Design Director – Leading Agency – Up to £90,000

My client exists to help organisations discover and create their digital futures. They are a passionate team who are committed to delivering tangible change and benefit for the companies they work with. Their work is challenging and diverse with a portfolio of leading brands from across a variety of sectors.

They are currently looking for a dynamic and experienced Design Director to join at an exciting point in their ambitious growth plan. You’ll be a key member of from the outset, with direct accountability growing the design practice, expanding the capabilities of the design team, overseeing the creative output and delivering on briefs for a multitude of top name clients!.

To be successful in this role, you will be a hybrid of expert practitioner and team leader with a consultative-led approach who can see where there are clear opportunities for design to make an impact alongside technology. You will be comfortable leading the creative process throughout digital experience transformation programmes, building and optimising digital products that delight clients and customers alike.

Responsibilities:

Leads and manages the Experience Design team

• Sets the vision for what design means and is accountable for embodying and delivering it.
• Establishes and evolves ways of working, and develops a design toolkit to conceptualise, test, iterate and deliver great digital products that delight and empower users.
• Catalogues knowledge and expertise for easy access by others within the team.
• Manages, supports and inspires our existing Experience Design team in line with customer need and in unison with other practices.
• Recruits and hires new talent to join the growing team.
• Is accountable for the commercial success of the design department: the profitability of design work including the utilisation of the team, the quality of all outputs and driving conversations with clients to grow the number of design briefs the company receives.

Representing design in pitches and new business

• Works effectively as part of our pitch team, leading new business pitches from an experience design perspective.
• Works alongside our client services team and other practice leads to grow client accounts using a consultative approach to selling.
• Contributes to the development of new business materials and presentations.
• Develops ways to publicise Experience Design expertise with current and prospective clients, such as agency-sponsored seminars, and thought leadership.
• Attends relevant conferences, networks with industry leaders, seeks appropriate speaking opportunities, and actively participates in the online discussion about Experience Design.

Delivering work for clients

• Ensures the Experience Design team deliver outstanding work across projects and ensure they meet the right specification and that it can be achieved within budget.
• Leads, guides and contributes to design concepts and work with prospective clients to understand requirements.
• Ensures consistency with project design and UX standards and improves these as necessary.

Skills and experience

• You have experience leading a team in a Design/Creative Director role in a similar agency environment.
• You have demonstrable skills in UX and visual design using the latest tools, and a background in Digital Product Design, Art Direction, or Interactive Design discipline, with a conceptual and practical outcomes-focused approach.
• You can demonstrate a portfolio full of case studies representing delivery of digital products and optimisation programmes for clients, including delivery using CMS, commerce or digital experience platforms (DXPs).
• You can demonstrate using evidence gathered from research (be it qualitative or quantitative) to drive your decision-making.
• You are able to collaborate with strategists, business analysts, front end developers, solution architects and project managers to develop digital products successfully, making pragmatic decisions about the design solutions you and your team present, to satisfy constraints that may occur.
• You have an outward looking perspective, that ensures your thinking and methods keep pace with industry best practice and have strong industry knowledge of digital innovation and customer experience across all channels.
• You are able to establish working relationships with clients, designing and leading workshops to help shape and challenge the briefs your team receives from them.
• You have a proven ability to act as brand guardian across the work we do for our clients and lead on pitches from the ground up.

To be considered for this fantastic role, please click “apply”