Design Director

Employment Type: [Not Specified] Location Type: Remote (PST to GMT time zones) Salary: [Not Specified]

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Position Overview

At Metalab, we partner with companies ready to change the world—helping them create products that improve lives, reshape markets, and shift culture.

As a Design Director, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping the quality of our work and nurturing the talent of our design team. You will lead with vision, balancing execution with mentorship to ensure teams deliver outstanding, high-impact design solutions. You’ll collaborate closely with cross-functional partners, driving both business and user value while setting a clear standard for design excellence.

You thrive in ambiguity, bring strategic thinking to complex challenges, and elevate the work through deep expertise in product design, brand, and storytelling. As a leader, you’ll advocate for high-quality, user-centered design and ensure Metalab continues to be at the forefront of digital innovation.

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Responsibilities

Lead by Doing

• Balance leadership with hands-on design execution, working alongside teams to create and ship exceptional work.
• Apply deep expertise in product design, design systems, product strategy, and human-centered design to guide and refine work.
• Actively contribute to raising the bar for design excellence, providing clear and actionable feedback to project teams.

Client Engagement & Delivery

• Partner with Account Directors to align design strategies with client business priorities, ensuring impactful results.
• Act as a trusted design advisor, leading clients through the design process and helping them navigate challenges.
• Present work effectively to stakeholders, securing buy-in and managing feedback from diverse groups.

Strategic Thinking & Project Success

• Apply service design and change management principles to refine Metalab’s design recommendations.
• Work with the Partnerships team to scope design work and provide strategic insights on business development opportunities.
• Build strong client relationships, developing a distinct Metalab point of view on design direction and execution.

Advocacy & Leadership at Metalab

• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performance design culture.
• Partner with Metalab leadership to drive engagement and maintain a strong company culture.
• Hire, mentor, and develop Design Leads, ensuring a strong pipeline of leadership within the design team.
• Represent Metalab in the design community, attracting top talent and new business opportunities.

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What We're Looking For:

Technical Expertise

• UX Design: Define UX quality standards, push teams toward innovation, and drive best practices across research, strategy, and execution.
• Visual Design: Champion high-quality visual execution, identifying trends and emerging technologies like 3D, spatial design, and new tooling.
• Product Strategy: Ensure design work aligns with overarching product roadmaps, release strategies, and market positioning.
• Critique & Collaboration: Guide teams in fostering a culture of constructive critique, both internally and with clients.
• Research: Leverage qualitative and quantitative data to inform and validate design decisions.
• Content Design: Advocate for clear, compelling communication that aligns with brand strategy and user experience.

Leadership & Influence

• Selling Design: Craft compelling narratives that help clients understand and buy into design decisions.
• Vision: Lead teams in developing experience concepts, and balancing business goals, user needs, and innovation.
• Creative Direction: Ensure the strategic and creative impact of all projects, guiding teams through execution and client presentations.
• Systems Design: Define scalable design systems, ensuring usability, adoption, and long-term maintainability.
• Brand Strategy: Confidently lead brand workshops and strategy sessions, guiding clients toward compelling creative directions.

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Requirements

• Proven experience managing and mentoring design teams.