Design Lead

Confidential; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential, based in Malaysia, seeks a Design Lead with 7–10 years of experience to guide craft excellence across digital, print, and production for the Malaysia Studio. You will mentor junior designers, review output for quality, and escalate craft issues to maintain high standards.

You will participate in brief reviews, allocate training, and collaborate with project teams to ensure timely, top-quality delivery while pushing for smarter, faster workflows.

Qualifications

• 7–10 years of professional design experience in a creative agency or studio.
• Strong portfolio across multichannel campaigns, digital, and print.

Responsibilities

• Set and maintain creative standards for Malaysia Studio across accounts and output types.
• Review studio output and provide craft-focused feedback to designers.

Skills

Mentoring juniors

Craft excellence

Quality gatekeeping

English fluency

Team collaboration

Education

Graphic Design degree

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Figma

Job description

We are looking for a Design Lead with 7 to 10 years of experience to join the Malaysia Studio team. This role plays a critical leadership role within the studio, guiding a team of designers and serving as the expert on craft excellence, quality, and production standards.

You will be expected to contribute directly to client deliverables; taking on high-complexity design work across creative, digital, and print. While simultaneously being the person in the studio turns to when work needs to be challenged, elevated, or unblocked from a craft perspective. You are both a mentor and a quality gatekeeper, driving the team toward smarter, faster, and better ways of working.

If you are a person who leads through craft, takes pride in the quality of every work that leaves the studio, and has the confidence to hold others accountable to the same standard, this role is for you.

Position Responsibilities

• Set and maintain the creative standard for the Malaysia Studio, establishing a clear and consistent benchmark for what good work looks like across all accounts and output types.
• Review studio output and provide constructive creative feedback to designers.
• Be the first point of escalation for craft-related issues within the studio, stepping in to redirect, rework, or elevate when design quality does not meet the required standard before it reaches delivery stage.
• Sit in on brief or project scope intake sessions, production reviews, estimate effort hours, and creative discussions as the design voice, providing directional input that shapes how the studio approaches and executes incoming work.
• Develop the craft capability of junior and mid-level designers through active, hands‑on mentoring and working alongside them on live projects, giving real‑time feedback, and demonstrating better approaches rather than directing from a distance.
• Identify skill gaps within the studio design team and work with the Studio Director to address them through on‑the‑job coaching, targeted training, or brief allocation strategies that build capability over time.
• Lead by good example and create a studio culture where designers feel challenged to grow, take pride in their craft, quality, and speed.
• Support the onboarding of new designers into the studio by setting clear quality expectations from day one and providing structured feedback during their initial project delivery.

Hands‑On Design Production

• Contribute directly to client deliverables as a Design Lead, taking ownership of high‑complexity briefs across digital and print that require a high level of craft excellence.
• Work across multiple accounts and project types simultaneously, applying deep production expertise to ensure outputs are executed to the highest standard within agreed timelines.
• Review and validate working files, design executions, and final assets before delivery, ensuring all work leaving the studio meets brief requirements, brand guidelines, and high‑quality standards.
• Apply a working knowledge of AI and automation capabilities including tools and workflows developed through the Innovation Lab to improve speed, quality, and consistency of output.

Studio Collaboration & Operations

• Work closely with the Project Manager and Account team to ensure design timelines are realistic, dependencies are flagged early, and production handoffs between brief intake and design execution are smooth and complete.
• Collaborate with the Resource Manager on workload visibility for the design team, providing production‑level input on effort estimates and flagging capacity concerns based on brief complexity.
• Contribute to brief quality assessment alongside the Project Manager or Account team providing a design perspective on whether incoming briefs contain sufficient creative direction, assets, and technical specifications before production begins.
• Participate in studio planning and team meetings, providing the design team’s perspective on workload, capacity, and any creative risks that may affect delivery quality or timelines.

Innovation & Ways of Working

• Stay current with emerging design tools, AI‑assisted production techniques, and automation capabilities relevant to the studio’s output, applying new approaches within your own work and sharing relevant findings with the wider team.
• Identify opportunities within live production workflows where AI, automation, or smarter tooling could meaningfully improve quality, speed, or consistency, and work with the Innovation Lab to test and embed these improvements practically.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of studio design standards, templates, and production guidelines, ensuring the studio’s ways of working remain current, efficient, and scalable across accounts.

Required Experience & Skills

• 7 to 10 years of professional design experience within a creative agency, print or digital studio environment, with a strong portfolio demonstrating senior‑level craft across multichannel campaign, digital, and print production.
• Experience working with retail, FMCG, beauty, fashion, banking, or electronics brands with high volumes of creative assets is a strong advantage.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through craft and mentor designers in a collaborative studio environment; setting the quality bar, giving direct and specific feedback, and developing junior talent through hands‑on guidance.
• Expert‑level proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Firefly) and Figma is a must; familiarity with AI‑assisted design tools and production automation is an advantage.
• Hands‑on experience with quality assurance in a creative production context; reviewing work against brief requirements and brand guidelines, identifying issues before delivery, and driving consistent output standards across the team.
• Clear and direct communicator; fluency in English, written and spoken, is mandatory. Proficiency in Chinese is an advantage.
• A team player mindset; someone who makes the team around them better without needing formal authority to do it.
• A diploma or degree in Graphic Design, Multimedia Design, Visual Communication, or a related creative discipline is preferred.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating multi‑channel campaign work across digital and print is required.