Executive Design Director (Brand & Product)
About the role
Lead by Example
Define and evolve Metalab's product and brand design vision to ensure alignment across teams and client work. Coach senior design leaders and project teams, providing clear, actionable feedback and long-term career guidance. Model creative excellence in your own work—jumping in hands-on when needed and sharing your thinking openly. You don't just direct great design; you do it. As one of the most senior contributors to the work, you bring hands-on design energy to pitches, reviews, and live work, ensuring every output reflects the highest creative standards.
Drive Design Strategy & Execution
Own design quality across the department, offering constructive and actionable feedback to uphold and uplevel creative standards. Guide strategic direction across brand and product design engagements ensuring client and business outcomes are met at every stage. Oversee, create and refine brand systems that work seamlessly into product experiences and vice versa. Push creative boundaries by integrating motion, 3D, and interaction design to create dynamic, immersive brand moments in the context of products. Lead cross-disciplinary reviews, elevating critique culture and building team fluency in storytelling, systems thinking, and craft. Partner with clients at a strategic level, helping founders and executives articulate, evolve, and scale their brands for digital-first environments.
Lead Organizational Impact
Collaborate with design leadership—including the Chief Design Officer—to influence design department direction and design operations. Partner with the Partnerships team on new business pursuits and pitch visionary design approaches. Coordinate team availability/downtime to drive showcases of our best assets to drive marketing efforts. Collaborate with design leadership to shape internal systems for hiring, feedback, and growth within the brand and product design discipline. Represent Metalab in the design community through thought leadership and speaking opportunities.