Director - Design: Axios Creative House

Quick Take: Axios is a media company dedicated to providing trustworthy, award-winning news content in an audience-first format. We are seeking an experienced Director, Design to lead the strategic vision and evolution of the visual advertising experience across Axios platforms.

At the core of Axios' mission is Smart Brevity®, and the Axios Creative House helps clients leverage these essential principles:

• Audience-first: Create experiences that put the user at the center.

• Consistent: Maintain cohesive visual and brand storytelling.

• Worthy: Deliver content that earns the audience’s attention.

• Human: Engage in authentic and relatable ways.

Why it matters: This role will infuse design sensibilities into the many ways Axios connects audiences with branded messaging across site, social, video, and experiential content. As the Design Director, you'll set the creative vision while operationalizing design functions for scalable, impactful advertising experiences.

The details: In this role, you will:

Design Leadership & Strategy:

• Lead the evolution of ad experiences across web, newsletters, social, events, and video.

• Establish a distinct visual tone and a recognizable creative identity for Axios Creative House productions.

• Guide designers in conceptualizing and executing innovative ideas that push creative boundaries.

Operational Excellence:

• Build and optimize scalable design processes within the Creative House to ensure efficiency and creativity thrive.

• Reimagine campaign deliverables to clearly communicate the creative approach and rationale to clients.

Cross-functional Collaboration:

• Partner with creative and revenue stakeholders to identify opportunities for new product innovations and creative enhancements.

• Provide strategic design feedback to internal and external creators to amplify the impact of branded experiences.

• Act as a design ambassador, effectively communicating visual choices and strategies to stakeholders at all levels.

Go deeper: Ideal candidates will embody an entrepreneurial spirit, a passion for Axios' mission, and have the following skills and qualifications:

• 6+ years of experience in a design leadership role within a media or advertising organization.

• Proven ability to conceptualize and ideate big ideas while guiding designers in bringing them to life.

• Demonstrated design experience across UX, video and experiential. 

• Strong communication skills with the ability to articulate creative decisions to internal and external stakeholders.

• Mastery of industry-standard design software, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Figma.

• Experience leveraging Webflow or Ceros is a plus.

• Available online portfolio showcasing creative expertise and successful campaigns.

Starting salary for this role is in the range of $120,000 - $170,000 and is dependent on numerous factors, including but not limited to location, work experience, and skills. This range does not include other compensation and benefits. Axios' compensation philosophy takes into account cost of labor differentials across the country. Because this is a remote-optional job posting, this salary range takes into account all possible locations within the United States, but candidates will only be eligible for the salary range for their location.

What Axios brings to the table besides salary:

• 401(k) with employer match

• Robust PPO and High Deductible health insurance options on the Blue Cross Blue Shield network

• Employer Health Savings Account (HSA) contribution for the high deductible health plan option

• Dental and vision coverage

• Primary caregiver 12-week paid leave

• Generous vacation policy, plus holidays

• One mental health day per quarter

• Annual learning and development stipend

• $100 monthly work-from-home stipend

• Tele-mental health services through Headspace

• OneMedical membership, including tele-health services

• Personal health advocacy resources through HealthAdvocate 

• Inclusive fertility, hormonal health and family forming benefits through Carrot Fertility

• Access to the Axios “Family Fund”, which was created to allow employees to request financial support when facing financial hardship or emergencies 

• Increased work flexibility for parents and caretakers 

• Virtual company-sponsored social events

• A strong and positive work environment

• A commitment to an open, inclusive, and diverse work culture

 Equal Opportunity Employer Statement

Axios is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, age, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.

This policy applies to all employment practices within our organization, including hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leave of absence, compensation, benefits, training, and apprenticeship. Axios makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.