Global Head of Design

Description

This is a critical Global Head of Design role at the company, leading designers who support every part of the business.

You will set and drive the company's global design direction across brand, marketing, digital experiences, internal communications and strategic initiatives, so that design strengthens the brand, improves customer and employee experience and supports business growth.

You will build and guide a multidisciplinary creative team, set standards for design quality and governance, and push for new ideas, with a focus on measurable results in every market.

The company is moving to become a market-leading AI-native transformation company, and its design system needs to reflect that ambition.

A new brand and creative agency is being brought on board. You will be the internal lead, working side by side with them and with your team, who turn that work into output across the business.

You will work with Marketing, Sales, Client Partners, Consulting, Employer Brand, Corporate Communications and senior leadership.

The company has spent over twenty years using technology to drive change. It combines engineering, industry knowledge and a people focus to build digital platforms and experiences for leading brands in many industries.

Responsibilities

• Set and keep evolving the company's global design vision across brand, marketing, digital experiences, internal communications and strategic initiatives.
• Lead, coach and grow a high-performing design team that cares about creative execution, new ideas and design craft.
• Work closely with external creative agencies to shape concepts, campaigns, visual direction and creative strategy.
• Work with cross-functional colleagues to define, improve and promote the company's visual identity across every channel and touchpoint.
• Lead the ongoing evolution of the brand, using design to change how people inside and outside the company see it.
• Own the brand standards, keeping brand assets, visual identity and design systems consistent and scalable across the company.
• Build scalable design frameworks, including bringing brand guidelines into AI platforms, large language models (LLMs) and new digital tools.
• Question conventional approaches and promote fresh design thinking for high-impact, globally joined-up marketing campaigns.
• Create a single go-to-market design strategy that lines up visual identity, messaging and customer experience across functions and regions.
• Run design operations, including creative tools, templates, workflows, asset libraries and governance processes.
• Find and deliver ways to use AI and automation in the design function to work faster and raise creativity and output quality.
• Make sure brand governance, visual standards and creative best practice apply to all internal and external communications.
• Persuade senior stakeholders and business leaders to build design quality and brand consistency into the whole company.

Requirements

• A bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communications, Marketing, Creative Arts or a related discipline is preferred.
• Professional qualifications in Design, Brand Management, Creative Leadership or Digital Marketing are advantageous.
• You have a proven record of leading and growing high-performing in-house design teams.
• You have worked in B2B, professional services, technology or corporate settings.
• You have a strong record of briefing and working with external creative agencies on impactful brand and marketing work.
• You have developed, evolved and rolled out distinctive visual brand identities.
• You have led brand transformation and raised brand perception across several channels and audiences.
• You have worked across Marketing, Communications, Digital, Leadership and business teams to build brand and design thinking into an organisation.
• You have used modern design technologies, AI-powered creative tools and new digital platforms to improve design speed and quality.
• You understand brand strategy, visual identity systems, creative direction and design governance well.
• You know creative workflows, asset management, design systems, templates and brand standards.
• You are familiar with AI-driven design tools, generative AI and large language model (LLM) applications in creative work.
• You understand digital marketing, content creation, customer experience and visual communication principles well.
• You can balance strategic design leadership with hands-on creative work when needed.
• You are an exceptional leader who can build, coach and inspire creative teams.
• You build relationships and manage stakeholders at every level of an organisation.
• You turn business goals into strong creative and brand solutions.
• You communicate, present and influence well.
• You use sound judgement and make clear decisions in complex, fast-moving settings.
• You adapt well and handle several priorities in a high-volume, fast-paced business.
• You solve creative problems, enjoy new ideas and care about improvement and design excellence.
• You lead collaboratively and bring diverse stakeholder groups into agreement.

Conditions

Work is hybrid, with flexible working hours.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applicants of all backgrounds.

Benefits

• Pay: a competitive salary package, a share plan, company performance bonuses, value-based recognition awards and a referral bonus.
• Career: career coaching, global career opportunities, non-linear career paths and internal development programmes for management and technical leadership.
• Learning: complex projects, rotations, internal tech communities, training, certifications, coaching, online learning platform subscriptions, pass-it-on sessions, workshops and conferences.
• Work-life balance: an employee assistance programme.
• Health: a global internal wellbeing programme and access to wellbeing apps.
• Community: global internal tech communities, hobby clubs and interest groups, inclusion and diversity programmes, and events and celebrations.