Visual Designer Jobs in Columbia, MD (NOW HIRING)

About New America: New America’s mission is to generate big ideas and bold solutions for a new America. We envision an America that represents and serves the public, where institutions work for all Americans, where workers, families, and communities can thrive, and where people are secure from existential threats.

About the role: New America is seeking a Senior Visual Designer and Brand Lead who will serve as the in-house graphic design lead for New America’s creative products, strategic communications materials, select publications, and other digital assets.

The Senior Visual Designer and Brand Lead, as an important member of New America’s Central Communications team, will be responsible for defining and driving New America’s enterprise-wide brand standards. The ideal candidate is a talented, seasoned graphic designer with a strong understanding of design thinking, theory, and branding concepts that can work across a variety of digital and print media.

This role reports to the Digital Director and sits on New America’s Central Communications team. This role will collaborate across the organization to conceive and develop high-impact design products that support our mission, build awareness of New America’s programs and people, and drive engagement across mediums. The Senior Visual Designer and Brand Lead will ensure all design products—including digital and web assets, infographics, social media collateral, print collateral for live and online events, and data visualizations—meet the highest quality standards while keeping on track with tight deadlines.

Responsibilities:

Design Strategy and Leadership – 40%

• Lead on brand identity and graphic design for New America, serving as our chief enterprise-level brand champion, owning the New America brand system and ensuring that final design products adhere to these standards.
• Lead organizational and team knowledge management as it relates to design work, including documentation, templates, and best practices.
• Serve as a strategic partner to digital content creators across the organization.
• Provide graphic design guidance and coaching to Central Communications team members and help to shepherd and inform New America’s broader communications strategy.
• Develop and conduct regular training workshops to build staff capacity—especially for communications and development colleagues—enabling staff members around the organization to be more strategic and effective brand ambassadors.
• Evaluate and explore design-focused, human-managed AI tools aimed at producing compelling and effective graphics that adhere to New America’s brand guidelines.
• Monitor project schedules, providing updates and feedback to stakeholders via email and our project management systems
• Manage or advise external design consultants.
• Manage relationships with print vendors.

Graphic Design – 60%

• Design and manage customizable brand templates for core design assets, such as social media graphics, newsletters, infographics, event graphics, and static data graphics.
• Product design support for digital products, including select website features, email newsletters, website and social banners, and social media graphics.
• Design New America collateral for special projects, such as annual reports, high-priority publications, anniversaries, and brand-building or fundraising campaigns.
• Support the graphic design needs of video and audio production projects, including motion graphics, title cards, lower thirds, thumbnails, social media assets, podcast artwork, data visualizations, presentation graphics, and other branded visual elements.
• Manage the full project lifecycle for all design projects—from conception to final product— identifying any operational challenges impacting this process and recommending solutions.
• Work with Central Communications colleagues to provide design support and guidance for select data visualization efforts.

Qualifications:

Candidates for this position should have the following:

• At least 6 years of professional experience in graphic design, with a focus on brand development
• Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite, especially InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop
• Experience in Figma, Canva, or other similar design-sharing and collaboration tools is a plus
• General understanding of design-focused AI tools
• Strong understanding of typography, layout, color theory, and visual storytelling
• Experience with project management tools like Asana
• A robust portfolio that showcases a solid understanding of visual design principles
• An interest in translating complex policy-related content into compelling visuals
• A strong eye for detail
• Excellent organizational, project management, and time management skills
• Superb writing and communications skills
• Commitment to inclusive and accessible design principles
• Adaptable, solution-oriented, tech-savvy, self-motivated candidates are preferred

Compensation and Benefits: This position is a full-time role with benefits. The annual salary will be between $92,000 – $110,000, depending on experience.

New America offers a highly competitive benefits package that includes health care, dental, and vision coverage; a generous retirement plan; paid time off; observes all federal holidays; and an office-wide closure between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Location: Washington, DC-based candidates are preferred, but fully remote situations will be considered for the right candidate.

How to apply: Submit a resume and links to portfolios of work. Applicants without a resume and samples of work will not be considered. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so early submissions are recommended. 

No phone calls or emails will be answered

Originality and Transparency: At New America, we value authentic voices and intellectual property rights. All application materials, including, cover letters, writing samples, and any other submissions, must be solely your own original work. The use of AI text generation tools like ChatGPT, language models, or other artificial intelligence writing assistants is strictly prohibited for any part of your job application. Submissions found to contain AI-generated content will be immediately disqualified from consideration. Applicants have a responsibility to be fully transparent about authorship and any tools or resources utilized. We celebrate human ingenuity and want to hear your genuine thoughts and experiences

New America is an equal-opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization, thereby creating a culture that allows us to better serve our clientele, our employees, and our communities. We value and encourage the contributions of our employees and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential and drive outstanding results. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies with regard to all aspects of one’s employment, including hiring, transfer, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits, and termination. This is a bargaining unit position.

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