Manager – Art Direction, Brand Studio

Castelion Corporation • Torrance, CA

12d

About The Position

As Manager - Art Direction, Brand Studio, you own the day-to-day design leadership and creative execution that brings Castelion's brand to life across campaigns, systems, and key touchpoints. You'll translate brand strategy set by senior leadership into practical, repeatable, high-quality design solutions that work across digital, print, recruiting, events, and built environments.
This is a hands-on role that blends making and leading. You will design, art direct, and build the infrastructure, including templates, libraries, playbooks, and workflows that enable high-quality, on-brand work at scale. You will collaborate closely with Marketing & Communications, Business Development and Capture, HR, and Engineering to turn complex technical and mission stories into clear, compelling visual narratives.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in visual design, brand systems, art direction, or closely related roles, with a portfolio that shows strong visual storytelling, systems thinking, and multi-format execution.
• Demonstrated experience owning or evolving a visual identity system and building reusable design infrastructure (templates, libraries, guidelines) that others rely on.
• Proficiency in Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop) with excellent layout, typography, and information design skills.
• Experience collaborating directly with cross-functional partners such as marketing, communications, business development, engineering, and HR/People.
• Strong communication and presentation skills; comfortable explaining design rationale, giving and receiving feedback, and influencing decisions with non-design stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in defense, aerospace, autonomy, robotics, or other deep-tech sectors.
• Experience supporting capture/proposal efforts, or government/DoW customers from a creative and visual storytelling perspective.
• Experience with large-format or environmental graphics, signage, and event or experiential branding and activations.
• Familiarity with mid-century modern design and Space Age futurism, and interest in applying these influences to a contemporary defense brand.
• Comfort with basic video editing, motion design, or storyboarding for short-form explainers or sizzle content.
• Active or eligible for a U.S. security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Brand systems and visual identity
• Evolve and maintain Castelion's visual identity system (logo usage, color, typography, imagery, layout, motion guidelines) so it works across internal and external channels.
• Translate brand and visual principles into clear standards, toolkits, and documentation that non-designers can actually use.
• Build and maintain centralized component and asset libraries in Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud, with naming conventions, versioning, and usage guidance.
• Campaigns, launches, and flagship stories
• Lead art direction for integrated campaigns, product and capability launches, customer and investor narratives, recruiting initiatives, conferences, and major announcements.
• Drive cohesive creative across channels, including web and digital assets, social visuals, print collateral, video storyboards, event graphics and activations so everything feels unmistakably Castelion.
• Turn complex, often technical subject matter into intuitive visual hierarchies, diagrams, and stories that resonate with both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Brand asset ecosystem and tools
• Design and maintain modular templates and reusable assets for presentations, one-pagers, briefs, case studies, recruiting collateral, event kits, and internal communications.
• Architect a navigable, well-organized asset library that speeds up delivery for Marketing, BD, and Recruiting.
• Continuously refine tools and templates based on adoption, feedback, and emerging needs.
• Cross-functional creative partnership
• Partner with Marketing & Communications on brand campaigns, brand strategy, content, social, and executive communications.
• Partner with Business Development and Capture on pursuit storytelling, proposal design, customer demos, and conference presence.
• Partner with HR on candidate-facing materials, recruiting campaigns, onboarding experiences, and employer brand assets.
• Partner with Facilities and Engineering to ensure physical spaces, hardware displays, and signage reflect Castelion's visual standards.
• Facilitate working sessions that help teams articulate objectives and translate them into creative briefs, concepts, and visual narratives.
• Team leadership and studio operations
• Provide day-to-day direction, feedback, and mentorship for graphic artist to help grow their craft, speed, and judgment.
• Establish clear intake, scoping, prioritization, and review workflows so the Brand Studio stays focused on the highest-impact work while still handling urgent needs.
• Set and uphold quality standards for all visual output, ensuring work is on-brief, on-time, on-brand, and appropriate for our customers and mission.

Benefits

• All employees are granted long-term stock incentives as part of their employment as Castelion.
• All employees receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental insurance, and the company offers three weeks of paid time off per year.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed