Design Director

pharmasteps dz; United Arab Emirates; On-site; AED 300,000 - 540,000; Full time

Job summary

pharmasteps dz is seeking a Design Director to steer creative vision and design strategy across products and campaigns. You will champion brand identity, visual systems, and high-quality design outputs through strategic leadership and cross‑functional collaboration.

You will partner with marketing, product, and technology to translate objectives into compelling experiences, establishing standards and processes that ensure consistency and measurable impact across channels.

Qualifications

• Establish design direction and align with brand strategy across projects.
• Translate business objectives into compelling design strategies.
• Lead visual identity, typography, layouts, and design systems.
• Oversee digital experiences, campaigns, and brand assets.
• Provide clear, strategic feedback to designers and partners.

Responsibilities

• Set and communicate a clear creative vision for the organization.
• Lead design teams and external partners to deliver high‑quality work.
• Collaborate with marketing, product, and tech to align on objectives.
• Review major creative outputs and ensure brand consistency.
• Develop workflows, budgets, and review processes for design projects.

Skills

Creative leadership

Design strategy

Brand development

Cross-functional collaboration

Design systems

Visual communication

Feedback and critique

Education

Bachelor's/Master's in Graphic Design or related field

Tools

Adobe Creative Cloud

Figma

Sketch

Job description

Role Description

The Design Director is responsible for establishing creative direction, overseeing design strategy, and maintaining a high standard of visual and creative output across the organization. The role combines strategic leadership, creative direction, design management, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure that design initiatives support broader business and brand objectives.

The position develops and communicates a clear creative vision across projects, products, campaigns, and brand initiatives. The Design Director works closely with executive leadership, marketing, product, communications, technology, and other business teams to translate strategic objectives into compelling and consistent design solutions.

A key responsibility is establishing design standards and creative principles that guide visual communication across multiple channels. This includes overseeing brand identity, visual systems, typography, layouts, digital experiences, campaign assets, presentations, and other creative materials while maintaining consistency and quality.

The Design Director leads the development and evaluation of major creative concepts. The role reviews design directions, provides strategic feedback, approves key creative outputs, and ensures that final work reflects the intended brand positioning and business objectives.

The position also oversees the broader design function, helping establish priorities, workflows, resource allocation, review processes, and collaboration standards. The Design Director works with design teams and creative partners to ensure that projects are appropriately planned, coordinated, and delivered.

Cross-functional collaboration is an important aspect of the role. The Design Director partners with marketing, product, technology, sales, communications, and leadership teams to understand business requirements and ensure that design contributes meaningfully to customer experience, brand development, and commercial objectives.

The role may oversee external agencies, freelancers, production partners, and specialist creative teams. This includes evaluating creative proposals, providing direction, reviewing deliverables, and ensuring that external work remains aligned with established standards and strategic objectives.

The Design Director also contributes to long-term design strategy by evaluating industry trends, emerging technologies, customer expectations, and new creative approaches. The role identifies opportunities to improve design systems, creative processes, digital experiences, and overall brand expression.

Quality management is a central responsibility. The position reviews major creative deliverables, identifies inconsistencies or potential issues, and establishes appropriate review standards to ensure that work remains polished, effective, functional, and aligned with organizational expectations.

The role may also support product and digital design initiatives, including user interface design, design systems, user experience principles, and customer-facing digital platforms. Collaboration with product and technology teams helps ensure that creative vision can be effectively translated into practical digital experiences.

The Design Director represents the creative function in strategic discussions and presentations. The position communicates design rationale clearly, builds alignment among stakeholders, and helps decision-makers understand the commercial and strategic value of strong design.

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, Industrial Design, Digital Design, Fine Arts, Architecture, or a related field is preferred.
• Strong understanding of design strategy, creative direction, visual communication, branding, and design management.
• Proven ability to establish creative vision and translate business objectives into compelling design strategies.
• Strong knowledge of typography, composition, color theory, visual identity, layout, and design systems.
• Advanced understanding of digital design, user interface principles, user experience, and modern visual communication.
• Strong proficiency with professional design tools such as Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, Sketch, or equivalent platforms.
• Ability to evaluate creative concepts and provide clear, strategic, and constructive feedback.
• Strong understanding of brand development, brand guidelines, visual systems, and cross-channel consistency.
• Ability to manage creative workflows, priorities, resources, budgets, and project requirements.
• Strong leadership and team-management capabilities with the ability to inspire creative teams and establish clear standards.
• Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with executive leadership, marketing, product, technology, communications, and commercial teams.
• Strong understanding of creative production, digital content, campaigns, product design, and brand experiences.
• Ability to balance creative ambition with commercial objectives, technical requirements, usability, and operational considerations.
• Strong analytical and strategic-thinking skills with an understanding of customer and market perspectives.
• Ability to manage external agencies, creative partners, freelancers, and production teams.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to maintaining high creative and production standards.
• Ability to identify emerging design trends, technologies, tools, and creative opportunities.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating strategic design thinking, creative leadership, visual systems, and high-quality design outcomes.
• Knowledge of AI-assisted design and emerging creative technologies is welcomed.
• Professional design or creative-industry certifications are welcomed but not mandatory.