DESIGN DIRECTOR - CLEAR UK

We’re looking for a Design Director with strong expertise in creating and delivering digital experiences to join our team in Clear, London. This person is a visionary creative leader who is passionate about inspiring creativity in others, as well as being hands-on in shaping, growing, and differentiating our design and strategy offers and delivering commercial growth for Clear’s business.

Great design has always been at the heart of our offer and is a crucial component of our ability to deliver growth strategies that have clear impact. Design helps us deliver strategies that cut through because they’re truly inspiring and brilliantly simple.

This person will be responsible for leadership and management of the creative department in the London office – overseeing processes, staffing, and career development of the design staff. He or she will help foster the growth of the design discipline across the network and work to foster an inspiring and collaborative creative culture through relationship building along with offer contributions and IP development.

Although digital experience expertise is required of this role, the Design Director will provide a high level of client consultation across all areas of the business with an advanced understanding of and ability to coordinate and guide project development across all creative outputs. They will be experienced in partnering with clients and pulling out additional business opportunities with existing clients, playing a fundamental role as an industry expert in new business development.

About M&C Saatchi Group

M&C Saatchi Group is a creative federation of companies who navigate, create and lead meaningful change for clients. Across five specialist divisions connected through people, culture, data, technology and creativity, M&C Saatchi Group aims to unlock new value for clients and leave a positive impact on the world.

About Clear

Clear M&C Saatchi is a global strategy consultancy with offices in London, Frankfurt, New York, Dayton, and Singapore that specialises in insight-led strategy and design for brand, experience, and innovation. By helping clients embrace complexity and change, and delivering brand clarity, Clear delivers better outcomes and overall business growth.

Our way of working differentiates us – at Clear, we go all in. All in on passion, all in on collaboration, all in on impact. And when you go all in at Clear, you get the exposure, responsibility, and opportunities that will supercharge your personal and professional growth.

We’re committed to an ethos of excellence – championing, challenging, and supporting one another to stretch and grow. No egos here, simply a diverse group of brilliant, creative people working together every day to create real impact for the world’s biggest brands.

Clear’s Values:

• Collaborative – We bring the best mix of talent to every engagement and partner with clients to ensure outcomes are feasible and actionable.
• Inspiring – We are a team of strategists, designers, researchers, thinkers, innovators, and creators. We have feet on the ground in all major markets.
• Entrepreneurial – We embrace diversity of thought, brave thinking and creative problem solving. We face into our clients’ toughest challenges and move at their speed.
• Commercial – Our rigorous approach to everything we do ensures that our big ideas are not only innovative but deliver real impact

About the Role

Specifically, this role will focus on the following key activities:

• Independently lead large, transformational projects – demonstrating exceptional creativity and ability to communicate an overall creative vision that delivers clarity
• Set, share and uphold the worlds’ leading benchmarks for customer experience strategy and design on every client program
• Produce creative solutions that reflect or instill distinctive brand personality and are true to Clear’s values
• Develops strong relationships with clients, senior management, and the other internal teams at Clear
• Directs and inspires other Creative team members to fulfill client needs and elevate the quality of our work
• Provide clear, insightful, and objective critiques of Creative work in connection to the strategic vision
• Effectively manage timelines, outputs, client needs and budgets for multiple projects at once, contributing to financial reporting, forecasting, and profitability
• Help lead cultural initiatives and training to motivate, retain, and build a strong Creative team
• Remain current and communicate industry trends and techniques
• Contribute to business development through new and organic growth     opportunities, generating at least 5x annual salary in margin from new and existing accounts
• Effectively lead pitches and proposals to elevate creative credibility and maximise creative impact to the business
• Evaluate, enhance and evolve internal processes to ensure effective, efficient project development.

About You

This role is a fantastic opportunity to be part of an ambitious business where the opportunities are endless.

Given the impact this role will have on Clear, we’re looking for someone with a stellar mix of relevant experience and skills. Ideally, the successful candidate will have the following experiences and strengths:

• An outstanding track record and body of work that demonstrates visionary creativity, strategic thinking, practicality, and effectiveness across numerous sectors: CPG, retail, healthcare, technology, etc.
• Multidisciplinary design knowledge with ability to direct the optimal brand experience across omnichannel touchpoints
• A degree level qualification in Graphic/Digital Design or Visual Communications
• Minimum 8-10 years industry experience – including a brand, strategy, design or digital agency role – with a concentration in user experience, design strategy, or interaction design
• Expert in digital design software and tools as well as creation of typical outputs such as experience maps, user journeys and service blueprints, interaction models, flows, high fidelity wireframes, and UI/visual design
• Proven ability to effectively incorporate research (including primary and secondary research) in strategic design processes, with rich knowledge and understanding of consumer and brand behavior
• Advanced leadership and management skills, with proven success leading a team
• Proven impact to business development through new and organic growth opportunities, effective in leading pitches and proposals through compelling client engagement and delivery
• A detail-oriented problem solver and powerful storyteller with strong written, verbal, and presentation skills
• A proven team player, driven by delivering results through collaboration and inspiration

What we offer

For the right candidate, we will offer a competitive salary and benefits package which includes 26 days annual holiday, private healthcare, employer contributory pension, life assurance and income protection. We also offer a host of benefits that support wellbeing including subsided gym membership, whilst our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion sees us offer learning opportunities around DE&I, targeted mentoring programmes and the opportunity to participate in a number of active Employee Led Networks and associated events. Finally, this role will be supported with all the necessary personal development required to set someone up for success.

The M&C Saatchi Group UK has pledged its commitment to create a company that values difference, with an inclusive culture brought to life through equity with an 18-month roadmap of business-wide activity across people, culture, industry and society. As part of this, M&C Saatchi Group continues to be an Equal Opportunity Employer which does not and shall not discriminate, celebrates diversity and bases all hiring and promotion decisions solely on merit, without regard for any personal characteristics.

All employee information is kept confidential according to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

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