Lead Graphic Designer

Position Type: Full-Time

Location: San Francisco Bay Area (In-person hybrid role)

About the Role

This position involves leading and executing graphic design while balancing hands-on work with team leadership and creative direction. It is a key leadership role responsible for overseeing visual identity, brand language, and design execution across all products and platforms in a growing organization.

In the short term, the role requires hands-on graphic design work, particularly for educational material and website design, setting the standard for design quality. Over time, the role will expand to building and managing a small team, overseeing broader creative projects like packaging, marketing, and digital experiences.

Key Responsibilities

Lead Visual Design:

• Develop and evolve overall visual identity, graphic language, and design systems across all brands, products, and experiences.
• Ensure consistency, creativity, and impact across deliverables such as marketing, product, and educational materials.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to create compelling visuals and seamless user experiences.

Hands-On Design:

• Execute graphic design work for educational resources, including student materials, teacher guides, infographics, event visuals, and interactive designs.
• Create visually appealing assets for the organization's website, ensuring user-friendly, creative design that highlights products and mission.
• Break down complex topics into simple and engaging visual formats.

Team Leadership & Creative Direction:

• Mentor, manage, and guide a small design team as the organization scales.
• Provide feedback and set a creative standard while remaining hands-on with design tasks.
• Build scalable design systems, style guides, and workflows to maintain high-quality visual output during rapid growth.

Qualifications:

• Senior-level experience in graphic design, art direction, or visual design leadership.
• Must have CPG industry experience, preferably within the toy space
• Ability to effectively balance leadership with hands-on execution of design work.
• Advanced skills in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign) and Figma.
• Experience designing for a variety of platforms and formats, including websites, educational materials, packaging, social media, and marketing campaigns.
• Strong ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and clear visuals.
• Strategic mindset to scale and evolve visual branding as part of a growing organization.
• Bonus: Experience creating motion graphics, animation, or work within education/STEM-related industries.

Why You'll Love This Role

• Opportunity to help define the visual voice of a growing organization.
• Blend creative leadership with hands-on design responsibilities.
• Impact the design and branding around an exciting mission to inspire and educate.
• Join a mission-driven team contributing to the future of education and creativity.