We're hiring a Visual Creative Director (Fractional) to build the visual brand for a company with a massive total addressable market — the identity and system you create will be one of our most powerful growth levers, and it will get seen.

We have positioning and research in motion, and we need you to turn that into a visual system that scales, ships, and sells. This is the rare chance to own the look and feel of a brand from the ground up while leaning into AI to move at the speed we need.

Summary

• Flexible Title: Can be tailored to reflect your skills & experience.
• Flexible Time: Can do full-time, part-time, side-gig (off-hours), or fractional (contract).
• Flexible Commitment: Can do short-term, long-term, or intermittent.

Why so flexible? We're a FUNDED startup racing to launch end of Q2 2026. That gives us just 3 months to stack features while raising additional working capital. Feel free to jump in, help us ship, then bounce >> or stick around. A successful launch translates into lots of permanent jobs for those who want them. We're also interested in long-term "side gig" relationships, if that's what you're into — in our experience, a few expert hours often beat full-time learning-curve hours.

About Us

We're a credible, funded, remote-first startup led by a serial technical founder, backed by a 20-person team. The product is live in private alpha. Learn more at list-lab.org.

We’re currently operating in stealth under an existing brand and will gradually evolve into a new public-facing identity as we validate the right direction.

About The Role

You're here to execute from day one, build infrastructure and templates grounded in our research and messaging, and use AI as your primary engine.

You'll work alongside brand marketers, GTM marketers, and product — no slow rebrand; we move fast, prototype in the wild, and iterate with real signals.

You must already be experimenting with AI across multiple tools and have strong, use-case-based opinions on which tools work best right now and why.

Compensation

Up to $175,000 max total engagement in Tier 1 cities; cash and equity components to be negotiated (amount reflects combined cash and equity components). Compensation to be negotiated — rate or retainer based on scope and availability. We're open to equity components for the right long-term fractional fit.

What Success Looks Like (90-Day Timeline)

First 30 days — Pre-launch GTM assets (priority)

• Key pre-launch GTM assets in place: social profile treatments, ad campaign creative (static and motion), launch-critical landing or web surfaces.
• Shipping tangible work weekly so we can test, learn, and iterate.

Second 30 days — Brand and product infrastructure

• Visual brand direction documented; AI-focused style guide in place, aligned with our messaging and market insights.
• Key components and templates built in Figma so marketing, GTM, and product teams can produce on-brand work without you in every loop.
• Foundation is repeatable and scalable.

Third 30 days — Product experience and AI-assisted dev

• Focus shifts to how product gets built: devs are rapidly prototyping in Cursor with AI (different workflow from designing net-new in Figma).
• You've defined patterns, tokens, and guardrails so AI-assisted output stays on-brand and consistent.
• Your visual system is the source of truth — you're not redlining every screen; the system is strong enough that what gets built already looks and feels right.

What You'll Do

• Partner with brand and GTM marketers — align visual direction with positioning, messaging, and the realities of campaigns and outbound; make sure creative supports real launch and growth activity.
• Define and document the visual brand — establish identity elements (beyond any one logo): typography, color, layout systems, image and illustration style, iconography, and motion principles; turn these into guidelines and asset libraries that others can follow.
• Own social visual presence — design and maintain on-brand social profile treatments and a reusable post/ad template system for priority channels.
• Create campaign-ready ad graphics — produce static and lightweight motion assets for paid and organic campaigns that can be quickly iterated on with performance data.
• Create go-to-market assets and templates — design decks, one-pagers, social and email creative, and repeatable campaign templates so we’re not reinventing from scratch for every initiative.
• Shape website experience; inform product UI — own visual direction for our marketing site. Your brand system and patterns will inform our product UI; supporting product UI is not the main function of this role, but your work will guide it.
• Lead with AI in your design workflow — use AI-native tools (image generation, layout and asset assistants, automated versioning) as your primary engine to prototype, iterate, and scale visual output; you're our go-to for which AI tools we use and how.
• Standardize product prototyping — work with devs so rapid prototyping in Cursor stays on-brand; you define patterns, tokens, and guardrails rather than designing every screen in Figma from scratch.

What We're Looking For

Must-haves:

• Already experimenting with AI across multiple tools — you must come in the gate demonstrating that you've experimented with AI across multiple tools (image, design, motion) and have strong, use-case-based opinions on which tools work best right now and why. We need you leading with AI from day one.
• Senior-level visual and systems experience, with a portfolio to prove it — you've helped define or evolve visual brands and design systems for complex, multi-audience products or companies; you have a portfolio ready to share that demonstrates visual brand, design systems, and/or campaign assets you've led and executed.
• Hands-on execution — you're fluent in tools like Figma, Adobe, and modern motion/graphics tools, and you personally create final or near-final deliverables.
• Experience with large, complex audiences — you've built visual systems that work across multiple user types, segments, or verticals without becoming generic.
• AI-first in design — you use AI-enabled tools as your primary engine for exploration, asset creation, and versioning; you're comfortable blending them with traditional workflows and have clear views on what works.
• Software/SaaS experience in high-growth environments — you've designed for software products or platforms (not only physical goods or corporate brand), in settings where speed, iteration, and incomplete information are the norm. You think in guidelines, components, and reusable patterns, not just hero pieces.

Nice-to-have:

• UI/UX design depth — ability to partner on flows and interaction patterns; experience here is a plus.
• Motion and graphics background — experience concepting and producing motion graphics or animated assets that tie into a broader visual system.
• Experience working in fractional/consulting models and leaving behind clear documentation others can run with.

What This Role Is Not

• Not a “learn AI on the job” role — you're already experimenting with multiple AI tools and have strong opinions on what works.
• Not a full-time, in-house creative director role (we're hiring fractional).
• Not a copy/messaging lead — you'll partner closely with that function.
• Not a pure “brand strategy only” or advisory engagement — we need you to ship tangible assets and systems.
• Not a slow, multi-month, workshop-heavy rebrand — we're biased toward fast, practical, market-informed execution.