Creative Manager Jobs in Poway, CA (NOW HIRING)

Interactive work only earns its keep when someone actually stops, engages, and remembers it. That's the standard we hold ourselves to, and it's what this role exists to protect. As Creative Director, Interactive Experiences, you'll be the creative owner of everything we build that people touch, tap, walk into, or play with, from event installations to product launch apps to connected retail moments.

You're equally comfortable pitching the big idea in a client boardroom and sitting with a design team debugging why an interaction feels one beat too slow. We're looking for someone who can hold both altitudes at once: setting a creative bar for the whole studio while staying hands-on enough to shape the details that make an experience feel effortless. Your toolkit spans spatial storytelling, sensory and environmental design, and interactive technology, and you know how to weave all three into experiences that hold up whether someone spends five seconds or five minutes with them.

This is a leadership role with real creative stakes. You'll guide a team of designers and technologists, sit at the table with client leadership, and help define what "interactive" means for our studio as the tools and platforms we design for (AR, VR, connected hardware, generative AI, and whatever comes after) keep shifting.

Shape the Creative Vision

• Define the point of view behind each interactive project, turning a client brief or a piece of new technology into an experience concept worth building
• Stay involved through production, not just at kickoff, so the finished experience still reflects the ambition of the original idea
• Set and protect a consistently high bar for design, motion, and interaction quality across every project the studio ships

Lead People and Client Relationships

• Manage and develop a team of designers, creative technologists, and producers, giving them clear creative direction and room to do strong work
• Serve as the primary creative contact for client teams, balancing their business goals against what will actually make for a compelling experience
• Pitch new ideas and present finished work in a way that builds client confidence in the studio's judgment, not just its execution

Push the Work Forward

• Keep a close eye on new interactive formats, hardware, and platforms, and bring recommendations to clients before they ask for them
• Introduce AI-assisted tools into the team's workflow where they genuinely help, whether that's early concepting, rapid prototyping, or content production
• Help junior and mid-level creatives grow by pairing critique with real mentorship, not just notes on a deck

Own the Details That Make It Real

• Oversee spatial and environmental design decisions alongside interactive content, so a physical installation and its digital layer feel like one idea rather than two
• Work with production, fabrication, and technology partners to keep ambitious concepts grounded in what can actually be built, staffed, and maintained on-site
• Stay current on trends in interactive art, entertainment design, and consumer technology, and bring that thinking back into the studio's own work

• 10+ years or more in a creative role focused on interactive, digital, or experience design, including several years directly managing a team

• Strong personal taste backed by a portfolio that shows range across interaction design, visual design, and concept development

• Direct experience partnering with enterprise or consumer technology clients, and comfort navigating the layers of stakeholders that come with that kind of account

• Willingness to get into the tools yourself. This isn't a role where you only review other people's Figma files

• A working understanding of what's actually possible on today's hardware and software, so your ideas are ambitious but buildable

• Real, current experience using AI tools as part of your own creative process, not just an interest in the idea of them

• Comfort working across the full arc of a project, from early concept sketches through rapid prototyping to a finished, fabricated, on-site experience

• Familiarity with the broader interactive and immersive landscape (AR, VR, projection, sensor-driven installations) even if your day-to-day tools are mostly digital

• A portfolio piece that clearly moved the needle on how long people engaged with an experience

• Recognition from peers or industry press for work you led

• Clients who ask for you by name when something new and difficult comes up

• Background in large-scale experiential production

• Located in Seattle or San Diego 

Gigantic Playground is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Gigantic Playground recruits qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, status as a protected veteran, or genetic information.

Gigantic Playground participates in the E-Verify program. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form (I-9) upon hire.