Design Director

About this Role We're looking for a Design Director to lead design excellence across Valerie's Centre of Excellence. You'll own the visual identity and design systems for every brand in our portfolio, ensuring each one has a distinctive, high-quality look and a design system capable of producing exceptional work at speed and scale. You'll lead, develop, and mentor Valerie's design team across brand, still, motion, digital, and e-commerce design. You'll connect brand strategy, GTM direction, Growth Masters, and Creative Experiments into visual worlds and design systems that help brands grow — from building a new brand from scratch to producing high-volume, hardworking assets across e-commerce, paid, social, and CRM. Success in this role isn't measured by how many assets are produced; it's measured by how distinctive our brands look, how effectively design drives commercial results, and how well the team scales quality without slowing down. You could be a great fit if... • You naturally balance a strong aesthetic point of view with the discipline needed to scale design across many brands. • You enjoy translating positioning, GTM strategy, and creative platforms into clear, distinctive visual direction. • You know how brand worlds need to flex across e-commerce, paid, social, CRM, and marketplaces without losing coherence. • You thrive on building design systems, templates, and working standards that let teams move fast without compromising quality. • You enjoy leading and mentoring designers, giving direction that develops people rather than just correcting their work. • You proactively use performance data to sharpen design decisions rather than treating creative as purely subjective. • You can confidently raise the bar on work before it reaches founders, holding a high standard of craft. • You enjoy building playbooks and repeatable systems that make multiple brands and teams better, rather than just producing one-off assets. • You're comfortable designing for global audiences and understand how visual language shifts across markets like North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Requirements • 8-10+ years of experience in Design, Art Direction, or Design Direction within advertising, branding, digital, or integrated agencies and/or high-growth consumer brands. • Proven experience leading, mentoring, and developing multidisciplinary design teams. • An exceptional portfolio demonstrating a clear aesthetic point of view across brand identity, digital, e-commerce, campaigns, and social. • Proven experience building brands and visual worlds from the ground up. • Experience translating brand worlds into high-quality, high-volume asset production. • Strong understanding of e-commerce, DTC, and digital marketing environments. • Strong understanding of still and motion design, with the ability to direct multidisciplinary creative talent. • Advanced capability across Adobe Creative Suite, including Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. • Highly proficient in Figma and comfortable using Canva within scalable brand systems. • Experience working across multiple brands simultaneously. Bonus Points • Experience working with SMEs, start-ups, or entrepreneurial/high-growth consumer businesses. • Strong experience in presentation and deck design. • Experience working across key markets — North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand — with strong awareness of cultural and aesthetic differences. • Experience extending brand worlds into packaging, retail, POS, or physical experiences. • Familiarity with using AI to accelerate design development, adaptation, and production without replacing craft or judgement. • Experience building reusable design systems, prompts, or templates that can be embedded into AI-driven workflows. You probably shouldn't apply if... • You prefer producing individual assets over building the systems that let a whole team produce them. • You see design as a purely aesthetic exercise, disconnected from commercial or performance outcomes. • You're uncomfortable giving direct, constructive feedback that raises the bar on other designers' work. • You'd rather go deep on one brand than balance design leadership across a portfolio of brands. • You're uncomfortable with the pace and volume required by fast-growing e-commerce brands. • You prefer highly structured environments where visual direction rarely evolves. The best time to join Valerie was yesterday. The next best time is now 🤓 👋 Our Hiring Process We want interviews to be valuable for both sides. Throughout the process, you'll meet the people you'll work with, learn more about the role, and get a chance to understand how we think and operate. Our process typically includes: Introductory conversation with our Talent team <> 30 mins Hiring Manager interview <> 30-45 mins Role-specific assessment or practical exercise (where applicable) Cross-functional or stakeholder interviews <> 30-45 mins Final conversation with leadership <> 30-45 mins We'll always let you know what to expect before each stage. 💪🏾 What You Can Expect Meaningful work with visible impact High ownership from day one Collaboration with experienced founders, operators, and specialists A team that values curiosity, initiative, and continuous improvement Competitive compensation and the tools you need to do your best work Opportunities to grow as Valerie grows Valerie is committed to building an inclusive workplace where people from different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can thrive. We hire based on skills, potential, and the ability to contribute to our team.