Design Lead

Job Description

Design Lead

Company: Setsail Marketing Location: Office (200-1737 Boundary Rd, Vancouver, BC, V5M 3Y7, Canada) Type: Full-time Reports to: CEO

The Role

You own design at Setsail. Every website, brand identity, ad creative, landing page, and visual asset that leaves this agency reflects your standard. You set the bar, enforce it, and raise it over time.

This is a leadership role, not a production role. You're in client meetings from day one — presenting concepts, defending decisions, and shaping creative direction. You manage a team of designers, collaborate with developers, video editors, and performance marketers, and you move fast without cutting corners.

You also help us win new work. When we pitch a prospective client or respond to an RFP, you're part of that process — building mood boards, presenting creative direction, and showing why Setsail is the right partner.

What You'll Do

Run the design function. Manage a team of product designers. Assign work, review output, give direct and honest feedback, and make sure nothing ships below the bar. You own creative quality across the agency. Your job is to make the team faster and better, not to do their work for them.

Present to clients. You walk clients through design concepts, explain the thinking behind your decisions, and handle feedback directly. You don't need someone to translate your work into business language — you already speak both.

Design websites. We build on Webflow. You design in Figma with Webflow's capabilities and constraints in mind — design systems, responsive layouts, CMS-driven templates, and component libraries that developers can build without guessing.

Design brand identities. Some clients come to us for a full brand: logo, colour system, typography, guidelines, and application across digital and print. You lead these from workshop through delivery and build systems that hold up across every touchpoint.

Use AI to move faster. You integrate AI tools into your real workflow — not as a novelty, but as a multiplier. Generative image tools for concept exploration and mood boards. AI-assisted layout and component generation in Figma. AI for copy drafts, naming exercises, and brainstorming. You're faster because of these tools, not threatened by them.

Collaborate across the agency. Design at Setsail doesn't exist in a silo. You work with:

• Development — Your designs are buildable. You understand platform constraints and hand off work that doesn't require interpretation.
• Video and photography — You art-direct shoots, define visual direction for content, and ensure brand consistency across static and motion.
• Performance marketing — You design ads, landing pages, and conversion assets grounded in data. A beautiful ad that doesn't convert is a bad ad.
• SEO — You design page structures that support content hierarchy, search intent, and crawlability.
• Account management — You help set client expectations on creative scope, timelines, and revision process.

Think about growth. You understand that design is a business tool. A homepage isn't art — it's a conversion machine dressed in the client's brand. You think about what builds trust, what reduces friction, and what moves someone from visitor to lead.

What You Need

Required:

• 8+ years of professional design experience, with at least 3 years managing or leading other designers
• A portfolio showing both web design and brand identity work
• Deep Figma proficiency — design systems, auto-layout, components, variables, prototyping. This is your primary workspace.
• Working knowledge of Webflow. You don't need to build sites, but you design within its reality. If you've built in Webflow yourself, even better.
• Client-facing confidence. You present to executives and handle the room without support.
• Active use of AI design tools in your actual workflow — not just experimentation.
• Agency speed. You know how to deliver high-quality work on tight timelines.
• Strong visual taste and the ability to articulate why something works.

Strong advantages:

• Agency experience across multiple industries and client types
• E-commerce design (Shopify, product pages, conversion funnels)
• Design for regulated industries (fintech, healthcare, government) where trust and compliance matter
• Motion design (micro-interactions, Lottie animations, video thumbnails)
• Accessibility standards (WCAG 2 AA) and how they shape design decisions
• Ad creative for paid social and display (Meta, Google, LinkedIn)
• Photography or art direction experience

Tools

• Figma — Primary design tool. Everything lives here.
• Webflow & Shopify — Understand it. Preview your own work.
• AI tools — ChatGPT/Claude, Figma AI, Relume, Higgsfield, etc.
• Adobe Creative Suite — Photoshop, Illustrator

About Setsail

Setsail is a 28-person B Corp certified digital agency based in Vancouver, BC. We build websites, run performance marketing, design brands, and produce creative content for clients across Canada and the US — fintech companies, municipal governments, healthcare providers, e-commerce brands, and community organisations.

We built our own AI-powered delivery platform because we believe agency work should run on systems, not heroics. We care about craft, speed, and outcomes. We don't do busywork, we don't do fluff, and we don't ship things we're not proud of.

If you want to lead design somewhere that takes it seriously, we'd like to hear from you.

Pay: $70,000.00-$85,000.00 per year

Application question(s):

• Can you share 2-3 projects from your portfolio that showcase both web design and brand identity work? What was your role in each?
• What is your level of proficiency in Figma and Webflow? Have you designed with Webflow constraints (components, CMS, responsiveness) in mind?
• Which AI tools do you actively use in your design process, and how do they improve your speed or output quality?
• Please share the link to your LinkedIn profile.

Experience:

• leading other designers: 3 years (preferred)

Work Location: In person