Design Director

SketchDeck HQ; United States; Remote; USD 95,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative firm is seeking a Design Director to elevate creative projects for diverse clients. This role emphasizes collaboration with business development to craft compelling pitches and oversee brand strategies. You will lead a talented team, ensuring design excellence while nurturing client relationships. With a flexible, remote-first culture, this position offers the chance to thrive in an entrepreneurial environment, driving impactful creative solutions. If you have a passion for design and a knack for leadership, this is your opportunity to make a meaningful difference in a vibrant team setting.

Benefits

Health insurance (medical, dental, and vision)

401(k) with company match

Fully remote working

Paid time off that grows with tenure

Annual company retreat

Computer hardware of your choice (up to $1500)

$500 towards your office setup expenses

Performance-based bonus

Qualifications

• 7+ years of creative direction experience in a fast-paced agency.
• Proven ability to lead strategic creative work across various channels.

Responsibilities

• Lead creative pitches and manage high-level design projects.
• Mentor team members and ensure project success through collaboration.

Skills

Creative Direction

Project Management

Client Communication

Design Process Optimization

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Design or related field

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Figma

Google Slides

PowerPoint

Job description

About SketchDeck

Elevate your career working with leading global brands alongside inspiring colleagues in a flexible, remote-first environment. At SketchDeck, we aim to bring great people together to deliver exceptional impact. Through a combination of purpose-driven partnership, technology, and global talent, we help brands realize their limitless potential with quality creative and digital solutions provided on demand. We work with clients ranging from startups to well-known enterprise brands such as Dropbox, Rémy Cointreau, and Asana.

At SketchDeck, our values are more than just guiding principles—they’re the foundation of how we work and grow together globally. We commit to:

• Win as a Team.
• Find Solutions.
• Take Ownership.
• Do the Right Thing.
• Be Human.

Guided by our vision to be the best full-service creative partner, we empower our team to collaborate and innovate from anywhere with a flexible, remote-first culture. Our camera-on, Slack-heavy environment cultivates genuine relationships and collaboration, where we actively seek culture add, not just culture fit.

We’re looking for a Design Director to join our team. This role has four key focuses:

1. Partner with Business Development & Project Managers to build and deliver creative pitches
2. Lead overall design / brand / creative vision within your accounts
3. Lead high-level creative projects
4. Mentor your team to support projects of all sizes and scopes

This role will work closely with the Project Managers to oversee the team's work and success. You’ll report directly to the Senior Director, Creative Impact.

You’ll succeed in this role if you have great client skills, strong and efficient design processes, prioritization and project management skills, and an entrepreneurial instinct. If you enjoy working with clients to elevate their creativity and have experience supporting larger corporate accounts with fast-paced deadlines, this role will be a great fit for you. SketchDeck is an entrepreneurial environment. You’ll be expected to jump into new work and help other teams. Priorities can shift quickly with clients’ condensed timelines.

Ideally looking for Pacific or Mountain Time candidates for collaboration purposes, but we’re open to strong candidates in Central or Eastern Time Zones.

Responsibilities

As the Design Director, you’ll have three (3) areas of responsibilities:

CLIENT PROJECTS: (65%)

• Partner with Project Managers on project scoping and estimates on higher creative projects
• Support larger corporate accounts with fast-paced deadlines.
• Lead kick-off calls (internal/external), creative presentations and problem-solving meetings with clients, Project Managers and Designers
• Feel comfortable brainstorming ideas live during client calls
• Identify which projects could benefit from high-level strategic input vs. more production-focused projects that could be led by a Brand Manager
• Communication/coordination of project needs, timelines, team skills and creative staff availability with Project Managers
• Set up briefs, provide creative direction and inspiration to the design team on projects
• Work with the Project Manager defining workflow and scope of work for the team
• Lead communication from brainstorm to final production
• Provide creative reviews and feedback to designers
• Decide who should work on each project, building collaborative and strategy-led teams for creative projects
• Drive design excellence, knowing when to push creative boundaries, and not settling for the status quo

ACCOUNTS, BRAND STRATEGY AND NEW BUSINESS: (25%)

• Lead the onboarding of new client accounts by reviewing brand materials, setting up brand pages, and ensuring seamless integration into our workflow. Ask the right questions to uncover client goals, setting the foundation for a strong partnership.
• Build collaborative, creative partner relationships with our clients
• Learn and understand our clients goals and how to best support them creatively
• Master clients’ brand guidelines and preferences
• Maintain and improve account-level design quality
• Train designers on keeping brand pages, templates, Adobe CC libraries and brand assets in general updated
• Push existing brands’ creative boundaries and find new opportunities to elevate brands
• Train and mentor Designers and Brand Managers on brands
• Be the authority on brand and design — setting a high standard for the rest of the design team to meet
• Provide creative design and management input on new accounts, setting them up for success
• Look for opportunities beyond the current workload within accounts to grow or expand the services. Suggest how our clients can benefit from SketchDeck, not just pushing during an existing project but on an account level, thinking big picture
• Develop and present proposals and pitches to prospective clients that showcase SD’s breadth of capabilities
• Support Business Development teams with creative concepts for new accounts and work

SKETCHDECK TEAM DEVELOPMENT: (10%)

• Elevate design by making tools accessible to our designers, training them on skills, providing them with design inspiration
• Share responsibility for managing team talent and assist with recruiting as needed
• Escalate issues and important opportunities to the Director of Design
• Keep designers inspired and excited about our clients’ brands
• Provide input and ideas to improve the design team structure, processes, and development
• Lead SketchDeck internal projects (eg: new portfolio work, designer assessments/levels, internal trainings, new designer interviews, etc)
• Maintain effective communication across all teams and set clear goals to achieve

Qualifications:

• 7+ years of creative and art direction experience, including at least 4 in a fast-paced agency environment
• Proven ability to lead strategic, cross-channel creative work—from concept to execution—across marketing, branding, and communications
• Strong communicator with the ability to shape and share a compelling creative vision that aligns with business goals
• Seasoned people leader with a track record of mentoring creative teams, inspiring innovation, and delivering impactful work on time and within budget
• Expert-level skills in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop) and Figma; familiarity with Google Slides and PowerPoint is a plus
• Collaborative by nature—you thrive in team settings and work closely with project managers, developers, and QA to bring ideas to life
• Demonstrated success working with large, enterprise-level clients, understanding their complex needs and delivering standout solutions

We value diverse perspectives and are committed to an environment where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work daily. If you’re excited about a role but don’t meet every qualification, we still encourage you to apply—studies show that women and people of color are less likely to apply unless they meet all the requirements. We’re interested in what you can bring to our team, whether for this role or another opportunity in the future.

SketchDeck is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil status, pregnancy (or pregnancy-related conditions), gender identity or expression, transgender status or gender reassignment, race, color, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, religion or religious beliefs, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other grounds or characteristic that is protected under the law.

If you require a reasonable accommodation during the interview process or employment, please contact us at [e-mail]. We’re here to support you in every step of the process.

We pride ourselves on being a great place to work. By joining the team, you will get:

• Salary range: $95,000 - $110,000 + $5,000 performance-based bonus (discretionary bonus)
• Health insurance (medical, dental, and vision)
• 401(k) with company match
• Fully remote working (that started pre-covid and will continue after!)
• Paid time off that grows with tenure
• Annual company retreat
• Computer hardware of your choice (up to $1500)
• $500 towards your office setup expenses
• To work with a talented team of creatives, business people, and engineers!