Freelance Engineering Jobs in Reston, VA (NOW HIRING)

Job Description:

As POLITICO enters its third decade as the definitive voice in politics and policy, we are reimagining how our brand looks, moves, and feels across every product, market, and platform we touch.

This is a senior leadership mandate to reset and modernize POLITICO's creative function - to rebuild how we bring the POLITICO and POLITICO Pro brands to life, from a mobile screen to a billboard, from a CMS module to a conference stage.

You will lead a lean, senior, technology-native team and own the creative and brand expression of a global business spanning Washington, Brussels, London, Paris and beyond. Close partnership with Events, Marketing, Newsroom and Product is central to the role, and you will be the architect of a design system that scales with our ambition. We are looking for an operator with the credibility, judgment and hands-on capability to lead a genuine transformation - and to shape what the function becomes next.

What You'll Do

Lead and evolve the global Creative and Brand function. Set the creative vision and serve as the steward of POLITICO's brand, driving consistency, integrity, and excellence in how it is expressed globally. Build, mentor, and actively manage a highperforming team, establishing clear roles, prioritization, and a culture of craft and accountability.

Architect the POLITICO Pro design system. Lead the design and delivery of a true, scalable design system - from foundations (typography, colour architecture, grid, iconography, motion) through reusable components to a flexible expression layer. The system must give our markets and cities distinct identities and bring our coverage verticals (energy, healthcare, technology, defense, financial services and more) to life as a visual language - while remaining unmistakably one brand. Every expression must scale from icon to billboard and translate across static, motion and audio. Deliver it as a documented, governed Figma component library that teams across the business can use with confidence.

Partner closely with Events, Marketing, Newsroom and Product. Become the trusted creative partner to these teams - and to Sales - deepening those relationships, raising the quality and speed of what we deliver, and rebalancing the team's effort toward our highest-value needs: product and brand, commercial marketing, and selected experiential, rather than over-indexing on production volume.

Modernize how we work. Build a faster, smarter creative operation: clear intake and prioritization, a flexible freelancer bench for surges and specialist skills, consolidated and modern tooling (Adobe, Figma, Creatopy), and AI embedded throughout the creative workflow to multiply output and quality.

Drive commercial impact. Connect creative directly to revenue, growth and brand equity. Operate to clear, measurable goals, and show the business the value of design in terms it cares about.

What You'll Need

• 15+ years of experience in a creative leadership role, operating at a senior level (e.g., Creative Director, Executive Creative Director, Headof, or equivalent), ideally within media, B2B, technology, or premium brand environments.

• A proven builder of scalable design systems and brand identities that hold up across digital product, marketing, sales and physical/experiential environments.

• Technology-native. Fluent in Figma and modern creative tooling, an early and fluent adopter of AI across the creative workflow, and comfortable building and prototyping - not just briefing.

• A strong cross-functional partner who works hand-in-glove with events, marketing and product teams to deliver.

• Works well with externals. Builds and gets the best from a network of freelancers, agencies and production partners, and manages those relationships to quality, budget and pace.

• A strong operator who has run intake, prioritisation, freelancer management and cross-functional delivery at scale.

• A people leader who manages actively, raises the bar, and develops talent.

• Commercially minded - you instinctively connect creative work to growth, revenue and brand equity.

Bonus points

• Affinity for, or experience in, news, policy or politics.

• Experience with large-scale events and experiential design.

• Multi-market or global brand work.

• Motion and animation direction.

• Experience standing up or partnering closely with design technology / creative engineering.

We value our people. Click here for more on what we offer and what it's like to work for POLITICO.

Let's keep in touch. You can view our list of open positions here. We hope to see your application soon!

About Us.

POLITICO illuminates the forces shaping global power. Since 2007, we have delivered intelligence that anticipates tomorrow's headlines, not reports on yesterday's news. As politics has increasingly become the defining force of our era, our work has never been more vital.

Cabinet secretaries and Ministers start their mornings with our analysis. CEOs shape strategy around our reporting. Advocacy leaders rely on our insights to move policy. We deliver the straightforward facts and clear-eyed analysis they need to navigate the most complex political landscape of our lifetimes.

Our 1,100+ publishing professionals across the world's key democratic capitals-Washington, Brussels, London, Paris, Berlin, Sacramento, and New York-form the world's premier politics and policy newsroom. We tell the story of how power really works by explaining who wields it and how they plan to exercise it, connecting dots others miss and delivering scoops from sources others don't even know exist.

Innovation has always been a core tenet of our story. At launch, we bet that depth would trump scale, that talent would trump traffic, and that politics would become central to modern life. In 2011, we made another bet and launched POLITICO Pro to help decision-makers understand the business of government, transforming both how they shape government action and the business of journalism itself.

These bets have made POLITICO the most successful digital news startup of its generation and the indispensable resource for leaders who shape the future. Today, we are a rarity in media: a growing, profitable, and sustainable news organization.

POLITICO is a subsidiary of Axel Springer SE, a family-owned transatlantic media company headquartered in Berlin and New York. Axel Springer is dedicated to shaping the future of journalism in the free world, believing that a free and informed society is essential to democracy. The company's guiding principles - first articulated as The Essentials by founder Axel Springer in the aftermath of World War II - remain a cornerstone of the company's foundation today. Learn more about Axel Springer.

Posting date:

Title: