Creative Director
About The Position
Happy Cog is hiring a Creative Director to lead design engagements end to end, from the first sales call through the final developer handoff. You'll work on content-heavy digital experiences, complex sites, platforms, and applications where editorial thinking and design craft have to move together. The role sits at the center of how Happy Cog sells, scopes, and ships work, requiring someone who can hold a strategic conversation with a prospective client and then translate that conversation into a design system a team can build against. Happy Cog is a growing interactive agency of 80+ people working 100% remotely, designing, developing, and marketing websites and mobile apps for a wide variety of clients from small startups to Fortune 100s.
Requirements
- Substantial experience leading digital design engagements for complex content-driven products
- A portfolio that demonstrates strategic range, not just visual range
- Comfort moving between systems thinking and individual screen craft
- Strong presentation skills, including the ability to walk a non-designer through why a decision was made
- Experience working with content strategists and developers as peers, not dependencies
- A collaborative posture that holds up under pressure
Responsibilities
- Join sales calls early, often before a proposal is written, and help shape how Happy Cog frames the work.
- Listen for what a prospective client is actually asking for, identify where their stated problem and their real problem diverge, and contribute to the strategic thinking that wins the engagement.
- Lead discovery once the work is signed, including running workshops, interviewing stakeholders, interrogating content and analytics, and shaping the strategic direction before design begins.
- Carry strategic thinking through concept, design system development, and production, staying hands-on through developer handoff and launch.
- Specialize in digital experiences where content is central to the design problem, such as publishing platforms, knowledge repositories, complex marketing sites, and product interfaces tied to editorial workflows.
- Lead brand conversations when the scope calls for it, demonstrating brand literacy.
- Present work to clients in a way that builds confidence, aligning with a collaborative and transparent process.
Benefits
- Healthy work/life balance
- A creative environment to do the best work of your career
- An amazing team of developers, designers, marketers, and project managers
- Paid Parental Leave
- Paid vacation and sick time off
- Health, Dental, and Vision insurance
- Retirement plan with company matching
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
Number of Employees
11-50 employees
