Senior Designer

Senior Designers within the Crain Design Hub create sophisticated, audience-focused visual experiences that strengthen Crain's brands and elevate marketing initiatives across digital, print, and emerging platforms. They bring advanced design expertise, independent creative judgment, and a high level of craftsmanship while helping establish and maintain creative excellence across projects. Working within a centralized creative organization, this role primarily partners with the Corporate Marketing team to lead the design and execution of integrated marketing campaigns.

Senior Designers collaborate with marketing leaders, Design Hub leaders, and cross-functional partners to solve complex design challenges and elevate the overall quality of design across the organization.

• Lead the design and execution of integrated marketing campaigns across digital, email, social media, web, print, and experiential channels.
• Develop thoughtful visual solutions that support strategic marketing initiatives and business objectives.
• Execute complex design projects independently while balancing multiple priorities, deadlines, and stakeholders.
• Translate marketing strategies into compelling visual experiences that strengthen Crain's brands across customer touchpoints.
• Help evolve brand standards, templates, design systems, and production workflows to improve consistency and efficiency.
• Present design solutions and articulate design rationale to marketing leaders and cross-functional partners while incorporating feedback throughout the design process.
• Serve as a trusted design resource by providing guidance, constructive feedback, and informal mentorship to designers.
• Collaborate with creative directors and marketing leaders to solve complex design challenges and continuously elevate the quality of the team's work.
• Identify opportunities to improve workflows, streamline processes, and strengthen collaboration across the Design Hub.
• Contribute to Design Hub initiatives by participating in creative critiques, sharing best practices, and supporting the adoption of emerging design technologies and AI-assisted workflows.
• Stay current on design trends, marketing best practices, and emerging technologies to continually raise the quality and effectiveness of the team's work.

• Bachelor's degree in graphic design, visual communication, or a related field.
• 5+ years of professional design experience supporting marketing, branding, agency, publishing, or media organizations.
• Exceptional portfolio demonstrating advanced creative thinking and execution across multiple platforms.
• Advanced understanding of typography, layout, branding, visual hierarchy, and design systems.
• Expert proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud, including InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Experience with Figma and collaborative design workflows.
• Strong communication, presentation, project management, and stakeholder collaboration skills.
• Demonstrated ability to independently lead projects while mentoring and supporting other designers.

• Experience leading the design of integrated, multi-channel marketing campaigns from concept through execution.
• Experience developing or evolving brand standards, templates, and creative systems across multiple brands or business units.
• Experience creating motion graphics, social video, multimedia, or interactive content that enhances audience engagement.
• Experience collaborating directly with senior stakeholders, presenting creative work, and translating business objectives into compelling visual solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor designers, provide constructive creative feedback, and contribute to the growth of a collaborative creative team.
• Curiosity for emerging creative technologies, AI-assisted workflows, and evolving marketing trends, with a commitment to continuously elevating creative quality and team capabilities.

The estimated salary range for this position is $85,000 to $110,000.

The final salary offering will take into account a wide range of factors, including experience, accomplishments and location. The salary range provided should not be considered as a salary limit or cap. In addition to base salary, Crain also offers competitive benefits including retirement plan savings contributions and bonus opportunities based on individual and company performance.

• This position is exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act and is not eligible for overtime pay.

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Crain Communications is a leading business news and information company with a portfolio of 24 media brands that provide indispensable coverage and data for professionals globally and across sectors, including advertising, automotive, finance, healthcare, staffing, and workforce solutions. Many of Crain's brands are the most influential media properties in the industries and communities they serve, including Ad Age, Automotive News, Pensions & Investments,…