Design Lead

Role: Design Lead - 12 month FTC

Location:  London, United Kingdom  

About the role:

The Design Lead is the senior creative in the studio and the day-to-day creative contact for Client stakeholders. You set creative standards, shape strategic thinking and guide a team of designers, artworkers and copywriters, both on site and offshore. You work closely with the Copy Lead to keep design and copy aligned.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You lead concepts for complex or high-profile projects, review work before it goes to the client, and step in on priority projects when needed. You also line manage direct reports and partner with Account Leadership, Marketing Operations and Project Management to plan work well and support studio growth.

What you will be doing:

• Lead creative direction and strategic thinking across Brand, Innovation and BAU projects, including campaigns, packaging and integrated marketing.
• Set and uphold creative standards, ensuring consistency, quality and brand alignment across all outputs.
• Act as the final creative review point for design and artwork, working in close collaboration with the Copy Lead.
• Stay hands-on in concept creation and creative problem solving for strategic, complex or high-profile initiatives, and provide design support during peak periods or on priority projects.
• Create and refine visual solutions across digital and print channels where required.
• Act as the senior day-to-day creative contact for client stakeholders, building trusted relationships and identifying opportunities to add creative value.
• Present creative work clearly and persuasively to stakeholders at all levels, lead twice-yearly Creative Review sessions and contribute to wider account presentations.
• Guide teams through feedback cycles, balancing stakeholder requirements with creative integrity.
• Line manage direct reports, including objective setting, performance reviews, development planning and regular coaching.
• Provide functional leadership across the wider team of designers, artworkers and copywriters, onsite and offshore, through coaching, constructive feedback and hands-on support.
• Foster an inclusive, collaborative team culture by supporting onboarding, mentoring, training and knowledge sharing across the studio.
• Partner with Account Leadership, Operations and Project Management to support workflow and resource planning. Contribute creative insight to project scoping, pitch responses and growth opportunities.
• Keep up with design trends, emerging tools and AI-enabled capabilities, and use them to improve team performance, processes and output. 

What you need to be great in this role:

Experience and capability

• Creative leadership of work across multiple disciplines and channels in a creative, design or integrated agency environment.
• A track record of leading creative development from concept through to execution.
• Experience working directly with senior client stakeholders and presenting creative recommendations.
• Ability to influence stakeholders, challenge constructively and build trusted relationships.
• Strong coaching, mentoring and people leadership skills.
• Strong planning, prioritisation and organisational skills, with an understanding of creative workflow, briefing processes and resource planning.
• Ability to balance creative excellence with operational and delivery requirements.
• Experience collaborating with offshore global teams and external production studios.
• Commercial awareness, with experience contributing to scoping, pitch or growth discussions.
• Close attention to detail and a commitment to quality.

Technical expertise: experience overseeing and directing creative output across

• Print design (shopper POS, OOH, packaging and marketing collateral)
• Digital design (web, social and ecommerce)
• Artwork production and print processes
• Motion graphics and video editing
• Creative strategy and concept development
• Brand development and innovation
• Generative AI applications

Applications

• Adobe Creative Suite: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Acrobat
• Figma
• Microsoft Office
• Pencil AI, or fluency with similar AI platforms
• Nice to have: After Effects, Monday.com

Gen AI and agentic thinking

• Advanced use of Gen AI tools relevant to design to enhance creative output and efficiency.
• Experience designing AI-assisted workflows for yourself and your team.
• Ability to train others on effective AI tool usage.
• Agentic thinking for complex, multi-step challenges.
• Strong understanding of AI capabilities and limitations, with rigorous human oversight.

Req ID: 19049

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