Design Director

Publicis Groupe; Cincinnati, Northern (OH, KY); Hybrid; USD 129,000 - 168,000; Full time

Job summary

Publicis Groupe design leadership seeks a Senior Design Director to guide craft and design intent across major accounts and teams. You will shape visual strategy, mentor senior designers, and ensure cohesive execution.

You will lead design direction, elevate quality, and partner with CDs/VPs to align design with client goals. This role emphasizes storytelling, typography, and modern tools, including AI-driven processes.

Responsibilities

• Owns the business impact of creative decisions—driving revenue, brand growth, and client trust (in partnership with VP leadership)
• Leads senior client relationships as a trusted creative partner across disciplines
• Owns and grows major scopes of work, identifying opportunities to expand impact and business
• Holds teams accountable for delivering work that performs against business goals
• Connects creative ambition to strategy, timelines, and business realities
• Defines the visual direction, ensuring design is strategically aligned, distinctive, and executable.
• Shapes design thinking early to align teams around a clear visual vision.
• Makes clear design decisions when direction or execution lacks clarity.
• Makes final design decisions on high-impact work, ensuring alignment to creative vision and craft excellence.
• Elevates the quality, consistency, and cohesion of design across every touchpoint.
• Establishes and protects standards for typography, composition, color, motion, and visual storytelling,
• Pushes work beyond expectations while grounding it in brand, platform, and audience needs.
• Partners closely with Creative Directors, ACDs, and cross-functional teams.
• Empowers ACDs and senior designers through clear direction, feedback, and coaching.
• Removes obstacles so teams can focus on delivering their best work.
• Leads design critiques, creative reviews, and high-impact client presentations.
• Owns the visual narrative in executive, client, and internal leadership forums.
• Shapes presentation materials and visual stories that inspire confidence and buy-in.
• Applies AI, emerging technology, and modern design tools to improve creative quality and speed.
• Encourages innovation while maintaining uncompromising standards of craft.
• Makes final design decisions, ensuring every deliverable meets the highest standard of design excellence.
• Develops ACDs and senior creatives into confident leaders through coaching, feedback, and real responsibility
• Sets clear expectations for creative quality, ownership, and decision-making
• Creates opportunities for team members to grow through stretch assignments and cross-functional exposure
• Holds teams accountable while creating an environment where they can succeed
• Advocates for talent growth, recognition, and promotion in partnership with leadership

Job description

Company description

We're a team of makers and dreamers, turning strategic ideas into flawless retail executions. We collaborate closely with our clients to elevate the expected and embrace the new, the next, and the complex.

Nothing is impossible— If you can shop it, we can do it.

Overview

Design Directors are senior creative leaders responsible forleading the craft and overall design intent for the creative teams. They translate ideas into strong design direction, guide teams through design, and ensure ideas are elevated, cohesive, and effective across channels.

DD’s own the design output and overall craft of the work, partnering closely with CDs to align design vision to the broader idea and client goals. They are accountable for the quality of the work, and the overall design aesthetic ensuring nothing is released that doesn’t meet the highest bar of craft and quality.

Responsibilities

Business

• Owns the business impact of creative decisions—driving revenue, brand growth, and client trust (in partnership with VP leadership)
• Leads senior client relationships as a trusted creative partner across disciplines
• Owns and grows major scopes of work, identifying opportunities to expand impact and business
• Holds teams accountable for delivering work that performs against business goals
• Connects creative ambition to strategy, timelines, and business realities

Work

Leads design direction across priority work and key new business opportunities

• Defines the visual direction, ensuring design is strategically aligned, distinctive, and executable.
• Shapes design thinking early to align teams around a clear visual vision.
• Makes clear design decisions when direction or execution lacks clarity.

Drives exceptional design execution

• Makes final design decisions on high-impact work, ensuring alignment to creative vision and craft excellence.
• Elevates the quality, consistency, and cohesion of design across every touchpoint.
• Establishes and protects standards for typography, composition, color, motion, and visual storytelling,
• Pushes work beyond expectations while grounding it in brand, platform, and audience needs.

Builds strong creative partnerships

• Partners closely with Creative Directors, ACDs, and cross-functional teams.
• Empowers ACDs and senior designers through clear direction, feedback, and coaching.
• Removes obstacles so teams can focus on delivering their best work.

Leads visual storytelling and presentations

• Leads design critiques, creative reviews, and high-impact client presentations.
• Owns the visual narrative in executive, client, and internal leadership forums.
• Shapes presentation materials and visual stories that inspire confidence and buy-in.

Champions modern design practices

• Applies AI, emerging technology, and modern design tools to improve creative quality and speed.
• Encourages innovation while maintaining uncompromising standards of craft.
• Makes final design decisions, ensuring every deliverable meets the highest standard of design excellence.

People

• Develops ACDs and senior creatives into confident leaders through coaching, feedback, and real responsibility
• Sets clear expectations for creative quality, ownership, and decision-making
• Creates opportunities for team members to grow through stretch assignments and cross-functional exposure
• Holds teams accountable while creating an environment where they can succeed
• Advocates for talent growth, recognition, and promotion in partnership with leadership

Qualifications

Success Looks Like

• High-quality commerce design that deliver real results for clients and brands
• Strong, motivated teams producing consistent design excellence
• Trusted client relationships and strong partnerships across creative, cross-functional, and inter-agency teams
• Design output that drives momentum, impact,
  and business growth
• Sought out to help drive new business wins and growth through trusted design leadership and partnership with CD/VP leadership

Additional information

The Power of One starts with our people! To do powerful things, we offer powerful resources.Our best-in-class wellness and benefits offerings include:

Paid Family Care for parents and caregivers for 12 weeks or more
Monetary assistance and support for Adoption, Surrogacy and Fertility
Monetary assistance and support for pet adoption
Employee Assistance Programs and Health/Wellness/Comfort reimbursements to help you invest in your future and work/life balance
Tuition Assistance
Paid time off that includes Flexible Time off Vacation, Annual Sick Days, Volunteer Days, Holiday and Identity days, and more
Matching Gifts programs
Flexible working arrangements
‘Work Your World’ Program encouraging employees to work from anywhere Publicis Groupe has an office for up to 6 weeks a year (based upon eligibility)
Business Resource Groups that support multiple affinities and alliances

The benefits offerings listed are available to eligible U.S. Based employees, are reviewed on an annual basis, and are governed by the terms of the applicable plan documents.

We also offer medical and voluntary benefits to our freelancers and temporary employees. Voluntary benefit options include supplemental medical insurance, transportation, and parking benefits, legal benefits, pet insurance, and auto and home insurance. You must be actively employed for 90 consecutive calendar days in order to be eligible for Publicis medical and voluntary benefits.

Saatchi & Saatchi X is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our employment decisions are made without regard to actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability, medical condition as defined by applicable state law, genetic information, marital status, military service and veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws and ordinances.

If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact [e-mail].

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Compensation Range: USD $129,485.00 - USD $168,340.00/Annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third‑party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 9/21/2026.