Design Leadership Jobs
Find your next Design Leadership role at companies that value creative talent
Showing 112 jobs
FREELANCE DESIGN MANAGER
🇬🇧 Leeds, England, United Kingdom
Brown & Wills Recruitment 🇬🇧 Leeds, England, United Kingdom
The Design Manager will work closely with the site delivery team and report to the design director. They will leverage their expertise in technical support, building control, and design coordination.
Design Manager
🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
Wsp 🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
The Design Manager coordinates multi-disciplinary teams on major property and infrastructure projects from inception through to handover. They are responsible for managing design programmes, resolving risks, and ensuring deliverables meet high quality and regulatory standards.
Head of Design, Commercialisation and Innovation
🇬🇧 Swindon, SN1 1JZ, United Kingdom
Ukri 🇬🇧 Swindon, SN1 1JZ, United Kingdom
Provide strategic leadership for AHRC's work in design, commercialisation, and innovation while managing a small team and key strategic investments. Responsible for delivering the commercialisation strategy and maintaining relationships with external partners and the Design Council.
Design Manager
🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
Arcadis 🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
The Design Manager will lead multi-disciplinary design teams to meet client scopes, budgets, and timescales within the Defence or Technology sectors. They are responsible for coordinating design activities with procurement and construction teams while managing project risks and technical delivery.
Design Manager
🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
Kier Group 🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
As a Design Manager, you will coordinate and oversee design activities across multiple highway and infrastructure schemes. You will manage the complete design process from concept through to construction support and scheme close-out.
Design Manager
🇬🇧 Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Sphere Solutions 🇬🇧 Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
As Design Manager, you will manage and coordinate the design process throughout all project phases, ensuring projects are delivered safely and efficiently. You will liaise with clients, consultants, and internal teams to drive project success.
Head of Design
🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
Capcade 🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
Establish and lead the design discipline, setting the craft bar and building a design system from the ground up. Own the end-to-end user experience for complex B2B workflows, focusing on AI-powered features and onboarding.
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.