Design Director Jobs in Raleigh, NC (NOW HIRING)

We're seeking a Director of Design Services to lead the strategic vision, creative excellence and operational performance of our design department. As a performance marketing agency, we believe great design does more than look good-it drives engagement, improves conversion rates, strengthens brands and contributes directly to measurable business outcomes. In this role, you'll oversee the development and execution of creative initiatives across a diverse portfolio of clients while building scalable processes, mentoring a talented team, and elevating the quality and impact of creative work across the agency.

Our ideal candidate is a strong creative leader, strategist and hands-on executor. You understand that great design isn't one-size-fits-all and possess a deep understanding of how creative impacts performance across paid media, websites, landing pages, email marketing, social media, and other digital channels. You're comfortable collaborating with marketers, client stakeholders, and designers to create work that balances strong creative execution with measurable business outcomes. You thrive in a fast-paced agency environment and are energized by the opportunity to build a high-performing creative department that delivers exceptional results for clients.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Creative Leadership & Vision

• Lead the creative direction, design standards, and overall quality of work across the agency's portfolio of client accounts, ensuring every deliverable reflects both creative excellence and strategic intent.
• Establish and maintain best practices for branding, digital design, website design, landing pages, advertising creative, email marketing, social media assets, print collateral, direct mail, sales materials, and other marketing and communications initiatives.
• Ensure all creative work aligns with client objectives, brand standards, user experience principles, audience expectations and performance goals while maintaining consistency across channels and touchpoints.
• Provide strategic creative leadership during campaign planning, client onboarding, brand development, website initiatives and ongoing growth strategies, helping translate business objectives into effective visual solutions.
• Serve as the agency's subject matter expert on design, creative strategy, visual communication and user experience, providing guidance to internal teams and client stakeholders alike.
• Drive innovation across creative processes, tools, technologies, and design methodologies while continuously identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, scalability and creative impact.
• Collaborate closely with Paid Media, SEO, Web, Email, Social Media and Client teams to ensure creative strategies support broader marketing objectives and channel-specific requirements.
• Stay current on design trends, consumer behavior, emerging technologies, platform requirements, accessibility standards, and evolving best practices across both digital and traditional media.
• Champion a culture of creativity, innovation, and continuous improvement while elevating the overall quality, effectiveness and strategic value of creative work throughout the organization.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of designers, creative specialists and contractors
• Provide ongoing coaching, feedback and professional development opportunities
• Establish clear expectations, workflows, quality standards and performance benchmarks
• Support recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and team growth initiatives
• Foster a collaborative, creative and results-oriented team culture
• Conduct creative reviews and ensure deliverables consistently meet agency standards
  

Performance-Focused Creative Strategy

• Partner closely with Paid Media, Organic, Email, CRO, Social Media and Account Management teams to develop high-performing creative strategies
• Use performance data, customer insights, and testing results to inform creative direction and optimization efforts
• Develop creative testing frameworks that improve engagement, conversion rates, lead quality and overall campaign performance
• Balance brand-building initiatives with performance marketing objectives
• Identify opportunities to improve user experience and conversion through creative enhancements
• Help clients understand the role creative plays in driving measurable business outcomes
  

Client Leadership

• Serve as a senior creative advisor for key client relationships
• Lead creative presentations, concept reviews, and strategic discussions with stakeholders
• Translate client goals and business objectives into compelling creative solutions
• Provide clear rationale and strategic recommendations behind creative decisions
• Build strong client relationships through proactive communication, collaboration and creative leadership
• Support account growth by identifying new creative opportunities and value-added initiatives
  

Operational Excellence

• Oversee creative project planning, resource allocation, prioritization and department capacity management
• Develop scalable systems and processes that improve efficiency, consistency and quality
• Ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and aligned with client expectations
• Manage creative workflows across multiple clients, campaigns and internal initiatives
• Maintain creative documentation, style guides, templates and operational playbooks
• Continuously evaluate and improve department performance, productivity and output quality
  

REQUIREMENTS

• 8+ years of professional experience in graphic design, digital design, creative services, or a related field
• 3+ years of experience leading creative teams, departments or agency design functions
• Strong portfolio demonstrating expertise across digital marketing, advertising, branding, web design, landing pages, email marketing and social media creative
• Deep understanding of design principles, user experience, visual storytelling and brand development
• Experience collaborating with performance marketing teams and creating assets designed to drive measurable business results
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, Figma and other modern design tools
• Experience managing multiple projects, priorities and deadlines in a fast-paced environment
• Strong communication and presentation skills with the ability to confidently engage clients and stakeholders
• Experience developing creative processes, workflows and quality assurance standards
• Strong leadership, organizational and project management abilities
• Passion for mentoring creative talent and building high-performing teams
• Ability to balance creativity, strategy, operational efficiency and business objectives