Senior Designer

Cognition Studio, Inc.; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 119,000 - 145,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Retirement plan

Paid time off

Professional development

Job summary

Cognition Studio, Inc. in Seattle is seeking a Senior Designer to join our Design Division.

You will work across brand identity systems, websites, environmental design, kiosks, and print campaigns, elevating craft across print, digital, and interactive media. A strong portfolio and a BDes from a top program are required; you will grow toward leading bigger work, collaborating with writers, strategists, and illustrators, while delivering studio-quality results.

Qualifications

• Portfolio proves craft across brand systems, websites, environmental or experiential work, and print/media campaigns.
• Craft mastery to lead heavy-lift work while supporting a team midstream.
• Strong collaboration with strategists and writers to move design, strategy, and words together.

Responsibilities

• Design across brand identity systems, websites, environmental design, kiosks, and print/media campaigns.
• Move between print, digital, and interactive while maintaining craft standards.
• Lead as soloist on heavy-lift work and grow to bigger leadership over time.

Skills

Brand systems

Websites

Environmental/experiential work

Print & media campaigns

Collaboration

Leadership potential

Education

BDes from a strong design program

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Figma

AI-assisted workflow (Claude)

Modern team-based tooling

Job description

Science is the source; the brand is the backbone. Most agencies make science look simple — we make it legible, credible, and impossible to poke a hole in, in the room where the decision gets made. We partner with ambitious leaders to turn bold ideas into clear, beautiful, and scalable brands—spanning identity systems, digital interfaces, and communications that move audiences to action.

The Role

The Senior Designer is a high-craft contributor at the center of Cognition’s Design Division. You work across a wide aperture of design, and across the studio itself, moving between project teams and pods as the strong practitioner the work is built around. This is a craft-first seat for someone who is still growing toward leading the biggest work.

You can drop into a project midstream and add value fast, pick up the small things without friction, and carry the heavy lift alone when the work calls for a soloist. You are as comfortable supporting as you are leading a build. What stays constant is the standard of the craft.

The aperture is wide by design: brand identity systems, websites, environmental design, kiosks, and print and media campaigns, across print, digital, and interactive. You will work alongside every practice at Cognition, and couple tightly with the Strategy and Communications teams whose thinking and words the design has to carry. Collaboration is where the work gets sharper.

Cognition works at the front edge of life sciences, for biotech founders, global health teams, and science-led companies. Design here is systems strategy built from the science. Client-facing experience is a plus, not a requirement. What matters most is a strong team member and a growing expert in design.

This role is Seattle-based and sits within the Design Division.

What You Do

Work across a wide aperture

• Design across brand identity systems, websites, environmental design, kiosks, and print and media campaigns.
• Move fluidly between print, digital, and interactive, and hold the craft standard in each.
• Bring range without losing depth. The breadth is what lets you serve very different projects well.

Carry the work at any scale

• Be the soloist on heavy-lift work. Own a demanding build from concept to final craft.
• Drop into a project midstream and add value fast, without needing the full backstory to start.
• Pick up the small things with the same care you bring to the large ones.

Collaborate across the studio

• Couple tightly with the Strategy and Communications teams. The strongest work comes from design, strategy, and words moving together.
• Work alongside every practice at Cognition, from writers and strategists to medical illustrators and animators, and move between their project teams and pods.
• Be the steady, strong team member others want on the engagement.

Grow toward leading bigger work

• Hold a high personal craft standard and begin to influence the quality of others’ work.
• Contribute to how briefs are shaped, and begin to scope your own work.
• Take on more of the arc as you go: bigger builds, harder problems, more of the lead-designer role.

What You Bring

• A portfolio that proves craft across the aperture: brand systems, websites, environmental or experiential work, and print and media campaigns.
• Craft mastery deep enough to be the soloist on heavy-lift work, and agile enough to support a team midstream.
• A real appetite for collaboration. You like working with strategists and writers, and you make the team better.
• A BDes from a strong design program is required. Our work is too complex to bring anyone in below that bar.
• A growing leadership instinct. You are ready to own bigger work and to raise the standard beyond your own hands.
• Curiosity about science, health, and innovation, and the appetite to learn a client’s field well enough to serve it.
• Client-facing experience is a welcome bonus for this role.

Tools & Workflow

• Adobe Creative Suite: proficient across the tools the work demands.
• Figma: expert. This is your primary design environment.
• AI-assisted workflow: Claude-savvy as a baseline, with a working habit of using AI to move from brief to output.
• Modern team-based tooling: comfortable with the workflows that keep a studio’s work flowing across a team.

Salary range: $119,000–$145,000 (FY25/26 Senior band; midpoint $132,000.)

Benefits & other compensation: Medical, dental, and vision; retirement plan; paid time off, sick and safe leave, and holidays; annual professional-development support; performance recognition.

How We Work

• Onsite (in office several days a week), and hybrid collaboration from Seattle with routine client sessions.
• Strategy-first, quality-obsessed, and delivery-minded—balancing creativity with real-world execution in business-forward environments.

• Cognition Studio, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a workplace free of discrimination and harassment. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds and experiences.