Design Manager; grade 030

We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today’s changing world.

We work with the companies that are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high growth businesses that fuel the economy – and directly advise the owners and management teams that lead them.

The Design Manager is a practitioner who delivers high-impact design work aligned to Sales and Marketing priorities agreed with Design leadership. Reporting into the Sales and Marketing Design Manager, the role takes ownership of a defined portfolio of strategic design projects—translating value propositions and commercial narratives into compelling visual outputs that strengthen engagement, credibility and commercial outcomes.

A key focus will be accelerating the scaling of design services by creating reusable components and guidance that enable high-quality self-serve and alternative delivery routes. This includes working with agile delivery models and evolving technology-enabled production approaches, so quality remains consistent even when delivery is distributed.

Brand development and visual identity stewardship sits with the Senior Brand and Communications Design Manager. This role operates within those guardrails and supports their application across strategic outputs, ensuring work is both brand-aligned and audience-appropriate.

• Deliver end-to-end design for a defined set of strategic projects (e.g., proposal documentation, proposition toolkits, flagship market activity).
• Translate briefs into strong creative concepts and polished outputs across formats (presentations, document components, campaign toolkits, digital assets where required).
• Manage deadlines, iterations and stakeholder inputs to protect quality and pace.
• Turn commercial narratives and value propositions into clear visual communication tailored to audience needs and decision dynamics.
• Provide creative options and recommendations that improve clarity, differentiation and impact.
• Help shape briefs early to clarify purpose, audience, key messages, constraints and success measures before design starts.
• Coordinate dependencies and review points so work lands in the right order and at the right quality, with fewer late-stage changes.
• Identify repeatable needs within your portfolio and convert them into reusable components and guidance that enable high-quality self-serve.
• Partner with relevant platform owners and delivery teams where needed to improve how design assets are created, accessed and reused, keeping the approach flexible as tools and delivery models evolve.
• Capture learning and continuously improve the components and guidance so quality remains consistent even when delivery routes vary.

• Strong design practitioner with experience delivering high-impact work in a fast-paced, stakeholder-heavy environment.
• Proven ability to translate complex messages into clear visual communication and compelling storytelling.
• Confident partnering with stakeholders; able to shape briefs, manage expectations and protect quality.
• Strong understanding of brand application and the discipline to deliver within guardrails while still creating cut-through.
• Experience contributing to templated or component-based design and improving reuse is beneficial.
• Experience working with distributed delivery models (e.g., agencies/offshore/document production routes) is beneficial.

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