Turtle is a design company with a passion for strategic team building. We believe that great design is only possible through the work of highly skilled, creative, and adaptable teams. We combine our expertise in team building and in product design to tackle big problems and move our clients forward through the power of design. We believe our best work happens because our team truly believes in our values and brings them to work every day — so we find people who want to be a part of that too. We are looking for a Design Director who can inspire confidence in clients and their team through excellent design team building and effective communication. You have the experience and expertise required to develop processes for vetting, identifying, and managing senior and lead designers. You have strong communication abilities and can quickly build relationships with clients, understand their needs, and guide in the construction and usage of design teams. You are comfortable discussing design and the design process. You have the interpersonal, strategic and leadership skills required to lead teams. You recognize the unique opportunities that are available by joining a growing company where you will play a huge role in helping to dictate the process, methodologies, and specializations that our company will move into. You have experience creating and driving design team best practices.
- Manage a team of 5-8 Lead Product Designers, Design Managers, and Principal Designers
- Regularly meet 1-on-1 with all reports to:
- Ensure they are set up for success on their current client engagement
- Assess their abilities and understand their professional goals and interests; use this info to inform resourcing and utilization
- Provide advice, and training, and connect designers with additional resources to further advance their skillset and career based on goal setting activities
- Report back to the Head of Design on the designers on a regular basis
- Perform quarterly and annual performance reviews for Lead Designers, Design Managers, and Principal designers
- Keep updated on the performance of Junior, Intermediate, and Senior Designers that report to your Design Managers. Helping to address concerns and issues, and escalating to the Head of Design as needed.
- Help create an environment where design teams can be productive, develop new skills, and do great work
- Responsible for ensuring a high quality of design work across all accounts assigned to you
- Participates as needed "in the work" along with project teams - involved directly in early stages of projects, occasionally leading and directing a team on a key project, occasionally producing work to support the project teams
- Actively participate in winning new business and growing existing business
- Supporting proposal writing, team building and resourcing
- Educating clients on Turtle’s services and advising clients on solutions
- Recommends the terms of the engagement to meet client needs
- Anticipates risks and problem areas on accounts, and actively addresses those issues
- Grow our designer network by interviewing and assessing new designers in conjunction with Design Manager, Head of Design and Head of People
- Participate in general resourcing through LinkedIn network building, networking events and other such activities
- Perform strategic design activities such as discovery workshops, project planning, research, brainstorming, design direction, UX and UI Design
- Develop strong relationships with key client stakeholders
- Educates team and clients on design process improvements
- Willingness to be flexible and work on a variety of tasks
- Stand for a high quality of design with all work we create
- Works to continuously improve Turtle's design quality, process, culture and operations
- Embody Turtle’s core values – Bravery, Curiosity, Humility and Adaptability – exemplifying, and training others on how to exemplify, them in daily operations
- Minimum 10 years of industry experience designing interactive solutions for web and apps, preferably in an agency, startup, or tech company
- You are a proven leader in your field, having at least 3 years of experience managing a small to medium-sized design team; including but not limited to helping designers with career growth, achieving goals and setting appropriate targets for each individual team member
- Knowledgeable, with a strong opinion on the design process, current design methodologies and user experience best practices such as common UX patterns, responsive grids, progressive web technology
- Proven strong communication skills; you have the ability to present your work from a strategic/conceptual and technical/execution level
- High EQ; Listen and think first, speak second mentality
- Collaborative; ability to work with internal partners and clients to build great design teams and ensure quality from the highest levels of the organization
- Motivated and responsible; ability to take ownership of accounts and be responsible for managing clients and teams
- Experience in thought leadership and creating resources like articles and guides
- Experience with design strategy
- A strong designer network to source talent from
- Experience with research and leading workshops
- Writing experience (eg. blogging, copywriting)
- Active in a design-related community
- Agency experience
Reporting
- Reporting to: Head of Design
- Will Report to you: Lead Designers, Design Managers, Principal Designers, Senior/Intermediate/Junior Designers (as needed)
- Collaborating with: Head of Product, Client Partners (business developers), Head of People, Leadership
