Design Studio Lead (Product & Packaging)

-lution; Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

-lution Pty Ltd. is seeking a Design Studio Lead in Melbourne to manage an established team across onshore and offshore resources. The role combines hands-on design with studio leadership to deliver packaging, catalogue, print, digital, POS, and eCommerce assets.

You will design scalable workflows, drive quality, and partner with cross-functional stakeholders to meet seasonal launches with speed and commercial outcomes.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in graphic or packaging design, including studio coordination or traffic management.
• Proven team leadership experience across onshore and offshore designers.
• Traffic management capability in Monday.com or similar platform with prioritisation and deadlines.
• Experience in fast-paced retail and FMCG environments, delivering high-volume creative production.
• Strong technical knowledge of packaging formats, print production, and supplier-ready artwork.
• Collaborative ability across cross-functional teams to deliver customer-focused outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day operation of the studio; triage and traffic work across onshore and offshore design resources.
• Mentor, develop and manage a design team; provide briefs and hands-on guidance on complex packaging files.
• Manage priorities, capacity planning, and delivery timelines across multiple projects.
• Partner with retail, marketing, digital, and merchandising teams to align goals and outputs.
• Translate seasonal direction into production-ready assets and support localization requirements.

Skills

Studio leadership

Team leadership

Traffic management

Prioritisation

Cross-functional collaboration

Quality focus

Tools

Monday.com

Adobe InDesign

Adobe Creative Suite

Job description

-lution Pty Ltd

Preston, Melbourne VIC (Hybrid)

Full Time

Lead the Studio. Shape Products. Build Something New.

-lution has partnered with one of Australia’s leading wholesale businesses to operate and manage its dedicated in-house creative studio.

We’re looking for a commercially minded Design Studio Lead who thrives in high-volume retail, wholesale, or consumer product environments. You’ll combine strong creative capability with studio leadership, balancing hands‑on design with workflow management, stakeholder partnership, and the ability to build and lead a high-performing team delivering quality work at scale.

This is a rare opportunity to help shape a growing studio, leading an established team of onshore and offshore designers and working closely with cross‑functional stakeholders to bring products and ranges to life across packaging, catalogue, print, digital, POS, eCommerce, and retail channels.

You’ll sit at the centre of the studio operation, leading workflow, prioritisation, and quality while remaining actively involved in the design process.

About the Role

As part of this partnership, we’re looking for a Design Studio Lead to work alongside -lution and the client’s Head of Creative, Product & Brand Experience, translating seasonal creative direction into production-ready assets and ensuring efficient delivery across onshore and offshore design resources.

You’ll play a key role in establishing scalable ways of working while maintaining a strong focus on quality, speed, and commercial outcomes.

This role combines studio leadership with hands‑on design and is ideal for someone who enjoys variety and wants to help shape the future of a growing in‑house creative capability.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead the day-to-day operation of the studio, triaging and trafficking all work through Monday.com and coordinating workflow across onshore and offshore design resources.
• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of onshore and offshore designers, providing clear briefs, feedback, and hands‑on guidance on complex packaging files.
• Manage priorities, capacity planning, and delivery timelines across multiple concurrent projects.
• Partner with cross‑functional stakeholders across retail, marketing, digital, and merchandising teams.
• Translate seasonal creative direction into production-ready assets and support localisation and translation requirements where needed.
• Maintain quality and consistency across all outputs.
• Provide hands‑on design support for complex briefs requiring strong technical design acumen.
• Support the development of scalable processes and ways of working.
• Drive continuous improvement and explore opportunities to embed AI-enabled creative workflows.

Types of Work You’ll Oversee

• Packaging and product artwork
• Catalogue and print collateral
• In‑store collateral and customer‑facing marketing materials
• Digital and eCommerce assets
• Surface pattern and artwork application
• Presentations and internal communications
• 4+ years’ experience in graphic or packaging design, ideally including studio coordination or traffic management.
• Proven team leadership experience, with the ability to guide, mentor, and develop high‑performing creative teams across onshore and offshore locations.
• Proven traffic management capability in Monday.com or a similar platform, including prioritisation, scheduling, capacity planning, and deadline management.
• Proven experience within fast‑paced retail and/or FMCG environments, managing high‑volume creative production aligned to seasonal launches.
• Demonstrated experience in retail and FMCG packaging production, with strong technical knowledge of packaging formats, print production, supplier‑ready artwork development, and AU/NZ packaging compliance (mandatory labelling, warnings, and ARL).
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across cross‑functional teams to deliver customer‑focused creative outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent workstreams and competing priorities while maintaining quality and delivery standards.
• Strong understanding of cross‑channel marketing models and experience delivering consistent, scalable creative outputs across print, digital, and retail channels.
• Advanced Adobe InDesign skills and proficiency across Adobe Creative Suite.

Highly Desirable

• Experience in homewares, gifting, or lifestyle categories, including concept and range development, packaging, artwork creation, and production‑ready asset delivery.
• Exposure to Figma.
• Experience contributing to brand systems, templates, or creative governance.
• Experience with AI-enabled creative platforms and an interest in emerging agentic workflows that can be embedded into production‑ready design processes.

About You

You are organised, calm under pressure, and comfortable balancing competing priorities in a fast‑paced environment.

You enjoy working collaboratively, take pride in delivering quality work, and are equally comfortable leading others and rolling up your sleeves when needed.

Most importantly, you enjoy building, improving, and helping teams succeed.