Senior Art Director

JOB TITLE: SENIOR ART DIRECTOR 

Location: Kampala, Uganda
Department: NEXTCom – Creative & Brand Solutions

Duration to Fill Position: Immediately
Reports to: Head of Marketing, Brands

ABOUT NEXTCOM & NEXT MEDIA

NEXTCom is the 360° creative and marketing agency arm of Next Media, a proudly Ugandan, 16-year-old leading media house that houses the country’s top television stations, radio brands, digital publishing platforms, and streaming products. Operating at the intersection of media, creativity, technology, and culture, NEXTCom delivers end-to-end brand, marketing, and communications solutions for the Group’s portfolio of media brands while also serving local and regional clients across East Africa.

From brand strategy and creative development to digital marketing, content production, influencer marketing, and experiential campaigns, NEXTCom exists to help brands connect meaningfully with audiences and drive measurable business growth in a rapidly evolving digital-first ecosystem.

ROLE PURPOSE

The Senior Art  Director Lead is the overall custodian of creative excellence for NEXTCom. The role provides strategic and hands-on leadership across design, content photography, and content repurposing teams, ensuring that all creative output is conceptually strong, visually outstanding, on-brand, and commercially effective.

This role combines big-idea thinking with operational leadership, guiding creative strategy, allocating work, reviewing output, mentoring teams, and representing NEXTCom in high-level client engagements, proposals, and pitches.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1.  Creative Strategy & Vision

• Define and drive NEXTCom’s creative vision across all platforms and
• Translate business and marketing objectives into powerful creative
• Lead conceptual development for major campaigns and brand
• Ensure alignment between creative output and brand

2.  Team Leadership & Management

• Lead and manage:
  • Design Team
  • Content Photography Team
  • Content Repurposing & Adaptation Team
  • Next Creata, Content Hub (event and podcast production assets)
• Allocate work based on skill sets, workload, and
• Mentor, coach, and develop creative
• Build a high-performance, collaborative creative

3.  Creative Execution & Quality Control

• Oversee creative development from brief to final
• Review and approve designs, layouts, visuals, and
• Enforce brand guidelines and creative
• Ensure consistency and excellence across all media brands and client

4.  Client & Commercial Support

• Participate in proposal development and creative sections of
• Present creative ideas and strategies to
• Provide creative input into new business
• Work closely with business and digital teams to shape sellable

5.  Digital-First Creative Leadership

• Champion digital-first thinking across all creative
• Guide teams on content formats optimized for social, mobile, and digital
• Drive innovation in storytelling, formats, and visual

6.  Tools, Systems & Process

• Define creative workflows and processes, alongside Head of
• Introduce and optimize creative tools and
• Ensure efficient collaboration between creative, content, and digital

7.  Capability Building & Training

• Identify skill gaps within creative
• Develop and run regular training and upskilling
• Keep teams updated on global creative trends and best practices

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS:

• 10–12 years of experience in senior, faced-paced, creative
• Proven experience working in a fully-fledged advertising agency
• Strong background in managing multidisciplinary creative
• Demonstrated experience handling client work end-to-
• Strong portfolio showcasing conceptual and executional
• Excellent presentation and storytelling

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES

• Strategic and conceptual thinker
• Strong leadership and people management
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• High attention to detail and quality
• Commercially aware

DIGITAL & CREATIVE TOOLS (PROFICIENCY REQUIRED)

• Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere Pro)
• Figma / Adobe XD
• Canva Pro (for rapid ideation and templates)
• Motion graphics and video editing tools
• AI-assisted creative tools (e.g., Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT for ideation)
• Project management tools (Asana, com, ClickUp, or similar)

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs)

Creative Excellence

• First-time creative approval rate
• Reduction in creative rework
• Internal and client creative quality score

Business Impact

• Campaign engagement performance vs benchmarks
• Creative contribution to proposal win rate
• Brand-led revenue influence

Delivery & Operations

• On-time creative delivery rate
• Average turnaround time per project

Team & Capability

• Team performance scores
• Training sessions delivered per quarter
• Improvement in team skill assessments

WHY JOIN NEXTCOM

• Lead creativity at one of Uganda’s most influential media ecosystems
• Shape the future of digital-first creative in East Africa
• Work with leading brands, platforms, and talent