Design Lead

We're building the future of advertising and are looking for the minds to help us do it.

Darkroom is a digital growth agency helping build the world’s best ideas through the art of creative storytelling and the science of growth marketing. We’ve built out a talented, robust team of 10+ designers, who’s work contributes to all major verticals at Darkroom: Acquisition, Retention, and Digital Products. We are looking for an experienced and talented Associate Director of Creative to join our team.

The Associate Director of Creative is a player/coach designer who will ensure that UI/UX Design, Brand Design, and Marketing Design engagements are delivered on-time and to a high bar of visual quality.

In this role, you’ll report to the Director of Creative. You’ll use your strong design background to be an advocate for our design processes and philosophy, and supervise a cohort of Designers by providing feedback on their work to develop their skillsets across paid ads, emails, landing pages, and e-commerce web design. Your main focus will be people management, with the flexibility to engage in 1-2 hands-on UI/UX design projects as required.

We’re looking for a candidate with deep experience in both UI/UX design and brand design, to apply this experience to management and development of junior designers. A strong candidate has a best-in-class visual eye, clear attention-to-detail, and direct experience with managing designers.

This is a fully remote role operating in the EST Time Zone and all business is conducted 100% in English. Open to candidates in the following locations: Portugal, England, Spain and Ireland.

Management Responsibilities:

• Manage a team of designers, starting with 2-4 direct reports and expanding as the team grows. Provide support in strategy, project management, design feedback, performance evaluation, and handling escalations.

• Conduct weekly 1:1s with direct reports to assess client health, offer feedback, and oversee career development.

• Ensure high-quality work output from direct reports, focusing on visual craft, UX expertise, and meeting deadlines.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including marketers, strategists, developers, and clients, to develop project plans, understand business objectives, and address client issues.

• Refine internal processes for client work in coordination with the Director of Creative. Provide training and feedback to enhance the skills of the design team.

Senior Individual Contributor Responsibilities:

• Lead 1-2 UI/UX engagements as needed, focusing on creating branded e-commerce websites.

• Emphasize branded UI, conversion-focused UX, and clarity in design approaches.

• Present design work to clients, explaining design choices based on effective reasoning and UX principles.

• Manage design projects independently from discovery to hand-off, adhering to timelines and collaborating with developers to ensure feasibility.

• Develop component systems and maintain design guidelines for consistency.

You Should Apply if this Sounds Like You:

• 3-6+ years of senior-level design experience, with at least 1 year of people management experience preferred. Must have experience in responsive web design.

• Digital portfolio showcasing web design and branding skills, including color theory, hierarchy, composition, and typography.

• Self-motivated, proactive, and detail-oriented with a strong sense of ownership.

• Experience collaborating with developers and documenting designs for development hand-off.

• Comfortable with client-facing responsibilities in English, including leading discovery calls and resolving client feedback.

• Capable of providing constructive internal feedback and guiding direct reports to improve their work.

• Ability to tackle ambiguous problems, understand business challenges, design solutions, and execute them effectively.

• Proficiency in Figma, including features like Auto Layout, Components, and Variants, is essential.

• Experience with Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator) is required.

• Bonus: Experience in e-commerce or hospitality website design, familiarity with HTML/CSS or frameworks like Tailwind.

What it's like to work at Darkroom:

Our team is our most sacred asset, and we offer highly competitive salaries and the following perks:

• Unlimited Vacation Policy, and Holidays: Rebooting is one of the most important parts of growth. At Darkroom, you have access to a flexible vacation policy, and 10 holidays throughout the year to keep you recharged and sharp.

• Location, location, (or no) location: Remote-first culture with a strong community base. With Hubs in LA, The Bay Area, New York, Philly, Sao Paulo, Lisbon, and Eastern Europe.

• Endless opportunities for growth: Our agency is founded on an interdisciplinary approach, giving Darkroomers insights into services far beyond your job description. Grow your skills and interests beyond your niche and stay at the forefront of the industry through total immersion in cross-functional collaboration.

Our Hiring Process and Compensation:

The hiring process for this position typically follows four stages, including a take-home skills assessment.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Darkroom is an equal opportunity workplace—we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national orientation, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.