Design Leadership Jobs in Sydney, Australia
Find your next Design Leadership role at companies that value creative talent
Showing 13 jobs
Senior Design Manager - Highly Complex and Technical Projects
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Bluestone Recruitment 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Lead design management for live projects, pre-construction tenders, negotiated price submissions, and Early Contractor Involvement across multiple sectors. Develop and maintain company design standards, coordinate ESG/ESD, services, and digital engineering input, and support directors with technical guidance and business planning.
Design Manager
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Core Talent 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Lead and coordinate design development for utility-scale Solar PV, BESS, and hybrid projects from concept through construction, including managing consultants and coordinating engineering disciplines and project interfaces. Optimise designs for site constraints, cost, reliability, and performance; review technical and contractor designs, manage network interfaces and risks, and develop standardised approaches to improve efficiency.
Design Manager
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Cgc Recruitment 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Lead design management across multiple projects, progressing designs from planning approval through detailed design and construction documentation while coordinating consultants and stakeholders. Ensure design quality, regulatory compliance, budget and programme alignment, and effective collaboration with project, commercial, and construction teams.
Senior Design Manager - Highly Complex and Technical Projects
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Bluestone Recruitment 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Lead design management for live projects, pre-construction tenders, negotiated work submissions, and Early Contractor Involvement across multiple sectors. Develop company design standards and processes, coordinate ESG/ESD, services, and digital engineering input, provide technical guidance, and support business planning.
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Design Manager
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Design & Build Recruitment 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Manage design and construction project delivery from inception to completion, coordinating clients, consultants, design teams, and other stakeholders. Oversee consultant engagement and documentation, lead design meetings, ensure services applications are lodged, and support the construction team with design queries.
Design Manager
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Cimc Modular Building 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Represent the company on overseas modular building projects, coordinate design requirements with clients and consultants, and lead the in-house team in developing competitive design solutions. Oversee tender proposals, project approvals, technical reviews, cost control support, post-project reviews, and project documentation.
Head of Design
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Guardian Australia 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Lead Guardian Australia’s visual and editorial design team, creating and directing accessible, engaging visual journalism across web, app, and emerging platforms. Collaborate with newsroom, product, engineering, audience, and international teams to shape visual strategy, mentor creatives, and deliver both daily and long-term storytelling projects.
Head of design
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
The Guardian 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
The Head of Design will creatively lead the visual and editorial design team to produce innovative storytelling across multiple digital platforms. They will collaborate with editors, journalists, and developers to shape the visual identity of Guardian Australia while mentoring team members and maintaining high editorial standards.
Technical Design Manager - Bridges, Structures + Ports
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Aecom 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Lead the design delivery of major infrastructure projects including bridges and marine structures while managing scope, program, and quality. Act as the primary interface between design, construction, and client teams to ensure integrated and constructible solutions.
Design Manager - Power
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Beca 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
The Design Manager will oversee the planning, coordination, and delivery of design phases across a portfolio of energy projects. They are responsible for leading multi-disciplinary teams, managing design programs and budgets, and ensuring technical robustness through design assurance activities.
Design Manager | Transport Infrastructure
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Systra 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
The Design Manager will deliver transport infrastructure design packages from concept to construction while managing scope, budget, and resources. They will coordinate multidisciplinary teams and collaborate with stakeholders to ensure high-quality, buildable outcomes.
Head Of Design
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Meshki 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
The Head of Design will define and protect the brand's product handwriting while leading the design team to create commercially successful and creatively distinctive collections. They will partner with cross-functional teams to ensure product consistency, fit, and alignment with overall brand vision and commercial objectives.
Design Manager – Water Infrastructure
🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Aecom 🇦🇺 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
You will lead multidisciplinary project delivery teams for water infrastructure projects, ensuring they are completed within quality, time, and budget constraints. Additionally, you will collaborate with clients and contractors to make key design decisions and support business initiatives.
About Design Leadership careers
Design leaders in 2026 set the strategic vision for design organizations navigating an AI-saturated market. This role requires a balance of craft expertise and high-level business acumen to advocate for design's value at the executive level.
Effective leaders foster a culture of technical agency, establishing systems that allow human creativity and machine efficiency to coexist.
Companies like Stripe and Airbnb seek VPs and Directors of Design who can scale teams and align design strategy with long-term business objectives.
We feature senior leadership positions including Design Directors, Heads of Design, VP of Design, Chief Design Officers, and design team leads at companies like Meta, Google, Airbnb, Stripe, and fast-growing AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. These roles span product design, brand, and cross-functional design organizations.
Many companies offer remote design leadership roles, including distributed-first companies like Notion, Linear, GitLab, and Vercel. AI companies like Midjourney and Anthropic also hire remote design leaders. Some companies prefer hybrid arrangements for VP+ positions.
Most positions require 8–15+ years of design experience with 3–5+ years managing teams. Strong candidates demonstrate strategic thinking, team building, stakeholder management, and a track record of shipping successful products at companies like Figma, Spotify, Netflix, or emerging AI startups. Browse leadership portfolios to see how experienced designers showcase their impact.
Design leadership salaries are highly competitive: Design Directors earn $160k–$240k, VPs of Design $220k–$350k+, and CDOs at major companies can exceed $400k with significant equity packages. AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks often offer premium total compensation. Consult our salary guide for detailed breakdowns.