Freelance Email Design Lead

We’re seeking a Design Lead to oversee the creative direction and execution of email design across our growing agency. This is a freelance leadership role that combines creative oversight with hands-on design work.

In this role, you’ll help guide a small, distributed team of freelance designers while ensuring all client work meets a high standard for quality, brand consistency, and performance. You’ll play a key role in launching new client accounts—building foundational templates, modular blocks, and design systems that enable scalable email production.

While you’ll provide creative leadership across the team, this is still a hands-on design role, particularly for new client onboarding, complex campaigns, and high-impact projects.

You’ll collaborate closely with strategists, copywriters, and account managers to bring performance-focused email experiences to life for a wide variety of eCommerce brands.

Key Responsibilities

Design Leadership & Team Management

• Provide creative leadership and guidance to a distributed freelance design team.
• Review design work and provide feedback to ensure quality, consistency, and alignment with client goals.
• Help coordinate design workflow across accounts and ensure projects move efficiently through production.
• Establish and maintain design standards, processes, and best practices across client accounts.
• Help identify and evaluate potential new designers as the freelance team grows.

Client Onboarding & Design Systems

• Lead the design process for new client onboarding, including initial email templates, modular blocks, and foundational design systems.
• Translate brand guidelines into scalable email frameworks that support ongoing campaign production.
• Ensure new accounts launch with strong visual direction and performance-focused design assets.

Email Design Execution

• Create visually engaging, conversion-focused email designs in Figma, particularly for new clients and complex campaigns.
• Collaborate with strategists and copywriters to turn creative briefs into compelling email experiences.
• Ensure designs are responsive and optimized across devices and inbox environments.

Platform & Production Support

• Support the translation of designs into Klaviyo, ensuring layouts and blocks are implemented correctly.
• Work closely with the team to troubleshoot design or layout issues within the platform.

Creative Collaboration

• Partner with account managers, strategists, and copywriters to bring creative concepts to life.
• Contribute to brainstorming and creative strategy discussions for campaigns and flows.

Internal Design Support

• Assist with internal design needs including ads, decks, case studies, and occasional motion graphics when needed.

Performance Awareness

• Design with performance in mind—understanding what drives clicks, conversions, and engagement in email marketing.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of design experience, ideally within an agency or fast-paced digital environment.
• Strong portfolio showcasing email design work, particularly for eCommerce or DTC brands.
• Experience providing creative direction, feedback, or guidance to other designers.
• High proficiency in Figma and working knowledge of Klaviyo.
• Strong understanding of responsive email design best practices.
• Experience creating modular email systems, reusable components, or design libraries.
• Ability to balance creative leadership with hands-on design execution.
• Highly organized with the ability to manage multiple projects and priorities.
• Strong communicator who works well cross-functionally with strategy, copy, and account teams.
• Experience working with remote or freelance creative teams.

Bonus Skills

• Basic HTML/CSS familiarity for email.
• Experience designing for ads, landing pages, or social.
• Experience managing remote or freelance design teams.

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for someone who can elevate the quality and consistency of design across our agency while helping our team work more efficiently. The ideal candidate enjoys both leading creative direction and building great work themselves, and thrives in a collaborative, fast-moving environment.

This role is best suited for someone who is comfortable owning design standards, guiding other designers, and remaining actively involved in hands-on design work.

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Contract
Contract length: 12 months

Benefits:

• Flexible schedule

Application Question(s):

• What tools do you use for design? Which are you most comfortable using?
• Can you share a link to your portfolio?
• Tell me about your design experience creating marketing emails or flows.
• Tell me about your experience managing a team of designers.
• This is a contract position. What hourly rate or monthly salary are you looking for?

Work Location: Remote