Visual Designer

SXSW Visual Designer

Job Purpose

SXSW is seeking a talented, driven Visual Designer with a performance mindset to join the marketing team and create high-impact visual creative that drives SXSW and SXSW EDU marketing campaigns across paid channels. This is a hands-on, multidisciplinary role spanning graphic design, motion, and video. The Visual Designer will partner closely with the paid team to translate marketing strategies, audience insights, campaign objectives, and creative briefs into compelling visual work that captures attention, communicates value, and drives action.

This role will conceptualize, design, adapt, and deliver creative across a high volume of formats and placements. The ideal candidate is equally proficient in developing strong visual concepts and executing the final creative. The ideal candidate understands how various formats perform in a paid media environment and can move quickly without sacrificing craft or brand quality.

Duties & Responsibilities

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Develop and produce a minimum of 15-20 high-impact creative pieces per month, including videos, images, and animations, for paid marketing campaigns across Meta, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok, and CTV platforms.
• Maintain a strong and consistent visual expression of the SXSW and SXSW EDU brand guidelines while developing fresh, channel-appropriate creative.
• Use campaign performance insights to inform creative iterations and identify opportunities for new concepts and approaches.
• Present new creative concepts on a regular cadence to keep our creative marketing approach fresh and up to date.
• Partner closely with the paid team to develop creative strategies, testing plans, and campaign priorities
• Adapt creative for different platforms, aspect ratios, audiences, messages, and stages of the marketing funnel.
• Create and maintain templates and scalable creative systems that improve efficiency and support high-volume creative production.
• Prepare, organize, and quality-check production-ready files and deliverables according to platform, accessibility, and vendor specifications.
• Manage multiple creative projects, deadlines, revisions, and priorities while maintaining a high standard of craft and attention to detail.

On-site Responsibilities

The Visual Designer supports on-site execution of conference and festival marketing for SXSW & SXSW EDU through marketing campaigns and broader support across marketing operations.

Qualifications & Skills

Qualifications include:

• 3–5 years of professional experience in graphic design, visual design, advertising creative, or a related field.
• Portfolio demonstrating strong graphic design, visual storytelling, and creative execution across paid channels.
• Experience creating multiple creative variations for different audiences, platforms, placements, and objectives
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud, including Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and Premiere Pro.
• Experience with motion graphics, animation, and video editing; strong motion/video skills are highly valued for paid success.
• Understanding of digital advertising formats, platform specifications, aspect ratios, and creative best practices.
• Ability to take a creative brief from concept through final production with minimal oversight.
• Ability to work quickly and effectively in a high-volume, deadline-driven environment
• Strong attention to detail without losing sight of the larger creative objective.
• A test-and-learn mindset with a genuine curiosity about what drives audience behavior and conversion.
• Proactive, self-motivated team player with strong prioritization and follow-through skills.
• Knowledge and passion for innovation, tech, film, TV, music, and education industries are a plus.
• Passion for SXSW's mission and a desire to grow our global audience.

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that an employee must meet to perform the essential functions of this job successfully:

• Prolonged periods of sitting or standing at a desk and working on a computer
• Ability to lift to 10 pounds occasionally, as needed
• Manual dexterity to operate standard office equipment such as computers, phones, printers, etc
• May require occasional bending, reaching, kneeling, or climbing stairs
• Ability to work outdoors, including exposure to varying temperatures or noise levels

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Work Location & Schedule

This position is year-round, full-time, and is located in Austin, Texas. Core business office hours are 10 am— 6 pm, Monday through Friday. You must be available to work additional hours from January through March, including evenings and weekends. You must also be available for the March event, which will have extended on-site working hours.