Senior Designer — Brand + Interactive, Venture Design Studio

Cactus; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading strategy and design consultancy is seeking a Senior Visual Designer to join their team in Seattle. This role focuses on transforming brand strategies into scalable design systems for clients in the life sciences and global health sectors. You will be responsible for delivering exceptional design rigor, leading critiques, and collaborating with interdisciplinary teams. Strong proficiency in Figma and Adobe CC, along with a portfolio showcasing your design excellence, are essential for this position.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in visual design across brand, systems, and digital/interaction.
• Portfolio showing craft excellence and large-scale systemization.
• Experience in life sciences, healthcare, or global health.

Responsibilities

• Convert brand strategy into identity systems and multi-brand architectures.
• Design responsive UI patterns and component libraries.
• Lead high-quality critiques to mold best in class design rigor.

Skills

Visual design expertise

Figma mastery

Adobe CC proficiency

Strong communication skills

Education

Bachelor's in Design from a top theory-based school

Tools

Figma

Adobe Creative Cloud

Job description

Overview

Cognition is a strategy and visual communication firm specializing in the life sciences sector. Our mission is to help organizations build trust and knowledge in new science, research, and medicine. We excel in creating accurate scientific storytelling, strong brands, and human-centered solutions to generate value in emerging medical technology, research, and healthcare. Our expertise includes biotechnology, venture capital, and global health platforms, products, and services.

Location: Seattle, WA (onsite/hybrid). Level: Senior (7+ years). Compensation: $125,000–$135,000.

About the role

Join a strategy-led design consultancy in life sciences & global health. You’ll pair with Brand Strategy to turn platforms into scalable identity and design systems, bring interaction design rigor to digital experiences, and set the bar for craft and design theory across channels (web/UI, campaigns, print collateral).

What you’ll do

• Convert brand strategy into identity systems and multi-brand architectures.
• Vision and innovation for Design in science, health, and global health applications.
• Desire and drive to work on interdisciplinary teams to demonstrate the value of Design, design methods, and using Design to drive outcomes. Work independent and interdependent to solve problems and deliver solutions.
• Design responsive UI patterns and component libraries; partner with dev on accessible implementation.
• Lead with gestalt principles, excellence in typography, hierarchy, layout, and color; run high-quality critiques to mold best in class design rigor.
• Build/document reusable patterns (Figma libraries, tokens, guidance) and uphold QA across digital and print.

What you bring

• Bachelors in Design from a top theory-based school
• Experience in life sciences, healthcare, or global health
• 7+ years in visual design across brand, systems, and digital/interaction.
• Portfolio showing craft excellence and large-scale systemization.
• Mastery of Figma and Adobe CC; strong prepress & production skills.
• Ability to articulate rationale and collaborate with strategists, scientists, and clients with bold ideas.

Apply

Send your portfolio URL + resume and a brief note on a brand-to-system transformation you led.