Senior Designer

Senior Designer

Full-Time · New York, NY · Reports to: Director, Creative

ABOUT JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER

The mission of Jazz at Lincoln Center is to entertain, enrich and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education, and advocacy.

We believe jazz is a metaphor for Democracy. Because jazz is improvisational, it celebrates personal freedom and encourages individual expression. Because jazz is swinging, it dedicates that freedom to finding and maintaining common ground with others. Because jazz is rooted in the blues, it inspires us to face adversity with persistent optimism.

Jazz is one of America’s most profound and enduring cultural contributions, inseparable from the story of this country, its history, its struggles, its democratic ideals, and its continuing evolution. We are stewards of that legacy. The three pillars of our work—performance, education, and advocacy—are one mission expressed three ways, each reinforcing and requiring the other two. You cannot perform without honoring the history that gives the music meaning. You cannot educate without the conviction that what you are teaching deserves to outlast you. You cannot advocate without the lived experience of the art itself. We look for people who feel that wholeness in full, across all three pillars.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Senior Designer is responsible for developing and delivering creative marketing and promotional assets that support Jazz at Lincoln Center’s performances, fundraising initiatives, and institutional priorities. Working across print, digital, social, environmental, and motion graphics platforms, this role translates creative briefs and strategic objectives into compelling visual communications that strengthen the Jazz at Lincoln Center brand, engage audiences, and advance institutional, programmatic, and fundraising goals.

The Senior Designer takes ownership of projects from concept through final delivery, including developing design concepts, establishing visual direction, managing production, and ensuring that final creative meets both brand and project objectives. This role works closely with teams across the organization and serves as a creative lead, bringing design expertise and art direction to a range of signature programs and events.

The Senior Designer leads and collaborates on creative development for signature programs and initiatives, including Essentially Ellington, the annual Gala, and season photo shoots, as well as other institutional, marketing, and fundraising campaigns. In addition, the Senior Designer provides production oversight, manages freelance graphic designers and other creative collaborators, and works directly with third-party partners to bring projects from initial concept through final execution.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Design and Creative Development

Collaboration and Production Oversight

QUALIFICATIONS

REQUIRED

PREFERRED

WORKING AT JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER

The music is present here, literally and philosophically, and the people who thrive are the ones who feel that and lean into it. They are Fans, Advocates, Musicians, and Educators who know that you cannot shape what comes next without first honoring what came before — who ask why something is the way it is before they presume to know what it should become. They find their own work more meaningful because of its proximity to something larger, and they understand that excellence in any role, regardless of function, is connected to what happens on stage and in classrooms and communities around the world. The passion that runs through this organization can be felt on your first day, and it is the thing people miss most when they leave.

We are a live-events organization, and our schedule reflects that energy: we expect full presence when the work and the art call for it. Within that, we strive to create real flexibility for our people. Flex Mondays give staff the freedom to work from wherever suits them best, and Tuesday through Friday our teams come together in person, with the understanding that the work and the art will sometimes ask for more. We trust our people to know the difference, and we build around that trust.

Benefits reflect the same investment in our people: comprehensive health, retirement, and a seat inside the life of this organization. Staff have access to the breadth of JALC programming—from live performances to access at Dizzy's Club to world-class jazz education through Swing University and beyond—because we believe the people who do this work deserve to experience it, not just support it.

HOW TO APPLY

Click the button above to apply. Please include a cover letter and salary requirements with your application.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is an equal opportunity employer that affords equal opportunities to all applicants, employees, contractors, and other covered persons, and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. Jazz at Lincoln Center is committed to creating an inclusive, open, and respectful culture that reflects and embraces diversity.