Design Manager (Visual)
Job description
A hands-on Design Manager role leading Canonical's Visual Design practice, supporting brand and site experiences. The role combines people management, delivery ownership and strategic thinking with active design work.
At a glance
- Work mode
- Remote
- Languages
- English – Professional
What you'll do
- Lead a team of visual designers responsible for brand and site-related work across Canonical
- Reviewing work critically and constructively, striving for excellence and consistency through direct feedback
- Contributing hands-on design work when capacity or complexity requires it
- Working with individual designers to support their professional growth
- Continuously overseeing and improving operational workflows, including production processes
- Working with stakeholders, especially Marketing, Web Engineering and Design Systems Director, to clearly define and validate outcomes
- Evolving design systems and guidelines to drive consistent quality and improve efficiency
- Coordinating with the rest of design leadership to mature our collective practice
- Bringing your team and others together to share their work and strengthen culture
- Helping make the value of design legible across the organisation and open source community
- Application and evolution of existing guidelines, ensuring consistency across touchpoints
- Lead projects ranging from marketing campaign assets, data visualization, print and UI design related projects
- Collaborate closely with the design systems and the sites team, influencing the UI of all digital experiences
What we're looking for
- A portfolio demonstrating excellence in leading design process and execution (especially visually) in diverse organisations
- Experience managing complex projects and a team of designers while remaining actively involved in design work
- Advanced knowledge of visual design principles (typography, layout, colour, systems) demonstrating broad experience
- Strong processes understanding and ability to manage ambiguity, competing priorities, and limited resources with the ability to switch modes
- A clear point of view, balanced with openness to critique and feedback with deep care for usability and accessibility
- Commitment to skills development and mentorship
- A demonstrable passion for technology
- Thoughtful and self-motivated while being result-oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments
- Exceptional educational achievement in design, or a compelling narrative about your alternative chosen path
- Professional written and spoken English
- Willingness to travel up to 4 times a year for internal events up to two weeks long
Your team
Visual Design practice
Supports brand and site experiences; collaborates with the design systems and the sites team
Benefits
- Fully remote working environment
- Personal learning and development budget of 2,000USD per annum
- Annual compensation review
- Recognition rewards
- Annual holiday leave
- Parental Leave
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues at 'sprints'
- Priority Pass for travel and travel upgrades for long haul company events
Apply
Direct apply at Canonical
Opens the job posting at Canonical
About Canonical
A pioneering tech firm at the forefront of the global move to open source
Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Its platform, Ubuntu, is widely used in enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT. The company is a pioneer of global distributed collaboration, with 1200+ colleagues in 75+ countries and very few office based roles.
Mission
To be at the forefront of the global move to open source
Key facts
- 1200+ colleagues
- 2004
- Open source software and operating systems
- Publishes Ubuntu
- Remote-first company since its inception in 2004
- 1200+ colleagues in 75+ countries
- Founder led and profitable
- Teams meet two to four times yearly in person
What they value
- Excellence
- Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background