Manager, Brand Design

What You'll Do:

• Team Management and Mentorship
• Lead and guide a team of brand designers ranging from junior to senior, reinforcing established strategic and creative direction while fostering growth through constructive feedback
• Provide hands-on mentorship, helping team members hone their creative skills and balance individual project priorities
• Communicates with a calm, reliable leadership voice that builds team confidence, eases day-to-day anxiety, and supports a positive, motivated team environment
• Foster a culture of experimentation, rapid ideation, and comfort with AI tooling in strategic applications for increased velocity and impact across brand creative
• Ensure team members are operating at the appropriate level of autonomy, with Senior II designers leading project scoping and execution
 
• Design Thinking & Storytelling
• Translate established marketing and brand direction into actionable design guidance for your team, ensuring clarity and consistency in execution
• Manage discovery and design decisions to align user needs with business goals, ensuring impactful and strategic outcomes
• Utilize systems thinking to create scalable, consistent visual assets that support campaign and brand objectives
• Leverage AI tooling in strategic ways to accelerate experimentation, production, and enable more creative flexibility.
 
• Design Execution
• Guide the execution of impactful design solutions aligned to established creative direction for marketing, digital, and campaign assets that reinforce brand identity and support GTM goals.
• Work efficiently with design systems, templates, repeatable processes, and guidelines to ensure scalability and consistency
• Support scoping and delegate complex projects into simple, manageable design tasks that the team can execute effectively.
• Identify when external creative partners are needed, defining criteria, reviewing portfolios/capabilities, making final selection decisions.
• If managing a team of less than 6, balance player coach responsibilities as needed
• Leverage AI tooling in strategic ways to accelerate experimentation, production, and enable more creative flexibility 
 
• Cross-functional  Collaboration
• Participate in planning conversations with GTM partners to understand priorities and ensure your team’s work is aligned.
• Collaborate with brand and messaging design leaders to ensure consistent execution against established priorities.
• Identifying when external creative partners are needed, defining criteria, reviewing portfolios/capabilities, making final selection decisions.
• Collaborate with design leaders in product design, messaging design, and brand design to unlock better ways to connect the full customer journey 
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to ensure your team’s design deliverables align to established brand direction and support day-to-day business needs.
• Work closely with the Messaging Design and GTM partners to facilitate cohesive and productive brainstorming sessions.
 
• Team Citizenship
• Actively participate in team discussions and brainstorming sessions, fostering a positive, inclusive environment.
• Lead efforts to evolve and scale design processes in collaboration with Creative Ops and Brand leadership that support creativity and alignment across disciplines.
• Regularly share industry insights, design trends, and best practices to help the team stay current and innovative.
• Support colleagues by providing constructive feedback, offering assistance when needed, and ensuring smooth team operations.

What You Should Have:

• 5-7+ years of professional creative experience, with 1-3+ years in management
• Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, Interaction Design, or related field
• Expertise in building strategic concepts and campaigns, and codifying visual assets across tactics
• Passionate about end-to-end customer experience, integrating brand and product
• Skilled in storytelling and weaving complex assets into cohesive narratives
• Proficient with a variety of creative tools including Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Notion with ability to make informed technical recommendations
• Avid user of AI tooling across use cases both within creative work and other opportunity areas
• Knowledgeable in user-centered design principles, UI design, and best practices
• Ability to translate business objectives into customer-focused design solutions
• Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to inspire cross-functional teams
• Proactive in improving processes and maximizing team efficiency
• Resilient, reliable, and optimistic

Nice to Haves:

• Previous experience working in a SaaS or software product-led company 
• Familiarity with image design systems and digital design systems and their implementation to scale design efforts