Associate Director, Information Design or Design Strategy; Design Lead

About the Opportunity:

The Associate Director; Design Lead plays a critical role in supporting LINK’s mission to deliver human-centered design and strategic solutions to our clients. This position focuses on leading internal design teams, partnering closely with cross-functional roles to drive consistent delivery of quality and brand appropriate deliverables.

This is an exciting opportunity for a professional in the Design Strategy or Information Design Competency. Ideal candidates will bring a proven track record of creative and strategic expertise to elevate LINK’s business growth and deliver high-quality, human-centered design solutions.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Design Communications, UX Design, Visual Journalism, Visual Communications, Sociology, Psychology or related field.
• 10+ years of professional experience in design consulting, or a related field, with demonstrated success leading, managing, and developing high-performing teams.
• Deep understanding of human-centered design, design thinking processes, and visual design principles.
• Experience driving brand expression and consistency including brand design and formats.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with a comfort in copy editing.
• Proven ability to lead, mentor, and grow design teams (often cross-disciplinary).
• Leader in visual communication and design principles & foundations.
• Experience and comfort designing intelligible information hierarchies and frameworks that support information navigability, understanding, and retention.
• Experience working directly with clients and developing positive client relationships.
• Mastery in applying information design principles and in visual storytelling through various media.
• The ability to navigate ambiguity and provide strategic guidance that brings clarity to goals, requirements, and outcomes—particularly in complex or high-visibility engagements.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating end-to-end design work (concepts, user flows, wireframes, prototypes, visual design, final execution).

Responsibilities:

Strategic & Creative Leadership

• Partner with Project Team Leadership to drive strategic design direction and organizational impact.
• Serve as the primary design point of contact for project team(s) and represent the design-thinking process in cross-functional and leadership forums.
• Identify strategic opportunities within the client space and recommend process improvements to ensure efficient application of the Systems Model.
• Drive visual brand expression, consistency, and standards—covering identity, architecture, and design systems.
• Guide internal teams through design execution by setting clear priorities, decision frameworks, and feedback loops.

Team Management & Development

• Mentor and guide the design process, modeling effective client engagement, deadline management, and creative problem-solving.
• Support onboarding and development of new information designers and design strategists to the project team, providing regular updates to PMs and the competency manager(s).
• Monitor team performance and resource utilization, ensuring collaboration, growth, and successful delivery.
• Participate in recruiting and interviewing candidates for design-related roles.

Project Execution & Quality Delivery

• Oversee design execution across the contract, ensuring high-quality, brand-appropriate deliverables.
• Apply human-centered design and design thinking methodologies to project workflows.
• Ensure consistent use of design assets, libraries, frameworks, and emerging technologies (e.g., AI).
• Communicate tradeoffs and impacts of shifting deadlines and identify opportunities to share team successes.

Work Schedule:

• Full time, 40 hours per week
• Some travel required to attend relevant events and conferences, and participate in LINK team events

Salary: We’re committed to providing competitive compensation, including locality adjustments. The base salary range for this position is $127,000-$182,000.Your final offer will reflect your experience, qualifications, and geographic location.