Associate Creative Director at Kayak

KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is the world’s leading travel search engine. With billions of queries across our platforms, we help people find their perfect flight, stay, rental car and vacation package. We’re also transforming business travel with a new corporate travel solution, KAYAK for Business. As an employee of KAYAK, you will be part of a travel company that operates a portfolio of global metasearch brands including momondo, Cheapflights and HotelsCombined, among others. From start-up to industry leader, innovation is in our DNA and every employee has an opportunity to make their mark. Our focus is on building the best travel search engine to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. We’re looking for an Associate Creative Director to help shape and elevate the KAYAK brands across Europe. This is an opportunity to build distinctive, effective work at scale - from brand platforms to performance-driven creative. As part of the KAYAK Creative Team, you’ll bring the brand to life for millions of travellers, combining strong ideas with excellent craft across channels. You’ll report to the Senior Creative Director and help build campaign platforms across TV, online video, OOH and social. This is a hands-on role, with increasing responsibility for shaping creative direction and guiding the team. The ideal candidate blends strong creative instincts with the ability to lead and deliver work at pace, guiding a small but high-performing team through execution while beginning to take on more strategic ownership of brand creative direction. This role will be required to work from our London office at least 3 days per week. IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL: - Lead day-to-day creative development across a wide range of marketing assets. - Drive strong, simple creative ideas from concept through to execution. - Provide hands-on creative direction and mentorship to a team of designers and editors, ensuring high-quality, brand-aligned output that meets brief and elevates performance. - Collaborate closely with the Brand teams to ensure creative alignment with business objectives, audience insight, and platform best practices. - Work with the Creative Production managers to manage timelines, workloads, and production priorities for your team, flagging resourcing needs and working cross-functionally to stay on track. - Coach and develop your team, delivering regular feedback, supporting career growth, and fostering a positive, collaborative creative culture. - Apply strong storytelling and brand-building instincts to every stage of creative development. - Partner with the Senior Creative Director to shape creative direction, refine brand expression and develop campaign platforms. - Manage multiple projects simultaneously, balancing hands-on work with team leadership PLEASE APPLY IF YOU HAVE: - 8+ years of relevant creative experience at a creative agency or fast-paced in-house brand studio, with a proven track record of developing integrated, multi-channel campaigns. - A portfolio demonstrating integrated campaign experience, alongside strong concepts, craft, and results - Fluency in Adobe Creative Suite and Figma; comfort with AI-driven creative capabilities. - Strong craft in either visual design or copy, with a clear understanding of how ideas are expressed across different channels. - Strong experience partnering with production teams, directors, editors, photographers and content creators. - Comfortable presenting creative ideas to senior audiences and cross-functional partners - Experience mentoring or leading designers and copywriters, with a collaborative and inclusive approach. - Proven organisation, prioritisation and project-management skills within fast-paced environments - Comfortable working across geographies and cultures, with sensitivity to localisation and regional nuance. - A proactive, solutions-oriented mindset and enthusiasm for travel, technology and creative innovation. BENEFITS AND PERKS: - 5 weeks of paid vacation - Generous paid vacation + time off for your birthday - Private health & dental insurance - Income protection and life assurance - Pension plan contributions - Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year - Focus on mental health and well-being: - Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth - Company-paid subscription to Headspace - Company-wide week off a year - the whole team fully recharges (and returns without a pile-up of work!) - No meeting Fridays - Paid parental leave - Paid volunteer time - Focus on your career growth: - Development Dollars - Leadership development - Access to thousand of on-demand e-learnings - Travel Discounts - Employee Resource Groups - Employee Assistance Program - including 24/7 GP & free legal advice - Discounted gym membership - Bike2Work - Season ticket loan - Social events & Thursday happy hours - Free lunch 2 days per week INCLUSION At KAYAK, we want everyone to have the space to grow, share ideas and do great work. That’s why we’re focused on hiring the best talent from all walks of life and experiences, supporting them well and making sure no one feels like they have to fit a mold to belong here. Need an accommodation for the interview, application or on the job? No problem - just give us a heads-up. We’ve got you. #LI-AS1