Company Overview
[$COMPANY_OVERVIEW]
Role Overview
[$COMPANY_NAME] is hiring a Creative Director (Web Design) to lead multi-disciplinary teams in defining and executing web-first creative strategy, design systems, and high-fidelity user experiences that drive metrics (engagement, conversion, retention). This senior leadership role blends creative vision, product design rigor, and technical web execution: you will set the visual and interaction standards for customer-facing web properties, partner with product and engineering to deliver performant, accessible experiences, and represent creative strategy at the executive level.
Responsibilities
- Define and evangelize a coherent web design vision and roadmap that aligns with product, marketing, brand, and engineering OKRs.
- Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary team of senior designers, UX researchers, visual designers, front-end engineers, and external agencies; conduct career development, feedback cycles, and hiring assessments.
- Architect and govern a scalable design system for web including component libraries, tokens, responsive grids, motion language, and accessibility patterns; own the roadmap for system adoption across product lines.
- Collaborate with engineering leads to translate visual and interaction specs into production: ensure components are implemented using best practices for React/Next.js, CSS-in-JS/utility CSS, performance optimization, and SSR/edge rendering where applicable.
- Drive data-informed design by partnering with Analytics and Product to define success metrics, run A/B experiments, analyze funnel metrics, and iterate on designs to improve KPI outcomes such as conversion rate, engagement, and retention.
- Lead cross-functional workshops (story mapping, journey mapping, design sprints) to align stakeholders, prioritize user needs, and generate executable design solutions.
- Oversee creative direction for web marketing properties, landing pages, and campaigns ensuring SEO, semantic HTML, structured data, and metadata strategies support discoverability and performance.
- Maintain a high bar for accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA or higher), inclusive language, and localization-ready design; work with engineering to ensure semantic markup, ARIA patterns, and keyboard/assistive tech support.
- Manage external creative partners and vendors; define scopes, creative briefs, brand guidelines, and deliverable quality expectations.
Required Qualifications
- 10+ years of professional experience in digital design with at least 4+ years in a leadership role (Design Director, Head of Design, Creative Director) responsible for web properties.
- Proven track record shipping customer-facing web products at scale, demonstrating measurable impact on core business metrics (e.g., conversion lift, engagement uplift, reduced bounce rates).
- Deep expertise in modern web design and front-end technologies: strong working knowledge of HTML5, CSS3, responsive design, JavaScript fundamentals, component-driven development (React/Next.js preferred), and CSS methodologies (BEM, CSS Modules, Tailwind, styled-components).
- Demonstrated experience building and operationalizing design systems, component libraries, tokenization, and cross-team adoption processes.
- Strong portfolio showcasing web-led creative direction, interaction design, information architecture, and outcomes from A/B testing or optimization initiatives.
- Experience partnering with engineering to instrument analytics, run experiments (Optimizely, LaunchDarkly, Google Optimize, Split), and interpret telemetry (Google Analytics, Segment, Mixpanel).
- Proficiency with design and prototyping tools (Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Principle) and handoff workflows (Storybook, Zeplin, Figma tokens).
- Fluency in accessibility standards (WCAG), inclusive design principles, and internationalization/localization considerations.
- Excellent stakeholder management skills; experience presenting to executives and aligning cross-functional roadmaps.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with headless CMS architectures (Contentful, Sanity, Prismic) and static-site generation (Next.js, Gatsby).
- Experience with performance optimization techniques (Critical CSS, image optimization, HTTP/2, caching strategies, Lighthouse scoring) and SEO best practices (structured data, canonicalization, hreflang).
- Background in motion design, storytelling, or brand systems with cross-channel consistency (web, mobile web, email, social).
- Experience in e-commerce, SaaS product marketing, or subscription lifecycle design.
- Certifications in UX, accessibility (IAAP CPACC/CPWA), or product management are a plus.
Technical Skills and Relevant Technologies
- Design tools: Figma (advanced), Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, Principle, After Effects.
- Front-end familiarity: HTML5, CSS3, Sass/PostCSS, CSS-in-JS, JavaScript/ES6+, TypeScript, React, Next.js, Storybook.
- Design systems: tokens, component libraries, versioning, cross-repo governance.
- Prototyping & testing: Figma prototyping, InVision, usability testing platforms, A/B testing frameworks.
- Analytics & experimentation: Google Analytics/GA4, Mixpanel, Segment, Optimizely, Amplitude.
- Content and delivery: Headless CMS (Contentful/Sanity), Webflow, CI/CD basics, CDNs, Lighthouse.
- Accessibility tools: axe, WAVE, Lighthouse accessibility audits, screen reader testing.
Soft Skills and Cultural Fit
- Strategic communicator: able to synthesize research, design rationale, and metrics into concise recommendations for executives and engineering teams.
- Mentor and builder: demonstrated history of growing design talent, running critique cycles, and embedding design thinking across teams.
- Outcome-oriented: prioritizes work that delivers measurable business impact and defines success metrics up front.
- Collaborative operator: experience negotiating tradeoffs between product, engineering, and marketing while preserving design integrity.
- Curiosity and craft: stays current with web design trends, accessibility advances, and front-end engineering practices.
Benefits and Perks
Salary: [$SALARY_RANGE]
- Competitive equity package and performance-based bonuses.
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans with company contributions.
- Generous paid parental leave, flexible PTO, and paid volunteer time.
- Professional development stipend, conference budget, and mentorship programs.
- Hybrid work model with dedicated creative studio space, ergonomic equipment allowance, and regular in-person design sprints.
- 401(k)/pension plan with company match (or country-equivalent retirement benefits), commuter benefits, and wellness programs.
Equal Opportunity Statement
[$COMPANY_NAME] is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability, age, or any other protected characteristic. We welcome and encourage applications from people with non-linear career paths and those who bring diverse perspectives.
Location
This is a hybrid position based in [$COMPANY_LOCATION]. A successful candidate will be expected to work from the office at least 3 days per week to lead in-person studio sessions and cross-functional rituals; flexible remote days are supported.
How to Apply
We encourage applicants who meet many but not necessarily all of the listed qualifications to apply. Please submit a resume, portfolio link demonstrating web-led creative direction and design system work, and a concise cover letter outlining a recent project where your direction measurably improved user or business outcomes. Selected candidates may be asked to complete a brief design leadership exercise.