Associate Design Director, Product

twentysix; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

AKQA Amsterdam is seeking an Associate Design Director to shape how brands come to life through digital experiences. You will blend design thinking with digital craft, turning brand stories into intuitive interfaces, interactions and systems.

You’ll work hands-on in Figma, prototype, and help grow the craft of the team with AI-enabled workflows. You’ll lead and collaborate with design, UX, motion, and technology experts, shaping journeys and ensuring the work remains distinctively part of the

Qualifications

• Lead the digital craft across digital products, services and experiences.
• Shape the experience by turning brand, business and human needs into useful solutions.
• Translate brand identity into interfaces, interactions, motion and systems.
• Design by doing using Figma and prototyping tools to explore ideas early.
• Strong understanding of UX and human-centred design in cross-disciplinary teams.
• Create and evolve scalable, brand-led design systems with components, tokens and AI.
• Use AI naturally to improve workflow and explore new possibilities.
• Lead together with designers, strategists, experience designers and technologists.
• Maintain high design quality and mentor junior designers.

Responsibilities

• Lead the digital craft across digital products, services and experiences.
• Shape the experience, turning brand and user needs into compelling interfaces.
• Translate brand distinctions into coherent UI, interactions and motion.
• Hands-on design in Figma and prototyping to explore and test ideas.
• Collaborate with experience and service designers to shape journeys.
• Develop scalable, brand-led design systems for coherence and efficiency.
• Experiment with AI to augment design processes and outcomes.
• Guide and mentor teammates to raise craft and impact.

Skills

Lead the digital craft

Shape the experience

Brand translation to UI

Design by doing

UX & human-centred design

Brand-led design systems

AI-driven design

Cross-disciplinary leadership

Mentoring junior designers

Job description

At AKQA Amsterdam, we use creativity to help brands and businesses move forward, from stories and identities to products, services and experiences. We follow the idea wherever it takes us, bringing different people and disciplines together to make it real.

As an Associate Design Director, you help shape how brands come to life through digital experiences. You combine strong design thinking with exceptional digital craft, turning ideas into interfaces, interactions and systems that feel intuitive, distinctive and unmistakably part of the brand. Your depth is digital, but you understand brand, UX, motion, behaviour and technology, and work closely with experience and service designers to make the work stronger.

You design by doing. You're as comfortable shaping an experience as you are getting into Figma, building a prototype or defining a design system. You use AI naturally to explore possibilities, improve how you work and make the systems you create more effective. Working closely with our Design Director and Creative Director, you bring a distinct point of view to the studio, raise the craft of the work and help the designers around you grow.

ROLE REQUIREMENTS

• **Lead the digital craft. **Establish and own the design direction across digital products, services and experiences, bringing exceptional UI and digital craft from early thinking through design, prototyping and implementation.
• **Shape the experience. **Contribute strong ideas to products, services and experiences, helping turn brand, business and human needs into something useful, distinctive and compelling.
• **Bring brands to life. **Translate what makes a brand distinctive into interfaces, interactions, motion, behaviours and systems, ensuring the experience is as considered as the identity behind it.
• Design by doing. Work hands-on in Figma and contemporary prototyping tools, making things early and often to explore ideas, test interactions and show what an experience could become.
• **Understand the experience. **Bring a strong understanding of UX and human-centred design, working closely with experience and service designers to challenge assumptions, shape journeys and connect creative ambition with how something needs to work.
• **Build smarter systems. **Create and evolve scalable, brand-led design systems, using components, tokens, automation and AI to make them more coherent, adaptable and efficient to use.
• **Use technology creatively. **Make AI a natural part of your workflow and actively explore emerging technologies, using them to generate, prototype, test and uncover new possibilities for the work.
• Lead together. Bring designers, creatives, strategists, experience designers and technologists around a clear vision, knowing when to lead, when to challenge and when another discipline should take the work further.
• Raise the standard. Take responsibility for design quality from first thought through implementation, staying close to the work while mentoring more junior designers through feedback, collaboration and example.

QUALITIES AND CHARACTERISTICS

• **A digital craftsperson. **You have an exceptional eye for interface design and a deep understanding of the typography, interaction, motion and details that make digital experiences feel intuitive and distinctive.
• **A strong design thinker. **You can contribute to the idea as well as its expression, understanding the bigger opportunity behind the thing you're designing.
• **A maker at heart. **You stay close to the tools and would rather make something tangible than spend too long describing it. Figma is second nature, and prototyping is part of how you think.
• **A systems thinker. **You can move between an individual interaction, the journey around it and the larger system behind it, understanding how each affects the experience as a whole.
• **A generous sparring partner. **You understand UX and experience design well enough to ask good questions, challenge thinking and make the work stronger without needing to be the expert in every discipline.
• **Technically curious. **You understand enough about technology to see possibilities in it, work closely with the people building the experience and experiment when you want to know whether something can work.
• **AI-native in your approach. **You actively use AI to make your process and output better, while remaining curious about how intelligence itself can become part of the products, experiences and systems you design.
• **Versatile by nature. **Digital is your depth, not your boundary. You can contribute across brand, product, service and experience and understand how they connect.
• **High standards, low ego. **You care deeply about quality, communicate your thinking clearly, invite other perspectives and invest time in helping less experienced designers become better.

We believe great work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we've adopted a hybrid approach including required in-office days. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

AKQA is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

About WPP

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company - powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.