Head of Design & Experience

Reports to: Head of Brand & Creatives · Location: Open · Type: Full-time

The job in two sentences:

You own how Rest looks, sounds and feels everywhere it appears — paid and owned, digital and physical, across every market. You build the identity system and the guidelines that let everyone else get it right without asking you, and you design the physical experiences we have never been able to make in-house.

The job:

Rest now shows up in a lot of places. Paid social and CTV. Podcast and audio. Our own site, email and organic. Amazon, retail shelves, hospitality. Australia and UAE. Pop-ups and live activations.

Right now, nobody owns the standard that holds all of that together. A scrappy UGC ad and a branded pop-up would not feel like they came from the same company.

That is this job.

Why we are hiring it now:

• More channels. Top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel run in parallel, and CTV and podcast are new. These are brand formats. They need their own world and their own sound, not performance assets resized.
• More surfaces. DTC, Amazon, retail, hospitality, AU and UAE. Every new surface is another place the identity drifts.
• Physical ambition. Pop-ups, activations and event sponsorship are coming, and we have no in-house capability for spatial or sensory design.

What you own:

The design system

• Own the visual and sensory identity: typography, colour, art direction, photography, motion and packaging
• Build a sonic signature for CTV and audio
• Write the guidelines, tokens and templates that let the whole company, our agencies and our production partners execute the brand without checking in first
• Keep the system consistent as we add channels, markets and surfaces

The standard across every channel

• Set and hold the design bar on CTV, audio, OOH, retail and marketplace, packaging, the site, lifecycle and organic
• Brief and direct our external production and agency bench, and hold them to that standard
• Stay hands-on — still designing, still art-directing key visuals

Physical experience

• Define what a Rest pop-up, activation or sponsorship actually is, as a format we can repeat
• Design them end to end: spatial concept, sensory design, fixtures, signage, merchandising
• Make a temperature benefit something a person can feel in a room

Where this role sits:

• You report to the Head of Brand & Creatives and set the standard the whole company designs to, no direct reports but with a potential to grow a team in the future
• You own the standard, not the production queue. Day-to-day design output runs through our in-house production and brand teams; you make them faster and more consistent, not slower
• On pop-ups and activations, you own the format and the design; a dedicated brand marketing manager owns vendors, timelines, budgets and on-the-ground delivery — you build these together

First 12 months

• The identity system refreshed and documented: guidelines, tokens and templates live, and actually used by internal teams and external partners without you in the room
• A sonic signature shipped with the first CTV and podcast flights
• The first Rest pop-up or activation format defined, designed and delivered — documented well enough to repeat
• Retail and marketplace surfaces (Amazon, shelf, AU/UAE) brought visibly onto the same system
• The agency and production bench briefed against the new guidelines, with design QA in place

Who you are

• 8+ years in brand design or creative direction, with real ownership of an identity system
• Proven work in both campaign and channel design and physical work — retail, pop-up, event or packaging
• Still hands-on: designing and art-directing, not only reviewing
• Comfortable directing agencies, production houses and fabrication partners
• Consumer category experience: DTC, beauty, wellness, home, hospitality or apparel
• AI-forward: you already use AI daily in your design and direction workflow — exploration, iteration, production — and you are curious about what it can take off your plate next

Bonus points

• Retail and wholesale design — shelf, endcap, partner guidelines
• Multi-market work where one identity had to flex without fragmenting
• CTV, broadcast or sonic identity work
• Motion or 3D done in-house rather than outsourced
• Has grown a design function from one person into a small team

This role is probably not for you if…

• Your instinct is to make everything premium — our rawest creative outperforms, and the system has to hold it
• You want to review work rather than make it — this role still designs and still art-directs
• You need a big in-house team to execute — the leverage here is guidelines, templates and a well-directed external bench
• You want to stay behind a screen — physical builds and activations need you in the room

About Rest

We're a global, remote-first sleep brand redefining comfort through innovation in form, material, and technology. Our mission is simple: Ensure Everyone Gets a Good Rest. This role touches every market we operate in — North America, Australia and the UAE — working with a team distributed across the world.

What we offer

• A fast-paced, collaborative environment that fosters innovation
• Direct impact on creative direction and business growth — you define how a growing global brand shows up everywhere
• Work-from-anywhere flexibility — our fully remote workforce empowers you to create a workspace that suits your lifestyle
• Continuous learning and career development opportunities
• A team that values diversity, inclusion, and different perspectives

Belonging at Rest

Diversity drives better products and better decisions. Our mission to ensure everyone gets a good rest extends beyond our products — it shapes our culture. We are committed to an inclusive workplace where every team member feels valued, supported and empowered, and we encourage applications from people of all communities and backgrounds.