SHADOW is currently seeking to fill a Design Director position within its Creative Division. The ideal candidate has a minimum of 10+ years of relevant experience, in a design, creative or advertising agency environment, preferably with consumer brands. This individual will report directly to the Executive Creative Director and serve as a senior creative leader across the agency, working with Creative Directors to execute design direction, overseeing design excellence, and guiding the design team’s execution across a wide range of client and internal initiatives. This position requires the submission of a portfolio.
What You Bring:
- Design Vision and Leadership: Your portfolio reflects a refined, strategic point of view and a deep understanding of visual storytelling across platforms including print, branding, digital, social, experiential, UI, packaging, presentations, merch, and more. You are equally comfortable defining high-level creative vision and diving into hands-on execution when needed. You are an expert in typography, composition, color, and design craft, and can push bold, innovative design ideas while maintaining brand integrity.
- Agency Expertise and Strategic Thinking: With 10+ years in a creative agency or advertising environment, you understand the pace, pressure, and nuance of client service. You are fluent in translating briefs into compelling visual systems, partnering with creative, strategy and account teams to align on project objectives, and presenting work clearly and confidently to senior clients and stakeholders.
- Technical Fluency: You have expert-level fluency in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) and PowerPoint/Google Slides. Working knowledge of Generative AI design, Figma and motion/video workflows is expected. You understand production processes across digital, print, and experiential formats.
- People Management and Mentorship: You lead with compassion and know how to inspire, guide, and develop designers at different levels. You bring clarity, constructive feedback, and set and uphold standards of excellence, fostering a collaborative and creatively ambitious team culture. You are experienced in scaling teams, overseeing multiple designers, and mentoring talent to do their best work.
- Communication and Problem Solving: You are an articulate communicator and persuasive presenter, able to clearly express creative rationale both internally and externally. You anticipate challenges, proactively surface risks, meet audiences where they are at, and approach problems with a solution-oriented mindset. You are adaptable, calm under pressure, and skilled at navigating ambiguity.
What You Do:
- Set and Drive Design Direction: In partnership with creative directors, you articulate and uphold the design vision across agency clients and internal initiatives, ensuring design work is conceptually strong, relevant, and executed at the highest level. You collaborate on the development of design systems, campaign identities, and visual languages and oversee their execution across brand, social, experiential, digital, and presentation-based projects.
- Lead and Oversee Design Execution: You oversee the end-to-end design production, taking concept through exploration, iteration, and delivery—across multiple workstreams. This includes brand identities, event branding, social and digital content, presentations, websites, OOH, packaging design, merch, and graphic treatments in photo/video-led projects.
- Collaborate Across Disciplines: You partner closely with creative directors, art directors, copywriters, strategists, producers, and account teams to bring ideas to life consistently across PR, Influencer, Event, Social campaigns and fully integrated campaigns. You help translate strategy into compelling visual narratives and ensure alignment across all creative outputs.
- Manage and Mentor the Design Team: You lead, mentor, and review the work of senior and junior designers, providing clear direction, feedback, and growth opportunities. You help set priorities, allocate resources, and maintain quality and consistency across all design deliverables.
- Client Leadership and Presentation: You play a key role in client-facing moments, including design presentations, reviews, and working sessions. You confidently articulate design thinking, respond to feedback, and guide projects toward strong, strategic outcomes.
Annual Compensation
$150K - $180K (commensurate with experience)
What We Provide:
- Medical + dental + vision insurance
- Generous PTO and paid holidays
- Dedicated mental health days
- Unlimited sick time
- Give Back. We want SHADOWs to extend their hearts and give back to their various communities and interests, on the clock! We offer 40 hours of paid VTO annually (voluntary time off)
- 401(k) retirement plan with matching
- Pre-tax commuter and healthcare benefits
- 12 weeks paid leave for new parents
- Individualized career mapping
- Summer Fridays (early close Fridays Memorial Day - Labor Day)
- Hybrid work schedule (1-3 days in office per week, depending on role)
While SHADOW intends to maintain these employee benefits, the Company reserves the right to modify, amend or terminate these benefits at any time and for any reason.
Additional Information
SHADOW promotes a diverse and high performing company culture. SHADOW is dedicated to providing equal opportunities to all qualified persons, and to recruit, hire, train, promote, and compensate persons in all jobs without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or sexual orientation.
All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
Top Skills
What We Do
SHADOW is a creative marketing and communications agency with integrated disciplines across media relations, influencer marketing, experiential and event production, social media management and content development.
Using these services, we shape insights and ideas into stories, animate stories into moments and engineer moments into movements.
We are also connectors – we create inter-client synergies to maximize opportunity as well as leverage industry relationships for introductions, partnerships, business development and more.
With a robust portfolio of brand campaigns, cross-categorical experience, and a deep rolodex of industry relationships, we have captured the loyalty of some of the world’s most prestigious companies, including luxury and lifestyle brands, retailers, tech start-ups, publishers, personalities, non-profit organizations and hospitality groups. We are a New York-based agency, with a west coast presence made possible through our SHADOWest suite of services.
