Photography Director

About Old Navy

Forget what you know about old-school industry rules. When you work at Old Navy, you're choosing a different path. From day one, we've been on a mission to democratize fashion and make shopping fun again. Our teams make style accessible to everyone, creating high-quality, must-have fashion essentials for the whole family, with love, season after season.

We opened our first store in 1994 in San Francisco and have been on a roll ever since. We cultivate a community of playful personalities that thrive in a fast-paced environment where our employees can be their most authentic selves. Here, we're family.

About the Role

Old Navy builds an engaging and inclusive online shopping experience through photography, video, graphic design, and usability design enabling millions of customers to make more informed purchasing decisions. Imaging at Old Navy is a fast-growing team located in San Francisco, focusing on fashion and product photography, photo retouching, and video production. We are continually innovating and setting new industry standards for showcasing 10s of thousands of products across multiple marketplaces. We are obsessed with innovating on behalf of our customers, and continually push beyond the boundaries of traditional e-commerce photography and videography.

Old Navy is looking for an experienced and accomplished Photography Director to play the leadership role in defining breakthrough imagery solutions for our studio with an additional focus on editorial and video. This position will oversee the photography team for the Old Navy marketing & ecomm studio. The prospective candidate will bring creative innovation to high volume photographic workflows both on and off figure, reduce the operational cost while improving the quality of all imagery produced. The associate Photography Director is required to stay at the forefront of imagery within online retailing, ensuring that Old Navy is ahead of the curve and ready to incorporate relevant solutions into the customer experience. The successful candidate will be required to understand the larger business strategy while overseeing the implementation details of new imagery standards, technologies and equipment. In this role the qualified candidate will be responsible for managing the daily operations of a team of photographers working in a high-volume, fast-paced photo studio. Responsibilities include leading process and aesthetic innovations that drive sales through top notch still and video direction, deliver a world class customer experience, project management, and employee development. This position will report directly into the Senior Director, Creative.

What You'll Do

• 
  Produce the highest quality photography/video for all products both on/off figure
  
  
• 
  Partner very closely with the Senior Director, Creative to understand the seasonal vision, framework, and the "big idea" per month. Plan photo/video assets to support that vision.
  
  
• 
  Understand the needs of each marketing vehicle and "best practices" to develop creative that will have the greatest impact to the customer.
  
  
• 
  Work closely with the Director of Studio Production to leverage the budget and to identify new ways to shoot photography that will create agility and flexibility in the marketing pipeline.
  
  
• 
  Secure a lineup of freelance photography talent to partner with on a consistent basis to help the brand achieve a recognizable photographic handwriting across end uses and across vehicles.
  
  
• 
  Work with the Senior Director, Creative to create a seamless and easy system of asset management to enable teams to access photography easily and to communicate preferred assets and video to the marketing and design teams.
  
  
• 
  Provide supervision as well as mentoring, training, development, and performance management of the photography team
  
  
• 
  Maintain consistently high standards for accuracy, aesthetics, and productivity
  
  
• 
  Ensure creation of robust training and process documentation
  
  
• 
  Build innovative processes with impact from the ground up and execute large scale team projects
  
  
• 
  Develop techniques and best practices for shooting new categories & projects both on/off figure still/video, and disseminate those practices in the Old Navy Photo Studio
  
  
• 
  Develop and maintain photography style guides for Old Navy's photo studio
  
  
• 
  Guide the constant improvement of Old Navy photography/video quality and establish the visual style and presentation of photography
  
  
• 
  Interact directly with Old Navy Marketing and Studio teams to provide and receive visual guidance, implement process improvement, and procure and repair equipment
  
  
• 
  Collect and analyze data and testing solutions for process improvements and new initiatives
  
  

Who You Are

• 
  Bachelor's degree or equivalent in photography or related field
  
  
• 
  10+ years of experience working as a photographer for premium brands and/or innovative branding firms
  
  
• 
  Professional premium brand photography portfolio that demonstrates an expert-level knowledge of digital video & still photography (on & off figure), including but not limited to lighting, composition, color quality, and top-notch aesthetic
  
  
• 
  Proven experience working with Art Directors, Stylists, Production, and freelance talent
  
  
• 
  Deep knowledge of a "Digital first" marketing approach, understanding the needs of paid and social media and how to capture creative that best suits the requirements of success in those channels
  
  
• 
  Deep understanding of all stages of the still photography/video process, and ability to provide direction to the team to execute and evolve upon
  
  
• 
  Accustomed to the high intensity level of an e-commerce studio environment, and ability to thrive under tight deadlines
  
  
• 
  Accomplished in hiring, developing and leading high performing teams and individuals
  
  
• 
  Ability to use 10+ years of industry experience and expertise to advocate for the expansion of Old Navy's photography capability, and for the adoption of new technologiesdocumented in commercial shooting, across an array of client environments, including editorial, catalog, advertising, and e-commerce
  
  

Benefits at Old Navy

• Merchandise discount for our brands: 50% off regular-priced merchandise at Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and Athleta, and 30% off at Outlet for all employees.
• One of the most competitive Paid Time Off plans in the industry.*
• Employees can take up to five "on the clock" hours each month to volunteer at a charity of their choice.*
• Extensive 401(k) plan with company matching for contributions up to four percent of an employee's base pay.*
• Employee stock purchase plan.*
• Medical, dental, vision and life insurance.*
• See more of the benefits we offer.

*For eligible employees

Gap Inc. is an equal-opportunity employer and is committed to providing a workplace free from harassment and discrimination. We are committed to recruiting, hiring, training and promoting qualified people of all backgrounds, and make all employment decisions without regard to any protected status. We have received numerous awards for our long-held commitment to equality and will continue to foster a diverse and inclusive environment of belonging. This year, we've been named as one of the Best Places to Work by the Humans Rights Campaign for the fourteenth consecutive year and have been included in the 2019 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the second year in a row. US Candidates - Non NYCPlease note that effective, June 30, 2022, Gap Inc. will no longer require any of its employees to wear face masks or require proof of COVID vaccination, unless required by local or state/provincial mandates or as part of Gap Inc's quarantine guidelines after being exposed to or testing positive for COVID. Therefore, please disregard any language in any job posting that refers to Gap Inc.'s face mask and proof of vaccination policy as said policy is no longer effective.US Candidates - NYCBeginning December 27, 2021 the City of New York requires all employees in the City who work on site to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, unless an exemption from the vaccine requirement is approved due to an accommodation for a disability, a sincerely held religious belief or other legally protected basis (including status as a victim of domestic violence, stalking or sex offenses).