Principal Designer, Brand Creative

Block•Bay Area, CA, United States of America, CA

1d•$251,600 - $377,400•Remote

About The Position

Block is looking for a Principal Designer to join its Brand Creative team. This is a hands-on role for a designer with exceptional taste, strong brand instincts, and the ability to think in systems. The designer will be responsible for making beautiful work and defining how that work scales. They should be proactive, self-sufficient, curious, and energized by new tools. The role involves working across Cash App, Square, TIDAL, and emerging brands to strengthen the ecosystem's global presence. Block is rethinking design as a multidisciplinary practice, integrating brand, product, systems, storytelling, technology, culture, and craft to create groundbreaking work that pushes brands forward and sets a higher bar for design and creativity. The Principal Designer will shape the visual expression of the Block brand across various channels and partner with creative directors, marketers, product teams, engineers, and other designers. This is a maker role, emphasizing attention to detail in typography, grids, motion, prototypes, and the final polish that ensures excellence. The role includes setting a high bar for craft, evolving brand systems, mentoring other designers, and exploring the use of AI and emerging creative tools for more ambitious and effective work.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in visual design, brand design, graphic design, or a related creative discipline.
A portfolio that shows exceptional visual craft, including strong typography, composition, color, layout, and attention to detail.
Deep experience creating brand work for digital, web, interactive, motion, campaign, and other modern channels.
A strong systems mindset. You understand how to create flexible visual systems that bring consistency without making everything feel the same.
Experience leading complex projects with independence, confidence, and good judgment.
A high level of personal accountability. You are proactive, organized, and able to drive work forward without a lot of hand-holding.
Strong collaboration skills and the ability to build trust with cross-functional partners.
Experience mentoring designers and helping teams improve their craft.
Fluency with Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, and modern design workflows.
Curiosity and practical experience with AI tools, generative design, prototyping tools, or other emerging creative technology.
A continued love of making. You still design, still experiment, and still care deeply about the final result.

Nice To Haves

Motion design
Animation
3D
Creative coding
Illustration
Interactive prototyping
Video

Responsibilities

Create thoughtful, polished, visually compelling brand design across web, campaign, social, experiential, interactive, and digital channels.
Lead complex creative projects from early concept through high-fidelity execution, bringing clarity and momentum even when the path is ambiguous.
Set and raise the visual quality bar for Block's brand work, helping define what great looks like across teams and touchpoints.
Think in systems, not just single executions. You will help evolve the way our brand scales across products, channels, campaigns, and experiences.
Use AI and emerging creative tools as part of your process, not as a shortcut, but as a way to explore faster, push further, and make stronger work.
Partner with creative, marketing, product, engineering, and leadership teams to connect brand expression to business and customer needs.
Bring strong opinions, but stay open. You will help create a culture of critique, trust, and better ideas.
Mentor and support other designers by giving clear, useful feedback and sharing how you think, make, and solve problems.
Look for ways to improve how the team works, whether through better systems, sharper standards, smarter tools, or more effective creative processes.
Help push the Block brand forward with work that feels distinctive, intentional, and built to last.