Design Director

You're a thinker and maker who leads the creative team on major engagements. You set a strong creative point of view and coach the team to deliver their best work, elevating not just what we deliver but how we work. You're connecting creative excellence with commercial outcomes and contributing to how Interbrand is known in the market. You're a holistic creative who architects comprehensive brand systems that work intelligently and beautifully across all consumer touchpoints—physical, digital, social, and emerging platforms. You're proficient in emerging creative tools and AI applications, and you have the judgment to know when to use them to amplify creative work and when craft must be unmediated. You shape how your team approaches tool selection, emerging technologies, and cross-channel design thinking.

Responsibilities

Interrogate briefs with strategy and client management, reframing challenges to unlock distinctive creative opportunities; Lead the creative platform on your projects, architecting scalable systems that work coherently across all touchpoints, including web, mobile, social, physical retail, packaging, events and emerging channels; Identify and frame potential iconic moves, testing feasibility with delivery and challenging the team to think bigger; Build senior relationships with clients and partners, leading co-creation sessions that shape decisions; Develop your team, coaching individuals towards their potential and creating space for originality to emerge; Structure how creative work flows, setting rituals and reviews that keep momentum and quality high; Own creative delivery, managing scope, budget, and timeline while anticipating and mitigating risks; Provide critique that's clear and decisive, holding the quality bar and ensuring production-ready work; Present your work with conviction, connecting human insight, commercial value, and experience together; Stay ahead of tools, methods, and emerging practices, bringing these into how our team works; Help evaluate new design software, AI tools and other emerging technologies that will help strengthen the creative capability within the company; Contribute to proposals, building cases for investment, and elevating Interbrand's reputation through awards and recognition; Partner with Brand Economics, understanding impact and using that to inform creative priorities

Requirements

Proven track record leading creative work on significant client engagements; Portfolio showing systems excellence and how ideas work across multiple channels and touchpoints; Demonstrated expertise in holistic brand design with evidence of leading projects where a single identity system performs effectively across radically different contexts and platforms; Proficiency with emerging creative tools; Understanding of how AI can enhance creative work; Clarity about what's distinctive and why it matters; Ability to generate routes that unlock both commercial value and memorable experiences; Knowing the difference between good and great; Understanding how to design systems that are coherent yet flexible and how a brand can feel unified across touchpoints while adapting intelligently to context, audience, and channel requirements; Working seamlessly across disciplines, bringing strategy and delivery into creative conversations; Navigating tensions between vision and feasibility thoughtfully, not by compromising either; Developing people and bringing out their best work; Coaching individuals, creating space for contribution, and helping the team understand the thinking behind decisions; Shaping how the team thinks about and works with emerging tools, balancing technological curiosity with craft standards; Telling compelling stories about work that move people to action; Adapting approach for different audiences and framing choices so people understand what matters; Operating autonomously and owning outcomes; Anticipating risks, structuring teams and timelines for success, delivering at scale

Benefits

Health/Vision/Dental Insurance; Family Forming Benefits; 401(k); Employee Stock Purchase Program; Annual Education Assistance; Health and Wellness Discounts; Spending and Saving Accounts; Vacation, Sick, and Personal Days; Paid Parental and Medical Leave; Life, AD&D and Disability Insurance; EAP