[Hiring] Associate Director, Visual Design @Dept

Role Description

The Associate Director, Visual Design, is a cornerstone of our creative leadership, tasked with defining the aesthetic North Star for our organization. This is not just a role for a master craftsperson, but for a strategic visionary who can translate business objectives into world-class visual ecosystems. You won't just meet benchmarks; you will redefine them.

You will sit at the intersection of brand, product, and strategy, ensuring that our visual identity is cohesive, future-proof, and disruptive. You are expected to be a "force multiplier", elevating the output of every designer you touch through rigorous critique, high-level systems thinking, and an unwavering commitment to craft.

As part of the creative leadership team, you will play a crucial role in executing the overarching creative and design strategy, ensuring the team's activities align with and significantly contribute to the organization's strategic short and long-term success.

What You’ll Do

• Closely collaborate with multidisciplinary teams of talented people.
• Set the overarching visual strategy and design principles that guide the entire creative department across all touchpoints (digital, brand, and product).
• Oversee the evolution of our global design systems, ensuring they are scalable, accessible, and reflect the highest level of visual sophistication.
• Act as a primary creative partner to C-suite executives and key client stakeholders, using design as a lever to solve complex business challenges.
• Partner with cross-functional leaders to ensure technical feasibility and strategic alignment from ideation to launch.
• Serve as an evangelist for design excellence both internally and externally, staying ahead of industry trends and emerging technologies (AI, spatial design, etc.) to keep the agency/company at the cutting edge.
• Refine design workflows and philosophies to improve the quality of output while maintaining organizational agility and profitability.
• Bring a fresh, insightful point of view that inspires both the internal team and the client, putting the team and client first.
• Generate strategic insights and moodboards to facilitate creative innovation.
• Drive complex digital projects from kick-off to completion, ensuring the team's deliverables exceed client expectations and stay within budget and deadlines.
• Establish project direction, craft guidelines, and assist with production as needed.
• Identify key client decision-makers and leverage excellent interpersonal skills to grow and maintain these relationships, collaborating across all internal departments and external stakeholders to achieve desired results.
• Actively contribute to the design discipline through mentoring, conversation, and proposing ideas to elevate company operations and improve processes.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in visual and interactive design for global brands, with at least 4 years in a dedicated leadership position.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Design, Visual Arts, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Mastery of Figma (including components, variants, and auto layout) and familiarity with essential collaboration tools (e.g., Hubspot, Google Suite, Slack).
• Strong knowledge and experience in visual design, user-centered experience design, interaction design, and brand development. Experience developing and maintaining a robust design system.
• Demonstrated ability to provide strategic vision and creative inspiration to large, diverse teams.
• Excellent public speaking and presentation skills with the ability to clearly articulate complex information to clients and internal stakeholders.
• Highly detail-oriented, proactive, comfortable navigating complex organizations, and focused on strategic problem-solving and process efficiency.

Benefits

• Healthcare, Dental, and Vision coverage
• 401K plan, plus matching
• PTO
• Paid Company Holidays
• Parental Leave