Design Manager

Zachary Daniels; Warrington; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private healthcare

Flexible working

Birthday day off

Company holiday apartment

Corporate football club box

Job summary

Zachary Daniels is recruiting a Design Manager in Cheshire to lead and develop a creative team during a maternity cover. The role focuses on keeping momentum, delivering great products on time and maintaining strong partnerships with licensing brands.

You’ll manage workloads, provide direction, and collaborate with the CEO, Sales and Marketing to align product launches, withAdobe Creative Suite experience required and a passion for pop culture and entertainment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading design teams and delivering on-brand concepts.
• Excellent people manager with strong organisational and commercial sense.
• Experience coordinating with external brands and licensing partners.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support a team of designers and manage workloads and priorities.
• Provide creative direction and sign-off on products and packaging.
• Run 1-to-1s and weekly team meetings; align launches with CEO, Sales and Marketing.
• Oversee relationships with key brand and licensing partners.
• Coach and develop the team and handle people issues as required.

Skills

People management

Team leadership

Design direction

Cross-functional collaboration

Capacity planning

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Job description

Design Manager | Cheshire | £40,000-£50,000 | 35 hours | Flexible working

Love pop culture, great product and getting the best out of people?

We're working with an award-winning, fast-growing licensed gifting and collectibles business creating products across film, gaming, entertainment, music and sport, working with some seriously exciting global brands.

They're looking for a Design Manager to lead and support their creative team during a maternity cover period. The 2027 product roadmap is already planned, so this is all about keeping the team on track, maintaining momentum and ensuring great products are delivered on time.

What you'll be doing:

• Lead and support a team of designers.
• Manage workloads, priorities and capacity to keep projects moving.
• Provide creative direction, feedback and product/packaging sign-off.
• Run regular 1-to-1s and weekly creative team meetings.
• Work with the CEO, Sales and Marketing to align product launches.
• Manage relationships with key brand and licensing partners.
• Oversee high-profile projects across sports, entertainment and other licensed categories.
• Support, coach and develop the team, dealing with any people issues when required.

About you

You could come from a Design r Product Development background. We're looking for someone who is an excellent people manager, highly organised and commercially aware, with a great eye for design and a genuine passion for pop culture, gaming and entertainment.

You'll be confident managing changing priorities, giving constructive feedback and working with external brands and suppliers. Adobe Creative Suite experience is also required.

What's on offer?

• £40k-£50k
• 35-hour working week
• Flexible working and strong work-life balance
• Private healthcare for employee and family*
• Birthday day off
• Company holiday apartment
• Corporate football club box
• Fun, entrepreneurial and genuinely creative environment

Based in Cheshire, right next to the train station. The preference is for someone predominantly office-based, although there is flexibility around home working and part-time/school-hours arrangements for the right person.

If you're a creative people leader looking for something a little different, we'd love to hear from you!