Design Director

K1 Industries; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-friendly environment

Healthcare coverage

Paid time off and company holidays

Job summary

Nen Creative is seeking a Design Director to lead our brand and design practice in a senior, hands-on role. You will set a high creative bar, guide a multidisciplinary team, and drive strong client relationships while shaping how we approach brand work from concept to delivery.

You'll steer creative direction for identity, web, and launch projects, collaborate closely with our Brand Project Manager, and play a key role in new business by shaping pitches and client conversations.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of experience in brand, design, or creative leadership roles.
• Exceptional design judgment and craft.
• Extremely strong with clients and stakeholders.
• High ownership, reliability, and ability to deliver under pressure.
• Ability to move between high-level strategy and hands-on execution.
• Desire to raise the bar and build a stronger design team.

Responsibilities

• Own the creative quality across identity, web, and launch projects.
• Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary design team.
• Serve as senior creative partner on key engagements with clients.
• Shape approaches for new business, pitches, and presentations.
• Improve critiques, QA, and workflows within the brand practice.

Skills

Creative Leadership

Team Leadership

Client Leadership

New Business

Design Systems

Job description

About Nen Creative

Nen Creative partners with tech startups to launch bold ideas into the world, creating the brands and stories that fuel their growth.

Since 2022, we've partnered with some of the world's top founders and institutions, including Amazon, Andreessen Horowitz, Cursor, Mercor, Listen Labs, Tech Week, Cartesia, and many more.

We're growing quickly and looking for ambitious people who want to help build the company alongside us.

About the Role

We're looking for a Design Director to lead our brand and design practice.

This is a senior, hands-on leadership role for someone who can set a high creative bar, lead and develop a multidisciplinary design team, and build strong relationships with clients.

You’ll oversee creative quality across brand, web, and launch work from early concepts through final delivery. You’ll work closely with our Brand Project Manager to keep projects moving effectively, while serving as the senior creative partner in key client conversations.

You’ll also play an important role in new business — helping shape creative approaches, lead pitches and presentations, and show prospective clients what great work with Nen can look like.

We’re looking for someone who can take meaningful ownership of the practice: improving the work, developing the team, strengthening how we operate, and helping us build the next chapter of Nen's brand offering.

What You’ll Do

Creative Leadership: Own the creative quality of our brand and design work across identity, web, and launch projects. Set the direction, push the work, and make sure everything that leaves the studio meets a high bar.

Team Leadership: Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary design team, helping designers grow their craft, thinking, presentation skills, and ability to work independently.

Client Leadership: Serve as the senior creative partner on key engagements. Lead important reviews and presentations, build trust with founders and senior stakeholders, and help navigate creative feedback and difficult decisions.

New Business: Participate in discovery, shape creative approaches, and lead or support pitches and presentations. Help us communicate Nen's point of view and win the kinds of projects we want to be doing.

Process & Practice Building: Work closely with project management and leadership to improve critiques, QA, creative workflows, case studies, and how the brand practice operates as we grow.

What We’re Looking For

• 5–8 years of experience in brand, design, or creative roles, ideally within a strong branding or creative agency environment.

• Exceptional design judgment and craft. You know what great looks like, can push work beyond the obvious, and are willing to challenge conventions to create something distinctive.

• Extremely strong with clients. You're confident presenting to founders and senior stakeholders, can articulate and defend creative decisions, manage feedback, and build trust quickly.

• High ownership and reliability. You do whatever it takes to get important work over the line, stay calm under pressure, and don't need someone chasing you to make things happen. This is not a role for someone looking for a strictly 9–5 mindset.

• Able to move fluidly between direction and execution. You can think at the highest level about the idea, strategy, and creative system, but you're also willing to get into the details and help make the work better when needed.

• Driven to raise the bar. You want to build better work, better processes, and a better team — not simply maintain what already exists.

Why Join Us

• Help shape the next stage of a fast-growing independent creative studio.

• Take meaningful ownership over the quality and direction of our brand practice.

• Work directly with ambitious founders and some of the most exciting companies in technology.

• Have real influence over how we work, what we make, and the kind of studio we become.

• Remote-friendly environment.

• Healthcare coverage.

• Paid time off and company holidays.