Associate Design Director - UX/UI (Engineering)

Description

Associate Design Director

Copenhagen, hybrid

DEPT is a Growth Invention company built to help the world’s most ambitious brands grow faster. Operating at the intersection of technology and marketing, our 4,000+ specialists deliver growth invention services across Brand & Media, Experience, Commerce, CRM, and Technology & Data. We’re 50|50 tech and marketing, partner-led, and first to move. Clients include Google, Lufthansa, Meta, eBay, and OpenAI. We have been certified B Corp and Climate Neutral since 2021.

JOB PURPOSE

This role is part of our Experience & Engineering team based in Copenhagen. We combine our skills in developing future-ready technical solutions with our expertise in creating beautiful designs to deliver exceptional and engaging digital experiences that build lasting relationships with our clients like Bolia, Nilfisk and Magasin.

As an Associate Design Director, you operate at a studio-wide level: shaping the craft vision, elevating design excellence, and steering the strategic direction of our visual design practice. You ensure quality across accounts, drive operational standards, and keep our craft innovative, consistent and competitive. You influence senior stakeholders, guide multidisciplinary teams, mentor talent, and represent DEPT externally, strengthening our creative reputation and contributing directly to sales, growth and thought leadership.

Responsibilities

• Own craft direction across complex projects and accounts, ensuring work is aligned, elevated and unmistakably DEPT.
• Raise the bar by defining standards, sharpening processes, and enabling teams to deliver consistently exceptional work.
• Guide clients and internal teams with clear, high-level creative and product direction that goes beyond the brief.
• Drive innovation through experimentation and curiosity, creating work that sets benchmarks and wins awards.
• Shape the future of the design practice by evolving craft vision, building team capabilities, and fostering a culture of mentorship and continuous learning.
• Support pitches and growth opportunities with strong creative POVs that connect craft to business impact.
• Represent DEPT externally through talks, posts and publications that amplify our creative reputation.
• WHAT YOU BRING:
• 10+ years of experience in visual/UI/UX design within an engineering digital agency environment, including 3+ years at senior or leadership level.
• Serious craft expertise: a portfolio demonstrating strategic impact, systems thinking, and high-quality execution across complex digital ecosystems.
• A strategic thinker who influences product, design, and business decisions with clear vision and rationale.
• A recognised design voice: inspires teams, elevates craft standards, and contributes to the wider design community.
• Mentorship mindset: actively builds others up through coaching, structured feedback, and knowledge sharing.
• Continuously curious: eager to master emerging tools, AI workflows, motion, and design trends.
• Deep understanding of visual principles, accessibility, and modern interaction patterns.
• Mastery of Figma and design systems; motion skills (Jitter, AE, etc.) are a plus.
• Confident communicator able to articulate design direction with clarity and conviction.
• Working proficiency in English.
• Plus: Working proficiency in Danish

Benefits

• A healthy, varied and delicious lunch.
• Pension & healthcare scheme.
• A lot of fun social events such as Friday bars, company parties, team events, etc.
• A flexible, hybrid working policy and a great workplace in our awesome office in Christianshavn.
• A reputation for doing good. DEPT has been a Certified B Corp since 2021 and named ‘Agency of the Year’ at both The Lovies and The Webby Awards.
• Awesome clients. Whether big or small, local or global — at DEPT you’ll get the opportunity to work with clients of all sizes and across all industries. And we celebrate all of our successes together!
• The opportunity for possibility. We want to enable you to do what you do best and help you develop your skills further with training and development.
• Global annual DEPT Cares Month in which employees come together and donate their skills to support local charities.
• WHY DEPT?
• We are a Growth Invention company built to help the world’s most ambitious brands grow faster. Operating at the intersection of technology and marketing, we create what is next by pioneering ideas, acting fast, and moving further because standing still just is not in our DNA.
• We are drawn to people who stay curious, move with intent, and never stop inventing. Our culture runs on three values: better together, relentlessly curious, and get sht done. It is how we work, how we grow, and how we make things that matter.
• At DEPT, you will find the freedom to explore, the space to collaborate, and the trust to make a real impact for our clients, for each other, and for the world we are helping to build.