Associate Director of Design

Location: Onsite in Arlington, VA Type: Temp-to-Hire Opportunity Compensation Range: $65-70/HR (W2) We’re looking for a highly skilled, detail-oriented Associate Director of Design to elevate the quality, consistency, and impact of creative work across our client's brand and its network of partners. This role is ideal for a design leader who combines exceptional visual craft with a passion for mentoring others. You will play a critical role in shaping and refining creative work—bringing a sharp design eye, strong executional ability, and the ability to guide teams towards best-in-class outcomes. Working closely with the Creative Director, you will focus on raising the bar of design across all touchpoints, ensuring that every piece of work is strategically sound, visually compelling, and executed at the highest level. This role offers a unique opportunity to make a culturally significant impact while strengthening the capabilities of our creative team. Responsibilities Serve as the design lead across projects, partnering with the Creative Director to ensure work is visually exceptional, strategically aligned, and cohesive across channels. Act as the primary design authority, providing a critical, detail-oriented eye to refine and elevate creative work at every stage. Guide and mentor designers (junior through senior), offering hands-on feedback, direction, and coaching to strengthen craft, execution, and conceptual thinking. Spend dedicated time in the work, reviewing layouts, typography, systems, and visual storytelling to ensure the highest level of polish and consistency. Establish and uphold design standards, systems, and best practices across brand, campaigns, and partnerships. Collaborate closely with art directors, copywriters, strategists, and producers to bring integrated ideas to life across digital, social, video, print, and experiential. Translate strategic concepts into compelling visual systems and executions that resonate culturally and emotionally. Lead design critiques, foster a culture of constructive feedback, and create an environment where designers can grow and do their best work. Ensure design work scales effectively across platforms while maintaining integrity and quality. Support the Creative Director by owning the day-to-day design quality, enabling more focus on higher-level strategy and vision. Qualifications 7+ years of experience in design, with a strong track record in brand, campaign, and multi-channel execution (agency or in-house). A portfolio that demonstrates exceptional design craft across digital, social, print, video, and brand systems. Experience managing, leading, mentoring, and developing designers, with a passion for elevating team performance. A refined design sensibility with a "laser eye" for detail, typography, layout, and visual systems. Strong understanding of how design supports storytelling, strategy, and audience engagement. Experience working within complex, multi-stakeholder environments while maintaining high creative standards. Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate design decisions clearly and persuasively. A highly collaborative mindset with a commitment to continuous improvement-for both the work and the team. Enthusiasm to contribute to vision and principled approach to solving problems, and a commitment to stewarding our culture, which champions values including transformation and innovation, entrepreneurialism, humility, and respect. Preferred Qualifications Experience building and scaling brand systems across multiple channels and partners. Experience mentoring and leveling up design teams in fast-paced environments. Background in culturally driven or behavior change campaigns. Ability to balance hands-on design involvement with leadership responsibilities. Equal Opportunity Employer: Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, National Origin, Age, Genetic Information, Disability, Protected Veteran Status, or any other legally protected group status. At Cella, a randstad digital company, we welcome people of all abilities and want to ensure that our hiring and interview process meets the needs of all applicants. If you require a reasonable accommodation to make your application or interview experience a great one, please contact View email address on click.appcast.io. Pay offered to a successful candidate will be based on several factors including the candidate's education, work experience, work location, specific job duties, certifications, etc. In addition, Cella by randstad digital offers a comprehensive benefits package, including: medical, prescription, dental, vision, AD&D, and life insurance offerings, short-term disability, and a 401K plan (all benefits are based on eligibility). This posting is open for thirty (30) days. We are passionate about connecting you with the right role at the right organization—and providing you great benefits for the great work you do. With an attractive compensation package including competitive salary, 401(k) plan, weekly paychecks, holiday pay and a health benefits program, we have you covered. Cella is an award-winning leader in consulting, staffing and managed solutions for creative, marketing, digital and proposal development teams. We help people build meaningful careers and partner with companies to help them win. Our staffing solutions include freelance, contract, temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire positions. Cella has earned the 2022 Best of Staffing®Client and Talent 10-Year Diamond Awards—an honor earned by only 1% of staffing firms in the U.S. Cella is an equal opportunity employer. #J-18808-Ljbffr BLR Holdings