Senior Art Director, Waitrose

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Art Director to play a pivotal role within the Waitrose brand. In this dynamic role, no two days will be the same as you strategically translate creative briefs into compelling visuals across all customer touchpoints, from packaging and Point of Sale to social and online. We're looking for an expert in food and lifestyle art direction with a strong understanding of set design, camera angles, cropping, lighting, and post-production, ensuring a cohesive and impactful brand experience.

You’ll be a confident, proactive creative leader who not only delivers on the Waitrose brand vision but constantly evolves and elevates it, pushing boundaries and driving innovation in food and lifestyle imagery. This role demands close collaboration with internal and external creative teams, directing external talent, and mentoring junior team members. You’ll bring expert knowledge of photography, filmmaking, and post-production processes, balancing creative excellence with commercial objectives to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment with meticulous attention to detail from concept to delivery.

Key responsibilities:

• Respond to creative briefs with art direction that aligns with Waitrose's brand vision, while continuously evolving to be industry-leading and informed by expert knowledge of food and industry trends, seasonal colour palettes, styling, and relevant customer insights and cultural trends.
• Own the concept development for food and lifestyle shoots (stills and motion), creating compelling mood boards and visualisations to present to stakeholders.
• Develop robust Art Direction decks that clearly articulate the vision and required assets for internal sign-off and effective briefing of external teams.
• Effectively brief and direct external teams (photographers, stylists, set designers, and Freelance Art Directors), ensuring talent selection aligns with brief and brand objectives.
• Proactively engage and collaborate with a wide range of internal stakeholders across the partnership (including Product Developers, Account Managers, Creative Producers, and Senior Designers) to enable effective shoot execution (e.g., mood boards, style guides, traces & shot lists).
• Collaborate closely with external partners, including our production partner, repro house, adaptive agencies, and freelance talent to provide comprehensive art direction, fostering a shared understanding of the brand's visual direction.
• Work closely with our production counterparts to interrogate briefs and provide creative solutions, ensuring the delivery of accurate, compelling, and commercially effective imagery across all channels (packaging, Point of Sale, editorial, social, and online), captured efficiently, brand-aligned, on deadline, and within budget.
• Be accountable on set for the final output, demonstrating a keen eye for detail across lighting, set design, styling, and composition.
• Take full responsibility for the retouch process, from initial editing and mark-ups to final grade and sign-off, ensuring image quality is delivered to the highest standard in collaboration with external reprographic and production agencies and working closely with creative producers.
• Act as a brand guardian for Waitrose, providing support and guidance in meetings and on set with freelance or junior art directors.
• Work collaboratively and in tandem with the wider internal and external creative and content teams to ensure alignment.
• Set an example as a creative leader within the business, fostering a positive and nurturing environment and acting as a mentor for junior members of the team.
• Contribute to resource planning by identifying and researching new talent, including photographers, videographers, food stylists, and prop stylists.
• Provide regular updates to the Art Direction Lead.
• Present concepts and proposals to senior management within the business for approval.

Our ideal candidate is:

• Able to take a nugget of an idea and develop an original concept.
• Equally confident at concepting and directing motion and stills.
• Ideas driven - not complacent and always thinking about how to take creative to the next level.
• Has a wider interest and knowledge outside of Food which you bring in to elevate and expand your concepts.
• Natural storyteller who creates assets that draw people in.
• Strong eye for composition, cropping with meticulous attention to detail.
• Thinks beyond the shoot and considers how the asset will be used effectively across different channels and integrated seamlessly with graphic design and typography, often in collaboration with the Senior Designers.
• Has a roster of trusted external talent but also enjoys building strong working relationships with internal creative teams, fostering collaboration and shared understanding.
• Confident in delivering solutions and adapting approaches when challenges arise.
• Understanding of budgets and how creative choices may affect the budget.
• Extremely knowledgeable in retouch processes, grade and colour work.
• Able to pitch with confidence and sell an idea, knowing when not to push back on stakeholder feedback.
• Able to work at pace, when deadlines are squeezed you rise to the challenge.
• Offers multiple directions/solutions in response to brief.
• Creates authentic work that adheres to the Waitrose visual identity.
• Holds great passion for imagery, photography, video, animation and design and seeks to exploit industry developments in all campaigns.

Essential skills and/or experience you’ll need:

• Established Art Director/Creative Director with significant experience in concepting and delivering shoots.
• Proven ability to effectively direct models and lifestyle shoots across both studio and location environments, evidenced by a strong portfolio showcasing a diverse range of work, with a focus on Food & Lifestyle.
• Adobe Creative Suite - Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, Bridge.
• Google Slides, Sheets.

Desirable skills and/or experience you may have:

• Graphic design experience and typographic knowledge.
• Animation/moving image experience.

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us. We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose. As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect. We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective. As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles. We also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants. We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.