Senior Graphic Designer

University of St. Thomas - Houston

Senior Graphic Designer

Marketing and Communication

Position Summary

The University of St. Thomas seeks a Senior Graphic Designer to serve as a lead contributor within the Marketing & Communications in-house creative team. This role combines high-level graphic design across print and digital collateral. The ideal candidate brings strong visual design judgment, technical fluency in web design, brand management experience and the maturity to manage multiple concurrent projects with minimal oversight, while mentoring other designers and working directly with clients.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and produce a wide range of marketing collateral, including print materials, digital ads, email templates, event signage, social graphics, web pages, and brand campaigns.
• Design and update the university website, including page builds, layout updates, image and asset optimization, and basic technical troubleshooting.
• Translate content and requests from across the university into on-brand, accessible designs, coordinating with the Marketing & Communications team and UST clients for collaborative input.
• Maintain and enforce UST brand standards across all design work and web content, serving as a point of quality control for the team.
• Partner with the creative team to plan and prioritize the graphic design projects, content calendars and production schedules.
• Mentor in-house designers, freelancers, and student interns, providing feedback and hands-on guidance on design and execution.
• Manage multiple concurrent projects and deadlines independently, escalating scope, timeline, or resourcing concerns proactively.
• Ensure all web and design work meets accessibility standards and university compliance requirements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 10 to 15 years of professional graphic design experience, including significant experience designing for both print and web.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience managing and building pages in WordPress, comfort with the WordPress admin, custom fields, plugins, and basic HTML/CSS troubleshooting.
• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop); familiarity with Figma or similar tools a plus.
• Strong typography, layout, and brand-systems sense, with a portfolio demonstrating range across print and digital work. Please note: Resumes must direct the search committee to a digital portfolio of work to be considered for this role.
• Experience working within or maintaining a brand style guide across multiple contributors and departments.
• Excellent project management and organizational skills; able to manage a high-volume request queue with competing priorities.
• Animation and illustration experience preferred.
• Experience mentoring or directing junior designers, interns, or freelancers preferred.
• Higher education, nonprofit, or mission-driven institution experience preferred but not required.
• Comfortable working within the context of a Catholic university and representing its mission and values through design.

What Success Looks Like in This Role

• The website is consistently current, on-brand, and free of outdated or broken content, with a clear, sustainable update process.
• Design requests move through a predictable pipeline with clear timelines, rather than being handled ad hoc.
• Brand consistency is maintained across departments without requiring constant direct oversight from senior leaders.

The University of Saint Thomas is committed to the religious, ethical, and intellectual traditions of Catholic higher education. As permitted by law, practicing Catholics who will advance the mission of the school are preferred for this position. However, the University invites all qualified applicants to apply.