Associate Director, Design

We are hiring an Associate Director, Design - a visionary leader with a strong design background who thrives in both managing creative talent and driving high-quality design execution across various platforms. You’ll combine strategic oversight with hands-on involvement, ensuring that every design project meets the highest standards of excellence.

You will report to the Director of Creative and play a key role in guiding a talented team of designers, overseeing the delivery of exceptional designs for paid ads, emails, landing pages, and e-commerce web design. With your deep expertise in UI/UX and brand design, you’ll empower your team to elevate their skills while maintaining a high bar for creative output and attention to detail.

This role requires a balance of leadership and creativity in a fast-paced, collaborative environment, where you’ll work closely with marketing, product, and development teams to ensure the alignment of design goals with broader business objectives. Your ability to drive creative strategy and manage multiple projects with precision will be essential to your success. Darkroom is a career incubator for ambitious talent looking to operate at the intersection of business, design, and innovation.

3-6+ years of senior-level design experience, with at least 1 year of people management experience preferred. Must have experience in responsive web design.

Digital portfolio showcasing web design and branding skills, including color theory, hierarchy, composition, and typography.

Self-motivated, proactive, and detail-oriented with a strong sense of ownership.

Experience collaborating with developers and documenting designs for development hand-off.

Comfortable with client-facing responsibilities in English, including leading discovery calls and resolving client feedback.

Capable of providing constructive internal feedback and guiding direct reports to improve their work.

Ability to tackle ambiguous problems, understand business challenges, design solutions, and execute them effectively.

Proficiency in Figma, including features like Auto Layout, Components, and Variants, is essential.

Experience with Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator) is required.

Bonus: Experience in e-commerce or hospitality website design, familiarity with HTML/CSS or frameworks like Tailwind.

Darkroom is not a typical agency. We are looking for A players that want to build something great. There is no room in our organization for mediocrity and candidates that are not at the top of their game do not last. We move fast, think deeply, and expect every team member to bring insight and rigor to everything they touch. We hold a high bar for performance, creativity, and ownership — but we also support each other relentlessly. No egos, no red tape — just world-class talent building something remarkable.

We believe in autonomy with accountability , truth over comfort , and outcomes over optics . If you want to build and win alongside some of the smartest people in the business, you’ll thrive here.

Location, location, (or no) location: Remote-first culture with a strong community base. While many roles remain fully remote , employees hired to work from our New York or Lisbon HQs (opening early 2026) are expected to adopt a hybrid working model , including weekly in-office appearances . Hub locations also include the Bay Area, Philly, São Paulo, and Barcelona.

Parental Leave: flexible parental leave benefits to support new parents during this important transition, ensuring time to bond with their families while maintaining work-life balance.

Endless opportunities for growth: Our agency is founded on an interdisciplinary approach, giving Darkroomers insights into services far beyond your job description. Grow your skills and interests beyond your niche and stay at the forefront of the industry through total immersion in cross-functional collaboration.

Darkroom is an equal opportunity workplace—we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national orientation, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.