Design Lead - Remote - Contract

Elevate Digital; United States; On-site; USD 110,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Elevate Digital is looking for a Design Lead to own the delivery of design engagements and guide a team of designers to ensure projects are completed on time and within budget. This role balances hands-on craft credibility with strong delivery metrics and client confidence.

You will contribute to pre-sales, scoping, and proposals while partnering with the Creative Director, PMO, and engineering to align design direction with business goals and brand standards.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in digital design (UX, product, or visual) with 3+ years leading projects and mentoring designers on client engagements.
• Portfolio showing complex client work across web, eCommerce, CMS, or product experiences.

Responsibilities

• Own the plan for each engagement, including milestones, dependencies, approvals, and handoffs.
• Draft roadmaps from vision through execution that align stakeholders and guide progress across teams.
• Break scope into workstreams and tasks, assign owners, run standups and reviews, keep status current.
• Assist the PMO in tracking hours against estimates and flag budget/scope risks.
• Join sales calls and client meetings to represent design and support pitches and proposals.
• Translate sales notes into a clear design scope, estimate hours by role, and help with SOWs and proposals.

Skills

Stakeholder communication

Design leadership

Project scoping

Pre-sales involvement

Team mentoring

Education

5+ years in digital design

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Tempo

Figma

Design systems

Job description

The Design Lead owns the delivery of design engagements and the performance of the designers on them. The role supports pre-sales and scoping, plans and runs projects, manages team bandwidth, and keeps engagements on time and on budget, while developing the people on the pod. The Design Lead keeps enough hands‑on craft credibility to guide design direction, but is measured primarily on delivery, client confidence, and team growth.

Leadership Responsibilities

• Manages direct reports, setting goals, assigning work, and providing constructive feedback and timely performance input.
• Oversees the daily workflow of the team and balances workloads across engagements, flagging staffing gaps, overallocation, and hiring or contractor needs to the Creative Director.
• Contributes to the hiring process for new designers, including defining needs, interviewing candidates, evaluating portfolios, and recommending hires.
• Manages designers and other resources to deliver projects on tight deadlines.
• Represents the team's needs, bandwidth, and contributions to the Creative Director and PMO.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Project Management: Own the plan for each assigned engagement, including milestones, dependencies, approval gates, and handoffs aligned to our standard operating procedures.
• Roadmaps and Coalition Building: Draft project roadmaps from vision through execution that align stakeholders and guide progress across teams.
• Task and Status Management: Break scope into workstreams and tasks, assign owners, run team standups and internal reviews, and keep status current.
• Budget, Schedule, and Scope Control: Assist the PMO team in tracking hours against estimates, and escal
• Pre-Sales Involvement: Join sales calls, discovery conversations, and client meetings to represent design, understand goals and constraints, and support pitches and proposals.
• Scoping, Estimating, and Proposals: Translate sales notes and client requests into a clear design scope, estimate hours by role, and recommend team composition. Partner with Sales, the PMO, and the Creative Director on proposals and SOWs, pressure-testing scope for risk and margin before it goes to the client.
• Engagement Kickoff: Hand off signed scopes with captured assumptions, risks, and client context, and review actuals against estimates after delivery to improve future scoping.
• Resource and Bandwidth Planning: Forecast team capacity across active engagements and the pre-sales pipeline, and recommend staffing changes to the Creative Director.
• Client Leadership: Serve as the day-to-day design contact for assigned accounts, leading status meetings, workshops, and presentations, and managing feedback and approvals.
• Account Growth: Identify expansion opportunities within existing accounts and bring them to Sales and the Creative Director.
• Design Direction and Review: Guide design direction in alignment with the Creative Director, give clear directional feedback on the team's and partners' work, and contribute hands‑on design on high‑priority workstreams.
• Brand and Design Standards: Bridge brand and product design so visual identity and design system standards stay consistent across digital surfaces.
• Cross-functional Coordination: Partner with engineering, content, QA, and PMO teams to keep dependencies, handoff, and design QA on schedule.
• Team Operations: Maintain team standards, templates, and acceptance criteria, and run review processes that make work better and faster.
• AI Adoption: Champion AI adoption within the team by integrating tools that improve speed, scalability, and quality without compromising craft.
• Engagements delivered on time, within approved hours and budget, and meeting acceptance criteria at each gate.
• Accurate, current project plans, task boards, and time tracking.
• Weekly status, risk, and bandwidth reporting.
• Clear scopes, realistic estimates, and staffing recommendations that hold up against actuals.
• Strong client confidence, evidenced by renewals and expanded scope.
• Project Leadership: Planning, sequencing, and driving multi-workstream engagements to completion amid ambiguity and shifting scope.
• People Management: Coaching, delegating, and holding team members accountable with candor and care.
• Business Acumen: Connecting scope, estimates, and staffing to budget, margin, and client outcomes.
• Client Partnership: Relationship-building, setting expectations, and articulating design rationale to stakeholders.
• Design Judgment: Sound foundation in UX, product, or visual design to guide and critique the team's work.
• Communication Skills: Clear written and verbal communication, facilitation, and presentation across audiences.

Required Skills and Abilities

• Ability to articulate and defend design decisions to senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience scoping design work, estimating hours, and contributing to proposals or SOWs.
• Experience participating in pre-sales, discovery, and client-facing conversations.
• Proficiency with Jira, Confluence, and Tempo (or similar) for planning, tracking, and time reporting.
• Proficiency in Figma and working with component libraries and design systems.
• Ability to speak the language of design, development, and strategy.
• Comfortable managing both the creative and operational sides of design delivery.
• Experience integrating AI tools into design and delivery workflows.
• Portfolio demonstrating complex client work across web, eCommerce, CMS, or product experiences.

Experience and Education

• Years of experience required: 5+ years in digital design (UX, product, or visual), with 3+ years leading projects and managing or mentoring designers on client engagements.
• Education level required: Proficiency with Jira, Confluence, and Tempo (or similar) for planning, tracking, and time reporting.

Values Alignment

• Client Focused: Builds trusted client relationships and ensures every engagement solves the real business problem.
• Lead with Integrity: Communicates scope, budget, and risk honestly and surfaces issues early to clients and leadership.
• Inspire Excellence: Holds the quality bar and grows designers through clear expectations, feedback, and stretch opportunities.
• Mutual Respect: Champions every team member and creates space for dissenting opinions.
• Build Together: Treats every team as one team, sharing context and credit to deliver the best result for the client.

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times.

Other duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.