Mike Garcia Merchant Security Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Position: Director, Design 

Reports to: SVP, Creative & Content 

Location: White Plains, NY or Dallas, TX; Open to Remote 

ABOUT THE UFL

The United Football League (UFL) is the premier professional spring football league, powered by the visionary leadership and investment of Mike Repole and Impact Capital, RedBird Capital Partners, FOX, Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, and ESPN. Built on innovation, accessibility, and competitive excellence, the UFL delivers a dynamic professional football experience for players, fans, and partners alike. The league currently features eight teams and is focused on building the next era of spring football, with expansion planned for 2028 and beyond.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Shape the Visual Future of Professional Spring Football. The United Football League is seeking a bold, strategic design leader with exceptional creative judgment and a relentless standard for great work.  We're not looking for another designer. We're looking for the person who will help decide what the next era of the UFL looks like.

The Director, Design is a visionary, strategic and highly collaborative design leader who will shape the visual identity of the league and its eight teams across every major brand touchpoint. This is bigger than making things look great. It's about building a visual identity fans recognize instantly, partners are excited to be part of, and the broader sports industry takes notice of.

From league and team brand campaigns to marketing and advertising, social and digital, sponsorships, merchandise, gameday graphics, presentations and experiential environments, you'll set the creative vision and standards that bring the UFL brand to life. If a fan sees it, there's a good chance your fingerprints are on it.

A major part of the job is building one of the best sports design studios in the industry. Sometimes that means designing - most of the time, it means leading. You'll manage the UFL's external creative agency as a true extension of the internal team - setting the vision, writing strong briefs, giving meaningful feedback, protecting the brand and making sure every deliverable meets an exceptionally high creative standard.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Set and continually evolve the visual north star for the UFL and all eight teams.

• Lead creative direction for design work across marketing, digital and social, partnerships, retail, communications, events and fan engagement.

• Put your creative fingerprints on every major brand touchpoint, including league and team campaigns, advertising, sponsorship and co-branded work, merchandise and retail, gameday graphics, presentations, environmental graphics and experiential design.

• Lead the UFL's external creative agency as an extension of the internal team - setting clear direction, pushing for exceptional work and keeping execution efficient.

• Build and protect scalable brand systems, including standards, guidelines, templates, toolkits and other resources that make great design repeatable.

• Drive consistency and quality across league and team creative while giving each market and team room to maintain a distinct identity.

• Partner closely with Marketing, Social, Video Production, Content, Communications, Consumer Products and Partnerships to turn business objectives into cohesive, integrated campaigns.

• Write creative briefs that make the objective, audience, message and desired outcome unmistakably clear - and inspire great work rather than confusion.

• Give thoughtful, specific and actionable creative feedback that elevates the work and helps agency, freelance and internal creative partners do their best work.

• Prioritize projects, manage budgets and resources, and keep creative moving across multiple initiatives and deadlines without sacrificing quality.

• Improve creative workflows and processes so the team can move faster, collaborate better and maintain a high bar.

• Stay ahead of trends across sports, entertainment, fashion, technology and design - applying what is relevant without chasing every shiny new thing.

• Explore and evaluate emerging AI-powered creative tools and workflows that can strengthen efficiency, creativity and production capabilities.

WHAT YOU WILL BRING

The qualifications listed below represent the credentials necessary to perform the essential functions of this position. To be successful in this position, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• 8–10+ years of experience in brand, design, creative agency, sports, entertainment or consumer marketing environments.

• Demonstrated experience leading creative agencies and multidisciplinary creative teams, with the ability to push partners toward their best work.

• An exceptional portfolio showcasing brand identity systems, integrated marketing campaigns and high-level creative direction.

• Proven experience building scalable brand systems, creative processes and brand governance - not just beautiful one-off graphics.

• Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite, Figma and modern design workflows.

• Strong command of typography, layout, motion, production and visual storytelling, with an obsessive eye for the details fans notice even when they do not realize it.

• Experience translating business and marketing objectives into compelling creative concepts and visual systems; you understand that design is a brand-building and business tool, not decoration.

• Exceptional creative judgment - great taste, a high bar and the ability to clearly explain why something works, why it does not and how to make it better.

• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects, priorities and stakeholders in a fast-paced environment while balancing creative ambition with practical execution.

• Strong executive presence and communication skills, including the ability to present creative concepts and recommendations with clarity and confidence.

• Curiosity and demonstrated interest in emerging AI-powered creative tools and workflows.

• A collaborative, solutions-oriented leadership style, a belief that consistency separates good brands from iconic ones, and the judgment to know when to protect the standard and when to move.

OTHER DUTIES

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

• Location: White Plains, NY; Dallas, TX; or Open to Remote

• Flexible schedule including nights, weekends, and holidays.

• Minimal out-of-market travel (<20% travel)