Global Visuals Director, Vanity Fair

About the role

Vanity Fair holds a mirror to society by celebrating the best of global culture and investigating the forces that propel it. Pop culture can be profound and current affairs can be ridiculous. Our cast of characters is wide-ranging, wildly diverse, always exceptional, and quite often, with great style. In every medium, Vanity Fair harnesses the tensions of modern life. Job Description Location: New York, NY Condé Nast is seeking an experienced Global Visuals Director for Vanity Fair. This role establishes and evolves the visual strategy for the brand across multiple markets and platforms. Candidates should have excellent editorial judgment and a strong ability to manage many projects and deadlines at once. They are responsible for all aspects of photo shoot production across print and digital platforms. A broad knowledge of industry teams and connections is a must, i.e. strong relationships with agencies, photographers, stylists, studios, etc. Reporting to the Global Creative Director, this role also serves as a leader for the visuals team across markets, guiding them to deliver results while nurturing their creative sensibilities and craft. This role functions as a leader, mentor, strategic thinker and storyteller who can turn ideas into compelling visual narratives across multiple mediums, utilizing social media, video, digital, and print. Primary Responsibilities ● Set the Visuals strategy for Vanity Fair globally, alongside the Global Creative Director. ● Work closely with the Global Creative Director to uphold and advance the visual identity of the brand. ● Ideate, establish, and reinforce consistent visual aesthetics across platforms and mediums/formats . ● Strong ability to provide clear visuals direction to the Visuals team cross-markets. ● Develop and maintain strong relationships with editors across markets in order to understand visual/photo needs and orchestrate projects accordingly. ● Manage team members on photo research, image selection, credits, and CMS upload/publication ● Spearhead the visuals team on all aspects of photo shoot production, from commissioning teams and liaising with vendors to ensure that the shoot is successful and falls within budget. ● Track and maintain the overall global photo budget, including setting and assigning individual project budgets to team members, ensuring efficient use of all budget resources, and communicating effectively to the Global Creative Director and Operations/Finance partners on all active projects. ● Lead visual teams on high-impact content across markets from project start to completion. ● Delegate and manage all work across the team - provide clear direction, constructive feedback, and serve as a resource for team members to help resolve challenges and improve outputs. ● Manage workflow of production including assigning, overseeing workloads and visual quality. ● Conduct heavy visual research and curate lists of photographers accompanied by visual boards. ● Maintain swift communication regarding visuals direction, execution, and delivery within the internal team as well as between the brand and vendors. ● Collaborate with sales, advertising, editorial, visual, web, social, and video teams to ensure the highest level of visual execution across all platforms. ● Manage the team to ensure contracts, photo fees, and usage rights are in place for all images (produced and researched) ● Oversee contracts, photo fees, and usage rights with internal and external stakeholders. ● Provide editorial and creative group support on all platforms; play a key role in planning, commissioning, and signing off on projects. ● Nurture talent and foster a transparent, respectful, inclusive, and collaborative team environment cross-markets ● Contribute effectively to all HR/People processes such as performance management, compensation reviews, recruitment, etc. Desired Skills & Qualifications ● 10+ years work experience in the visual production industry, with significant magazine experience, with an enviable book of contacts for agencies, photographers, stylists, studios, etc. ● Experience in and passion for conceptual, fashion, culture, and lifestyle photography with a special love of portraiture. ● A deep knowledge of the history of photography and art history is essential. ● Strong people manager with a track record of inspiring and fostering developing talent. ● Experience leading a team globally in a matrix organisation. ● Excellent editorial judgment with demonstrated experience managing teams to develop visual stories across platforms, using detailed understanding of platform requirements. ● Excellent communication and collaboration skills with the ability to navigate multiple stakeholders' inputs, opinions, and decision-making styles. ● Recognised expertise in visuals research and production, from development to execution. ● Strong ability to work efficiently and effectively; ability to prioritize projects and resources. ● Experience working in and understa