Marketing Design Manager - 12 Month FTC

We’re looking for an experienced and commercially minded Marketing Design Manager to join our team on a 12-month maternity cover contract. This is a key creative leadership role responsible for the creative direction, design output and delivery of all retail print campaigns across our three brands and store estate.

You’ll lead a team of three Designers, setting a clear customer-first creative vision and ensuring our in-store communications are engaging, commercially effective and consistently delivered to a high standard.

The ideal candidate will come from a marketing-led design background, with strong experience creating customer-facing campaigns and managing complex creative projects from brief through to final production. Creative Direction

• Shape the creative vision and direction for all retail print and promotional activity across three brands and nine international markets
• Develop customer-first creative that brings brand strategy and commercial objectives to life in-store
• Ensure all creative is on-brand, commercially relevant and rooted in business objectives, regional trading patterns, and previous performance insights, with a focus on like-for-like sales growth
• Challenge and elevate the creative output of the team, driving innovation and consistency
• Ensure campaigns deliver a clear and compelling customer journey across the store environment
• Work closely with the Senior Campaigns and Promotions Manager to ensure campaign design and development is planned and launched on time
• Monitor competitor activity and market trends to inform and strengthen promotional campaign design

Commercial and Customer Focus

• Collaborate cross-functionally across Retail, Web, Commercial, and B&M teams to design impactful campaigns, translating marketing and commercial strategies into clear creative briefs and impactful in-store communications
• Use customer insight, competitor activity and campaign performance to inform creative decisions
• Ensure retail promotions are relevant, easy to understand and commercially effective
• Maintain a strong understanding of the customer across all three brands and nine international markets to ensure creative reflects their needs

Cross Functional Collaboration

• Confidently present creative concepts and recommendations to senior stakeholders
• Build strong relationships across the wider business and influence creative decision-making
• Work closely with production partners to ensure creative intent is maintained through to final output

Project and Critical Path Management

• Own the end-to-end design delivery of retail print campaigns, from initial brief through to production
• Manage complex creative critical paths, ensuring deadlines, approvals and production milestones are met
• Identify potential risks and dependencies early and proactively develop solutions
• Balance multiple projects and competing priorities within a fast-paced retail environment
• Ensure artwork is accurate, production-ready and delivered on time
• Collaborate cross-functionally across Retail, Web, Commercial, and B&M teams to deliver impactful campaigns
• Evaluate campaign effectiveness and embed learnings into future planning

Team Leadership

• Manage and motivate the Promotions design team, supporting communication, capability building, and performance
• Foster strong cross-functional collaboration with POS, Graphics, VM, Merchandising, Buying, Retail, Web, and IT teams
• Identify opportunities to improve processes and drive operational efficiencies
• Support system enhancements and adoption of new ways of working
• Create a collaborative, positive and accountable team culture
• Coach and guide wider teams on best practice and new processes
• Set clear creative and delivery expectations, managing workload and priorities across the team.
• Conduct regular store visits and competitor benchmarking (comp shops)

• Proven experience in a Marketing Design, Creative or Brand Design management role, ideally within retail
• Strong marketing background with a clear understanding of customer-led communications and promotional campaigns
• Experience managing and developing a design team
• Excellent project and critical path management skills
• Strong understanding of retail print and in-store customer communications
• Highly creative with the ability to balance creative ambition with commercial reality
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
• Confident presenting and influencing at senior level