story is where we dig.
We ask how they kept a brand consistent across a whole campaign: the templates, guidelines or component library they built, and who else worked from it.
For design seats we set a small brief drawn from your product and audience, then review how they questioned it, not only the output.
We check with a former creative director or marketing lead how they took feedback, how many rounds their work needed and whether they hit launch dates.
Not sure which seat you need? Tell us what the team has to ship each month and where it stalls, and we will tell you which of the eleven owns it.
Public US benchmarks, read October 2026. Creative pay is mostly base salary, and the spread inside each title is wide: in-house B2B design, agency work and film or games all report under the same occupations.
Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, the middle half of reported pay.
Base salaryWages including commission (BLS)Average total pay, base plus variable
Creative Director
Salary.com base, Built In total
$126,783 to $157,515 base$167,714 average total
Graphic Designer
BLS, all industries
$49,040 to $81,830
UX Designer
BLS web and digital interface designers
$73,290 to $158,820
Motion Designer or Animator
BLS special effects artists and animators
$75,490 to $139,130
Creative Director: Salary.com base salary, 25th to 75th percentile, United States, as of October 1, 2026, with Built In average total compensation (self-reported), reviewed October 5, 2026. Graphic Designer, UX Designer and Motion Designer: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, annual wage at the 25th and 75th percentiles for graphic designers (SOC 27-1024), web and digital interface designers (SOC 15-1255) and special effects artists and animators (SOC 27-1014), all industries. Public aggregates, not ZaphyrRecruit placement data.
The clock starts when the brief is signed and stops when three to five calibrated candidates are in front of you. Most of that time is spent talking to people, not searching for them.
Day 1
Forty-five minutes with whoever the hire reports to. We leave with the number the seat owns, the range you can pay and the two or three things that genuinely disqualify.
Days 2 to 7
We build the list from people doing the job now, approach them directly and screen every name against the brief before it reaches you.
Days 8 to 10
Three to five people, each with a page: what they have run, why they fit this seat, pay expectations, notice period and where they are weak.
After the shortlist
Interviews run at your pace. We handle scheduling, references and the counter-offer conversation, and nothing is payable until your hire starts.
Three clients, quoted as they wrote to us about searches we ran for them. We publish no names or logos without permission.
A graphic designer makes campaign and sales assets, a visual designer owns the look of the brand across digital touchpoints, and a UX designer owns how people move through the product or site. Graphic and visual work is judged on how assets look and perform. UX is judged on whether users complete tasks. Many teams hire a generalist first, then split the seats once volume grows.
A flat 15% of the hire’s first-year base salary, payable only once they start. On a $70,000 base that is $10,500, and the same 15% applies to a creative director. There is no retainer, no exclusivity and nothing to pay if the search does not produce a hire. If a placement leaves inside the guarantee period, we rerun the search at no further fee.
Salary.com puts creative directors at $126,783 to $157,515 base, and Built In reports $167,714 average total compensation (October 2026). The BLS puts the middle half of graphic designers between $49,040 and $81,830 a year, and web and digital interface designers, the occupation closest to UX, between $73,290 and $158,820 (May 2025). Seniority, portfolio and industry move the number.
Start from the work the seat must ship, not the software it uses. We ask what the designer will make each month, who briefs them and how fast it must move, then screen portfolios for B2B work, the brief behind each piece and evidence of working to a system. A short brief drawn from your product shows how they think before you meet them.
No. We fill permanent seats on contingency, so the fee is due only when your hire starts. If you need one campaign or a short burst of production, a freelancer or a studio is usually the better buy. Brief us when the work is ongoing and you want someone who learns the brand and stays with it.
When design volume has outgrown review by a marketer and the brand looks different on every channel. Common triggers are a rebrand, a second or third designer joining, or agencies producing work nobody inside can judge. Before that, a senior designer working from clear brand guidelines can carry the load.
Ten working days from a signed brief to a shortlist of three to five calibrated candidates. Portfolio review and the short brief sit inside that window, so your own interviews can focus on team fit and the work you need next. Interviews and the offer then run at your pace.
Yes. A creative director, designers and a producer hired as one structure is how we run a pod, briefed together so each search builds on the last instead of restarting. The same 15% applies to each hire, payable as each one starts, and we sequence the seats so the lead is in place first.
Tell us what the team ships, which channels it feeds and where the work stalls. We reply within one business day with which of the eleven seats it is and what it pays.
Most of our creative searches are filled from people we already know, the week an employer briefs us. Set up a job alert for creative roles, or send your CV and we will come to you when a seat opens.
Creative sits in our Brand, Product & Creative practice, next to brand, product marketing and social. The website and content teams brief creative most often, so they are here too.