Senior Design Director: Craft, Systems & Leadership

Worst Kept Secret; Tysons (VA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Worst Kept Secret seeks an Associate Creative Director, Design to own the design output for key accounts while shaping team direction. You will continue to produce work directly and set craft standards, typography, color, and systems that scale across ecosystems and motion.

You will mentor designers, advocate for AI-assisted workflows, and elevate concepts by partnering with Creative Directors to guide future design capability and external reputation.

Qualifications

• Eight or more years of design experience with time spent leading other designers.
• Portfolio built on systems as much as artifacts: identity work, digital product or web, and evidence that what you built held up as it scaled.
• Deep command of the tools and genuine interest in where they are going, including AI assisted workflows.
• The judgment to know which decisions are yours, which belong to the team, and which need the client in the room.
• Experience owning client relationships for design and presenting rationale without retreating into taste.
• A track record of raising the level of the people around you.
• Evidence that you build the kind of environment people want to work in, not just the work itself.

Responsibilities

• Own design output for an account or workstream while continuing to produce work directly.
• Set the craft and systems direction: typography, color, layout, components, tokens, and libraries that hold together and scale.
• Elevate concepts from Copy and Art Direction into exceptional, refined design across digital ecosystems, mediums, and motion.
• Mentor designers at every level and develop the seniors on the team.
• Bring a technical and analytical lens: flag early what will not execute or scale, and offer the better path.
• Foster the client relationship and own most design conversations directly.
• Improve the department's speed and consistency through reusable systems.
• Partner with Creative Directors and the Executive Creative Director on where design capability goes next, and manage up with a clear point of view.
• Build our reputation externally: scout talent, build connections, and represent the agency in the design community.
• Work in the open. Say where things stand before anyone asks, and raise problems while they are still fixable, with an option in hand. Late notice is the failure, not the problem itself.
• Contribute to the department, not only to your assignments. Come to critiques and department meetings with something, take part in internal and new business work, and share what you learn.

Skills

Leadership

Design systems

Portfolio development

AI workflows

Client relationship management

Creative direction

Tools

Figma

Adobe Creative Suite

Weavy

Parametric design systems

Job description

Worst Kept Secret seeks an Associate Creative Director, Design to own the design output for key accounts while shaping team direction. You will continue to produce work directly and set craft standards, typography, color, and systems that scale across ecosystems and motion.

You will mentor designers, advocate for AI-assisted workflows, and elevate concepts by partnering with Creative Directors to guide future design capability and external reputation.