Studio Design Lead — Hands-On Creative Leader

KiwiRail Freight; Wellington; On-site; NZD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hands-on leadership

Broad visibility

Diverse portfolio

Templates and tools

Coaching designers

Job summary

KiwiRail in Wellington is seeking a Studio Design Lead to run the in-house Passenger Design Studio, delivering complex creative work across digital, print and customer experiences while guiding two Designers.

This true player-coach role balances hands-on design with team leadership, shaping studio standards, templates and AI-enabled workflows to ensure accessible, on-brand output across KiwiRail Passenger brands.

Qualifications

• Significant senior design and creative experience across digital, social, campaign, print and physical customer experiences.
• Strong brand thinking and the ability to translate brand strategy and customer propositions into distinctive, consistent creative work.
• Experience balancing hands-on senior creative work with leading, coaching and developing a design team.

Responsibilities

• Lead the day-to-day operation of the Passenger Design Studio and develop two Designers.
• Provide creative direction, feedback, and quality assurance across studio output.
• Manage intake, briefs, workflow, priorities, capacity, approvals and delivery commitments.
• Improve studio efficiency through templates, reusable assets, digital tools and AI-enabled workflows.

Skills

Senior design leadership

Brand thinking

Accessible design

Team coaching

Education

Relevant tertiary qualification in design

Tools

Video editing

Motion design

AI-enabled workflows

Job description

KiwiRail in Wellington is seeking a Studio Design Lead to run the in-house Passenger Design Studio, delivering complex creative work across digital, print and customer experiences while guiding two Designers.

This true player-coach role balances hands-on design with team leadership, shaping studio standards, templates and AI-enabled workflows to ensure accessible, on-brand output across KiwiRail Passenger brands.