Forward Role Recruitment
Head of Design
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Head of Design
Location: Leeds
Salary: £55,000 to £65,000
Contract: 12-month maternity cover
Working pattern: Hybrid, with a minimum of three days in the office
The Opportunity
We are working with a leading digital agency to appoint a Head of Design on a 12-month maternity cover contract, starting in December 2026.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced creative leader to take ownership of a multidisciplinary design function, shaping creative output across brand, digital, campaigns, and performance marketing.
Working closely with senior stakeholders across the business, you will play a key role in setting creative direction, developing talent, and ensuring consistently high standards across client projects. This is a strategic leadership position for someone who can bring together different creative disciplines, challenge thinking, and deliver work that combines creativity with commercial impact.
The Role
- Lead and inspire a multidisciplinary design team, driving creative excellence across brand, digital, campaigns, UX/UI, motion, and performance creative.
- Set the creative vision and direction across a diverse portfolio of client projects, ensuring work is strategically aligned, distinctive, and effective.
- Collaborate with senior stakeholders across digital, performance, activation, and client services to deliver integrated creative solutions.
- Act as a senior creative partner to clients, presenting ideas, challenging briefs, and building strong, trusted relationships.
- Support new business activity, contributing to pitches, proposals, and the development of compelling creative concepts.
- Develop and mentor creative talent, fostering a collaborative culture that encourages innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Oversee creative quality, ensuring work meets the highest standards from initial concept through to final delivery.
- Manage team capacity, resource allocation, budgets, and utilisation to ensure projects are delivered efficiently and profitably.
- Champion new ideas, emerging trends, and innovative approaches to creative problem-solving.
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About You
- Proven experience in a senior creative leadership role, such as Head of Design, Head of Creative, Design Director, or Creative Director.
- Experience working within a digital, creative, or integrated agency environment.
- A strong portfolio demonstrating creative direction across multiple disciplines, including brand, digital, and campaign-led work.
- Experience leading and developing multidisciplinary creative teams, bringing together different skill sets to deliver outstanding work.
- Confident presenting creative concepts and strategic recommendations to senior clients and stakeholders.
- Strong commercial awareness, with experience managing budgets, resources, project delivery, and team utilisation.
- The ability to balance creative ambition with client objectives, business priorities, and measurable outcomes.
- A collaborative leadership style, with the confidence to challenge ideas, influence decision-making, and raise creative standards.
- A broad understanding of digital design, UX/UI, performance creative, and emerging creative technologies.
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What's on Offer?
- Salary of £55,000 to £65,000.
- A senior leadership position with genuine influence over creative direction and agency output.
- The opportunity to lead a talented, multidisciplinary creative team.
- Exposure to a varied portfolio of clients and projects across multiple creative disciplines.
- A collaborative working environment that values strategic thinking, innovation, and creative excellence.
- Hybrid working, with a minimum of three days per week in the office.
- A 12-month maternity cover contract, starting in December 2026.
This role would suit a commercially minded creative leader who combines strategic vision, strong people leadership, and excellent creative judgment, and who enjoys bringing people together to deliver exceptional work.
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