Head of Visual Design

You’ve probably heard of Autotrader, but do you know what we’re all about?

We're the most trusted, most visited automotive marketplace in the UK. A heritage brand and a tech innovator. We bring together vehicle buyers and sellers to give them real choices. Cars may be what we're best known for but we’re also the place for pretty much everything else on wheels, from e-bikes to caravans.

In the automotive world, change is a constant, that’s why we take our job of untangling the complex car-buying journey very seriously.

At our core, we’re all about people. We go our own way while embracing diversity and celebrating our differences. We dedicate ourselves to the idea that we work better together.

Autotrader is a beautiful, surprising and vibrant place to work. We might not be for everyone, but we could be perfect for you.

Our brand serves a wide community: millions of consumers who trust us to help them make confident choices when buying or selling a vehicle; retailers, lenders and partners who rely on our technology and data to power their businesses; and our own people and communities, who know us as a progressive, inclusive employer committed to making a positive impact.

Our Brand Experience Team brings this all together - shaping our identity, visual toolkit and tone of voice so every interaction feels consistent, meaningful and true to who we are, while giving teams the flexibility they need to communicate effectively across channels and audiences.

We’re looking for an experienced creative leader with deep visual and graphic design expertise to shape how the Autotrader brand shows up across every touchpoint. You’ll define what our brand feels like (its identity, behaviours, motion, UI patterns and design foundations) and guide a talented team of designers who act as guardians of our visual toolkit and design system.

You’ll take ownership of our brand systems, including the brand toolkit and Autotrader Design System (ATDS), ensuring they remain coherent, flexible and simple for teams across the business to use.

Partnership will be a big part of your world: you’ll work closely with colleagues across Marketing, Experience Design, Engineering and Employer Brand to ensure the creative vision is applied consistently while still meeting the varied needs of our audiences.

Your leadership will help translate our strategy and values into a clear brand experience framework that product and design teams can deliver against. You’ll also shape how we measure success using both qualitative and quantitative insight to assess clarity, consistency and overall experience - and use those signals to guide continual brand evolution.

• You’ve built or evolved visual brands, not just used them. You’ve defined a visual identity, turned it into a usable design system, and led the rollout across digital organisation/s with the metrics to prove the impact.
• You’re well versed in ensuring consistency across typography, colour, layout, iconography and motion, with rationale tied to brand strategy and accessibility.
• You are an exceptional communicator, able to make brand and design conversations accessible to a broad set of stakeholders, and able to inspire people with your vision for the brand and bring this to life.
• You are deeply collaborative, able to form strong relationships with your peers and stakeholders from across the business, and work with them to translate business goals and strategy into creative brand experiences and communications.
• You’re comfortable leading and directing the work of external agencies alongside our internal teams.
• You’re a proven leader, inspiring teams with a clear vision,
• You are at the forefront of how new technologies are being adopted by creative teams to improve the quality and efficiency of their outputs.
• You're open minded about the role that AI will play in the future of the creative and design disciplines.
• You are comfortable using a full suite of creative tools (Figma, Adobe CS Frontify, storybook etc.).
• You take responsibility for the quality of creative output (even where you haven't been directly involved). You are comfortable calling out work that doesn't…