Design Director

ABOUT SKETCHDECK

Elevate your career working with leading global brands alongside inspiring colleagues in a flexible, remote-first environment. At SketchDeck, we aim to bring great people together to deliver exceptional impact. Through a combination of purpose-driven partnerships, technology, and global talent, we help brands realize their limitless potential with high-quality creative and digital solutions delivered on demand. We work with clients ranging from startups to well-known enterprise brands such as Dropbox, Rémy Cointreau, and Asana.

At SketchDeck, our values are more than just guiding principles—theyʼre the foundation of how we work and grow together globally. We commit to:

→ Win as a Team.

→ Find Solutions.

→ Take Ownership.

→ Do the Right Thing.

→ Be Human.

Guided by our vision to be the best creative partner, we empower our team to collaborate and innovate from anywhere with a flexible, remote-first culture. Our camera-on, Slack-heavy environment cultivates genuine relationships and collaboration, where we actively seek culture add, not just culture fit.

DESIGN DIRECTOR ROLE AT SKETCHDECK

This role has four key focuses:

• Partner with Business Development & Project Managers to build and deliver creative pitches
• Lead overall design / brand / creative vision within your accounts
• Lead high-level creative projects
• Mentoring your team to support projects of all sizes and scopes

This role will work closely with the Project Managers to oversee the team's work and success. You’ll report directly to the VP, Creative Impact.

You’ll succeed in this role if you have great client skills, strong and efficient design processes, prioritization and project management skills and an entrepreneurial instinct. If you enjoy working with clients to elevate their creativity and have experience supporting larger corporate accounts with fast-paced deadlines, this role will be a great fit for you.

SketchDeck is an entrepreneurial environment. You’ll be expected to jump into new work and help other teams. Priorities can shift quickly with clients’ condensed timelines

As the Design Director, you’ll have three (3) areas of responsibilities:

CLIENT PROJECTS: (65%)

Partner with Project Managers on project scoping and estimates on higher creative projects

Support larger corporate accounts with fast-paced deadlines.

Lead kick-off calls (internal/external), creative presentations and problem-solving meetings with clients, Project Managers and Designers

Feel comfortable brainstorming ideas live during client calls. Think quickly during client conversations, proposing creative ideas, asking focused questions, and adapting recommendations as new information emerges.

Shift efficiently between accounts and tasks, reassessing priorities and communicating tradeoffs as needs change.

• Identify which projects could benefit from high-level strategic input vs. more production-focused projects that could be led by a Brand Manager
• Communication/coordination of project needs, timelines, team skills and creative staff availability with Project Managers
• Set up briefs, provide creative direction and inspiration to the design team on projects
• Work with the Project Manager defining workflow and scope of work for the team
• Lead communication from brainstorm to final production
• Provide creative reviews and feedback to designers
• Decide who should work on each project, building collaborative and strategy-led teams for creative projects
• Drive design excellence, knowing when to push creative boundaries, and not settling for the status quo
• ACCOUNTS, BRAND STRATEGY AND NEW BUSINESS: (25%)

Lead the onboarding of new client accounts by reviewing brand materials, setting up brand pages, and ensuring seamless integration into our workflow. Ask the right questions to uncover client goals, setting the foundation for a strong partnership.

• Build collaborative, creative partner relationships with our clients
• Learn and understand our clients goals and how to best support them creatively
• Master clients’ brand guidelines and preferences
• Maintain and improve account-level design quality
• Train designers on keeping brand pages, templates, Adobe CC libraries and brand assets in general updated
• Push existing brands’ creative boundaries and finding new opportunities to elevate brands
• Train and mentor Designers and Brand Managers on brands
• Be the authority on brand and design — setting a high standard for the rest of the design team to meet
• Provide creative design and management input on new accounts, setting them up for success

Look for opportunities beyond the current workload within accounts to grow or expand the services. Suggest how our clients can benefit from SketchDeck, not just pushing during an existing project but on an account level, thinking big picture

• Develop and present proposals and pitches to prospective clients that showcase SD’s breadth of capabilities
• Support Business Development teams with creative concepts for new accounts and work
• SKETCHDECK TEAM DEVELOPMENT: (10%)
• Elevate design by making tools accessible to our designers, training them on skills, providing them with design inspiration
• Share responsibility for managing team talent and assist with recruiting as needed
• Escalate issues and important opportunities to the Director of Design
• Keep designers inspired and excited about our clients’ brands
• Prove input and ideas to improve the design team structure, processes, and development
• Lead SketchDeck internal projects (eg: new portfolio work, designer assessments/levels, internal trainings, new designer interviews, etc)
• Maintain effective communication across all teams and set clear goals to achieve

Requirements

• 7+ years of creative and art direction experience, including at least 4 in a fast-paced agency environment
• Proven ability to lead strategic, cross-channel creative work—from concept to execution—across marketing, branding, and communications
• Strong communicator with the ability to shape and share a compelling creative vision that aligns with business goals
• Seasoned people leader with a track record of mentoring creative teams, inspiring innovation, and delivering impactful work on time and within budget
• Expert-level skills in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop) and Figma; familiarity with Google Slides and PowerPoint is a plus
• Collaborative by nature—you thrive in team settings and work closely with project managers, developers, and QA to bring ideas to life
• Demonstrated success working with large, enterprise-level clients, understanding their complex needs and delivering standout solutions