Head of Design

Head of Design – (12-Month FTC - Maternity Cover)

Location: Leeds (Hybrid - 3 days per week onsite)
Salary: Up to £65,000
Contract: 12-month Fixed-Term Contract (Maternity Cover)

The opportunity
We are looking for an experienced Head of Design to join a growing, employee-owned digital agency on a 12-month maternity cover contract.

This is a broad creative leadership role with responsibility for the quality, direction and capability of a multidisciplinary Design team. You will oversee creative output spanning UX/UI, digital experiences, brand, campaign creative, motion and performance-led design, ensuring consistently high standards across the agency.

You will work closely with senior leadership and teams across digital, development, performance marketing and client services, providing senior creative direction across major client engagements, pitches and new business opportunities.

This is primarily a leadership, strategy and creative direction role rather than a hands-on production position. You will remain close enough to the work to provide senior critique and creative direction, while empowering the wider Design team to take ownership of delivery.

What you will be doing
As Head of Design, you will lead the Design function while helping shape creative strategy, develop the team and maintain a consistently high standard of work.

Key responsibilities include:

Leading a multidisciplinary Design team across UX/UI, digital design, brand, campaigns and motion
Setting and maintaining the overall creative standard across the agency
Providing senior creative direction across high-profile and strategically important client projects
Leading and contributing to creative strategy across websites, digital products, campaigns and performance-led creative
Providing senior direction across UX/UI, information architecture, interaction design, design systems and visual design
Working closely with Development to balance creative ambition with technical feasibility, accessibility, scalability and performance
Leading, coaching and developing designers at different levels of seniority
Managing team performance, progression, capability and development
Overseeing departmental resourcing, utilisation, capacity and budgets
Building trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders and acting as a senior creative partner
Playing a key role in pitches and new business opportunities, helping shape creative concepts, narratives and proposals
Collaborating with other department heads and senior leadership to influence wider agency strategy and capability
Improving creative processes, ways of working and collaboration across teams
Helping the team make effective use of emerging technology and AI to improve creative quality, capability and efficiency 
What we are looking for

Essential experience:

Strong experience in a senior creative, design leadership, Design Director or Head of Design position
Digital, integrated or creative agency experience
Experience leading multidisciplinary designers across areas such as UX/UI, digital, brand, campaigns and motion
Strong creative direction experience, with the ability to guide and challenge work rather than needing to personally execute everything
Experience developing creative strategy and translating business, audience and client challenges into compelling creative direction
Strong understanding of digital experiences and how Design works alongside Development
Experience providing senior direction across website and digital product design
Experience managing, coaching and developing designers at different levels of seniority
Confidence presenting creative thinking and recommendations to senior client stakeholders
Experience contributing to or leading pitches and new business opportunities
Strong commercial understanding of agency delivery, including scope, budgets, utilisation and resourcing
Experience working collaboratively across multiple disciplines and departments 
Desirable experience:

Experience across both UX/UI and wider brand or campaign creative
Exposure to performance-led creative and an understanding of how creative contributes to measurable marketing outcomes
Experience helping shape or evolve agency creative services and capabilities
Experience improving design processes, systems and ways of working
An understanding of emerging creative technology and the effective use of AI within Design 
About you
You’ll be an experienced creative leader who can balance creative ambition with the commercial and operational realities of agency delivery.

You’ll be comfortable moving between high-level creative strategy, people leadership, senior client conversations and the day-to-day needs of a busy Design department. You’ll know when to provide direction and challenge, but equally when to empower senior designers and specialists to take ownership.

You don’t need to be the strongest hands-on practitioner across every design discipline, but you should have the creative judgement and digital expertise to ask the right questions, recognise excellent work and help others arrive at stronger solutions.

As this is a maternity cover position, you’ll need to be comfortable stepping into an established team and leadership structure, quickly building relationships and taking ownership of the function throughout the 12-month period