Maternity Cover | 6-Month Fixed-Term Contract
The Role
We’re looking for an experienced Design Director to join our team on a six-month fixed-term contract, providing maternity cover and leading our UX and UI design function.
This is a senior, hands-on leadership role for someone who can quickly step into an established team, provide clear creative direction, and ensure we continue to deliver excellent digital experiences across a varied portfolio of clients.
You’ll oversee our UX and UI teams, working closely with our Creative Director, Technical Director, Project Management and Client teams to maintain a consistently high standard of work from initial discovery and UX through to final UI design and development.
What You’ll Be Responsible For
Design Leadership
- Lead and oversee the day-to-day running of the UX and UI design team.
- Maintain a high bar for UX, UI and overall digital design quality.
- Provide clear creative direction, feedback and mentorship to designers.
- Lead internal design reviews and ensure work is ready for client presentation.
- Ensure consistency in design thinking, processes and standards across projects.
People & Team Management
- Manage, support and motivate the UX/UI team.
- Allocate design resources across projects in collaboration with Project Management.
- Identify capacity issues, project risks and skills gaps early.
- Support designers in prioritising workloads and resolving challenges.
- Maintain regular 1:1s and provide clear feedback and guidance.
Project & Client Leadership
- Provide senior design oversight across key client projects.
- Participate in discovery, workshops and strategic design discussions.
- Present and defend design thinking confidently with senior client stakeholders.
- Help teams translate business objectives, user needs and research into effective digital experiences.
- Step into projects directly where senior design input is required.
UX & UI Excellence
- Champion user-centred design and evidence-led decision making.
- Ensure UX thinking informs projects from information architecture and user journeys through to prototypes and final interfaces.
- Maintain strong standards around responsive design, accessibility and design systems.
- Ensure designs are practical, scalable and work effectively with the technologies being used to deliver them.
Agency Collaboration
- Work closely with the Creative Director on overall creative standards and direction.
- Collaborate with Technical and Development teams to ensure strong design-to-development handover.
- Work with Project Management to balance creative ambition with scope, timelines and budgets.
- Contribute design expertise to pitches and new-business opportunities where required.
What We’re Looking For
We’re looking for someone with significant experience leading digital design within an agency, consultancy or similarly fast-paced environment.
You should have:
- Strong experience across both UX and UI design.
- Previous experience leading or managing a design team.
- An excellent portfolio demonstrating high-quality digital product and website work.
- Strong understanding of UX methodologies, information architecture, prototyping and user-centred design.
- Excellent UI and visual design judgement.
- Strong knowledge of Figma and contemporary digital design workflows.
- Experience working collaboratively with developers and technical teams.
- A good understanding of accessibility and inclusive design.
- Confidence presenting work and design rationale to senior client stakeholders.
- The ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
- The judgement to know when to provide direction and when to get directly involved.
The Person
Because this is a six-month maternity cover position, we need someone who can get up to speed quickly and provide experienced, steady leadership from the outset.
You’ll be comfortable inheriting an established team and way of working while bringing your own experience and perspective. You’ll be collaborative rather than territorial, commercially aware, calm under pressure and comfortable operating in an agency environment where priorities can move quickly.
Most importantly, you’ll care deeply about the quality of the work and about helping talented designers do their best work.
Pay: €65,000.00-€90,000.00 per year
Experience:
- Digital Agency: 5 years (required)
Work Location: In person
