Lead Designer

About Upstatement

Upstatement is a strategic digital studio that builds brand through digital. We use the tools of design, engineering, and journalism to enrich lives and create a more just society. Our 40-person team works with established leaders (MIT, Nike, Vogue, PBS, Mozilla) and emerging companies who are about to change the world. We are members of the kyu Collective and combine the energy of a boutique studio with the business maturity of an established global innovation leader.

The Role

Upstatement is looking for a Lead Designer who is deeply fluent in the digital space and brings exceptional visual instincts, smart systems thinking, and a passion for creating digital experiences that are as effective as they are beautiful. You're a strong graphic designer who can stretch into brand work, but the digital space is where you're most at home.

This is a role for a multi-disciplinary designer who loves the full design process, from shaping early strategic vision to refining the smallest interaction detail. You’ll lead work across brand, product, and experience design, inspiring clients and internal teams to bring ambitious ideas to life.

As a Lead Designer, you’ll guide both the work and the people around it. You’re comfortable navigating complexity, presenting to clients, giving direction and feedback, and moving projects forward with momentum. Whether creating new systems or working within existing ones, you help teams move from strong ideas to beautifully executed outcomes.

What You’ll Do

• Inspire and deliver portfolio-worthy work. Make every project more impactful than the last. Lead by example as a hands-on designer and collaborator. Make it beautiful, and (most important) deliver what users need.
• Make from the start and see it through. Use your strength as a designer and communicator to move ideas forward early, helping teams see the vision and build belief before everything is figured out. Share work from early exploration through final execution, using design to explore ideas, express strategic thinking, and communicate clear rationale throughout.
• Lead a point of view. Articulate where a project is going and why. Help shape the creative strategy, communicate a vision clearly to teammates and stakeholders, and connect long-term thinking to the work happening right now.
• Own the end-to-end design process. Manage velocity and efficiency at every step, course correcting based on feedback. Follow established practices and invent new ones. Evolve our process to be more thoughtful, effective, and accessible to all.
• Sweat the details. Bring deep care and impeccable execution to every aspect of design: strategy, messaging, brand, colors, typography, imagery — big, small, and everything in between.
• Navigate complexity. Bridge gaps, resolve ambiguity and tensions between clients, users, and teams with empathy and decisiveness. Maintain strong relationships with collaborators and stakeholders to course correct quickly and keep everyone moving toward the same goal.
• Define the why. Develop a deep understanding of each client's goals, business context, user behavior, and opportunities. Establish a clear vision informed by that insight and inspire content creators, engineers, product managers, and clients with your ideas.
• Thread the story. Bring clients on the journey through compelling points of view, presentations, and artifacts. Engage stakeholders with confidence, clarity, and trust. Build long-term relationships through demonstrated expertise, and stay on vision even when challenged.
• Show Up for the Team. Raise the bar. Set a high standard for the work and bring the team along with you — keeping everyone aligned to the core idea while creating space for people to contribute, decide, and grow.
• Communicate dynamically. Share daily status with teams. Deliver concepts to clients. Talk through thorny issues as they arise. Show excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills that build strong relationships.

About You

You have:

• 7+ years of hands-on brand design and project leadership experience at a digital agency or equivalent
• An exceptional portfolio of digital work demonstrating business impact across brands, products, and websites
• Demonstrated experience solving complex problems through elegant design

You are:

• Fluent in digital systems, screens, and device capabilities
• A master prioritizer able to balance multiple projects concurrently
• Obsessed with quality and craft
• Eager to experiment with new ways of working
• Content-first in your thinking and approach
• A thoughtful collaborator and clear communicator
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and complexity

Bonus Points:

• Editorial design experience
• Coding experience

Last but not least: People who succeed here are empathetic teammates who are candid, kind, caring, and embody our core values. We believe that diverse, inclusive teams make the most impactful work. Upstatement is deeply invested in ensuring that we have a supportive, growth-oriented environment that works for everyone.

Compensation

Upstatement is committed to helping our people grow and providing transparent salary benchmarks. This job fits two possible levels in our skill progression framework (something we’d love to share during the interview process). The level depends the candidate’s unique qualifications, to be determined during the interview process.

• Level: D4
• Official Title: Lead Designer
• Department: Design
• Salary Range: $120,000 - $140,000