Instrument is a design and technology company. We build brands, products, and experiences that move businesses forward—by making the complex simple.
For over 20 years, we’ve partnered with companies like Google, ServiceNow, Uber, Eventbrite, and ŌURA, helping them navigate change, launch new ideas, and grow with intention.
Our work spans Brand, Marketing, and Product, but what defines us is how we work. We bring strategy, design, and engineering together from the start, moving quickly from idea to execution and refining as we go. We aim to do great work and be great to work with, because both matter.
We’re a collaborative, hands-on team with roots in Portland and New York and a distributed presence across the U.S. and Europe. We build teams around the needs of the work, staying nimble without sacrificing craft.
We value curiosity, perspective, and continuous learning, and we’re committed to building an inclusive environment where people can do their best work.
If that sounds like you, we’d love to meet you.
A Director of Creative Technology sets the technical bar across portfolios or studios, ensuring innovation, architectural coherence, and delivery rigor at scale. This role operates beyond individual engagements — shaping platform direction, strengthening creative engineering standards, and ensuring technical ambition aligns with client strategy and business objectives. Directors build trusted senior client relationships while developing the next generation of creative technology leaders.
What You'll Do
You’ll operate above the level of any single project, shaping how creative technology shows up across a portfolio of work. This means setting the technical bar—defining how systems are architected, how teams make decisions, and how ambitious ideas become durable, scalable solutions.
You’ll partner closely with design, strategy, and client leadership to ensure that technology is not just a delivery function, but a driver of direction. You’ll help teams navigate complexity—making smart tradeoffs, reducing risk, and aligning technical choices to real business outcomes.
A core part of the role is turning emerging technology into something usable. You’ll identify where new tools, platforms, or approaches can meaningfully change the work—and help translate that into repeatable capabilities that teams can apply across engagements.
You’ll also play a key role in growing the discipline. That means mentoring senior creative technologists, strengthening standards, and helping define what great looks like as the work—and the industry—evolves.
And with clients, you’ll act as a trusted technical voice—someone who can connect long-term platform thinking with immediate opportunities, and help shape what’s possible.
What You'll Bring
You’ve operated at a level where you’re responsible not just for building things, but for shaping how they get built. You’re comfortable making decisions that affect multiple teams or clients—and you understand the tradeoffs between speed, quality, scalability, and long-term sustainability.
You have a strong point of view on architecture and systems, but you’re not dogmatic. You know how to adapt your thinking to different contexts, and you can guide teams through complexity without over-engineering or oversimplifying.
You’re fluent in modern development ecosystems and emerging technologies, including AI, but more importantly—you have good judgment about when and how to use them. You’re motivated by possibility, but grounded in what will actually create value.
You’ve likely played a role in defining standards, mentoring senior talent, or helping a team or discipline level up. You care about building strong teams and creating an environment where others can do their best work.
And you’re comfortable in the room with senior clients—able to translate technical ideas into clear direction, build trust, and connect technology decisions to business outcomes.
Pay Range
The expected pay range for this position is $150,000-$210,000 for our base US Region 3*. We have three regional pay ranges that are adjusted for cost of living (US1 +15%, US2 +7.5%, US3 Base), learn more about our pay philosophy and cost of living adjustments
What We Offer
Flexible, Hybrid Work Environment
Great Compensation with Annual Reviews (Learn more about our
Pay Philosophy)
401(k) Matching with Immediate Vesting
Robust Medical, Vision, and Accident Insurance
Generous Paid Holidays and unlimited PTO
Sabbaticals
Monthly Wellbeing Stipend
Career Management and Leadership Training
