Creative Lead, Artist Experiences, Growth & Operations at VAWAA in United States

Job description

• We’re looking for a designer-turned-operator to find extraordinary artists around the world, win their trust, and turn their creative worlds into VAWAA experiences people will travel for.
• Someone with a trained eye for design and craft, strong relationship instincts, and the commercial instinct to know which artists and experiences will resonate — and the drive to get them onboarded and launched.
• We’re looking for a Creative Lead, Artist Experiences, Growth & Operations to own the growth of VAWAA’s artist supply—from identifying exceptional artists to building the relationship, shaping their VAWAA and getting them successfully launched.
• This is not a traditional recruiting, sales, curation, editorial or operations role. It combines elements of all five.
• You’ll need enough creative judgment to recognize what makes an artist exceptional, enough curiosity to uncover what isn’t obvious from an application, enough commercial instinct to shape an experience people will travel for, and enough operational discipline to move dozens of artists through a complex process without losing the human relationship.
• Our immediate goal is to build the systems and pipeline to launch approximately 20-30 exceptional artists over four months, without compromising the quality bar that makes VAWAA distinctive.
• The role will begin as a 3–4 month consulting engagement. During this period, you’ll take ownership of a priority artist pipeline while helping us build and improve the systems for curation, onboarding and launch.
• You’ll initially own the artist journey end-to-end. As we grow, we’ll add specialist support around you. Your role is both to do the work and help build the systems that allow it to scale.
• This is a hands-on, computer-based role that does not involve travel. You should enjoy both creative decisions and daily execution: following up, editing copy, selecting images, maintaining the CRM, and meeting launch deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Find and curate exceptional artists
• Review applications, research artists and build priority shortlists based on creative quality, distinctiveness, geography, art form and guest demand.
• Lead video conversations to assess artistic mastery, communication, teaching ability, studio environment, hospitality, reliability and overall VAWAA fit.
• Build relationships and move artists forward
• Be a primary face of VAWAA to prospective artists.
• Build trust, understand motivations and hesitation, answer objections, establish clear next steps and help the right artists confidently decide to join.
• Shape VAWAA experiences that people will travel for
• Work with artists to turn their practice into a compelling multi-day experience.
• Think about what makes the artist distinctive, what access a guest could have, what makes the experience worth traveling for, and how to balance artistic integrity with guest desire and business viability.
• Develop and launch the story
• Review artist submissions, identify gaps, research missing context, write and edit profiles and experience descriptions, and select images that communicate the artist, process and place.
• Manage contracts, content, approvals, follow-ups and launch deadlines so artists move from interest to live experience without things falling through the cracks.
• Build systems as you go
• Improve how we screen, research, prioritize, follow up, onboard and launch artists.
• Use AI and automation thoughtfully to increase your capacity while knowing where human judgment and personal relationships matter.
• You'll help build the operating system tat future team members can work within.
• Launched 20–30 exceptional new VAWAA artists, while maintaining our quality bar.
• Built a strong forward pipeline of artists already committed, contracted, or moving toward launch.
• Demonstrated that you can independently identify and prioritize strong VAWAA artists and make sound decisions about who should move forward.
• Built trusted relationships with artists and successfully moved the right ones from interest to commitment to launch.
• Strengthened the quality and commercial potential of their VAWAAs through your creative and business judgment.
• Created clear ownership and momentum throughout onboarding, so artists know what’s needed and continue moving forward without unnecessary delays.
• Built a repeatable process capable of supporting 8–10+ high-quality launches per month with significantly less Founder involvement.
• Identified the biggest remaining bottleneck and recommended the next hire or system needed to scale.

Requirements

• Our strongest candidates will likely be designers who became operators. It is essential that you have trained creative judgment, experience producing excellent work, and the ability to operate commercially and get things shipped.
• Trained in architecture, interior architecture, industrial or product design, or another discipline where you developed a strong understanding of materials, making, creative process and visual quality is essential. You can distinguish between work that is competent, work that is interesting and work that is genuinely distinctive and why it belongs on VAWAA.
• At least 2–3 years of professional experience in a high-pace, high-standards creative environment such as a design or advertising agency, multidisciplinary studio, technology company or creative startup, including experience in a computer-based role requiring responsiveness, self-direction, and reliable delivery.
• Relationship management experience through outreach, partnerships, onboarding, account management, or client support. You can manage multiple relationships at once. You’re warm and curious, but can also challenge someone constructively, build trust, establish expectations and move conversations toward decisions.
• Commercially thoughtful. You can respect an artist’s practice while thinking clearly about guest demand, pricing, positioning and what makes an experience compelling.
• Strong editor with writing and visual judgment. You can identify the story inside a large amount of messy information and can turn an artist’s practice into clear, compelling content.
• Highly organized AI-native operator and systems thinker. You can manage many moving relationships, deadlines and details simultaneously. You have experience maintaining a CRM, setting project timelines and can improve how information and work are organized. You’ve already used AI and automation to coordinate multiple projects, build workflows, manage information, or increase team capacity.
• Careful execution and effective prioritization. You work efficiently, catch details, manage competing deadlines, and take responsibility for the quality of finished work without repeated reminders.
• Independent judgment and an ownership mindset. You form an original point of view, explain your reasoning, make thoughtful decisions, and balance artist needs, guest experience, and business priorities.
• Openness to feedback. You advocate for ideas constructively, adapt when another direction is chosen, and remain engaged in making the work successful.
• Cultural sensitivity, curiosity, and mission alignment. You communicate respectfully across backgrounds and traditions and want to build a career helping a creative business grow.
• Comfortable being hands-on. You may negotiate with an established artist in the morning and edit their page copy in the afternoon. This role will become more specialized as the team grows. Initially, you need to be comfortable building while doing.
• We expect most successful candidates to have approximately 6+ years of relevant professional experience, although we care more about what you’ve owned than a specific number of years.
• An existing network of artists, designers, makers, or cultural organizations, as well as international or cross-cultural work experience, is a plus.

Skills

Required

• Trained creative judgment
• Experience producing excellent work
• Openness to feedback
• Comfortable being hands-on

Benefits

• $95,000–$110,000 salary, depending on performance and scope.
• 0.25%–0.5% equity or profit sharing options
• Health insurance
• 1 Free and discounted VAWAA experiences
• Work closely with our founder and community of artists and guests in 50+ countries + a mission that matters
• Growth path: In 2–3 years, this role could evolve into Head of Curation / Artist Development & Supply / Artist Success with responsibility for team, strategy, systems, and growth.