Design Lead - In House Creative Agency in London

About the role

As Design Lead you'll lead the design team's delivery of exceptional visual work across all touchpoints for your assigned brand. Reporting to the Principal Creative, you'll manage a team of graphic designers and digital designers, ensuring high-quality design output that brings creative concepts to life and maintains brand consistency.

What you’ll be doing

• Creative direction
  • Work in genuine creative partnership with a Copywriter to develop integrated campaign ideas where the concept drives both the visual and verbal thinking equally.
  • Generate bold, culturally relevant ideas that scale seamlessly across all channels while bringing fresh creative thinking and unexpected connections to every brief.
• Design direction & leadership
  • Lead the design execution of campaigns and brand work, translating creative concepts into outstanding visual design.
  • Set design standards and quality benchmarks for all visual work, defining what excellent design looks and feels like.
  • Partner with the Principal Creative at the ideation stage, contributing original creative concepts and ideas.
• Design excellence & problem solving
  • Oversee design production across all channels – digital, print, social, outdoor, retail – maintaining consistency as concepts adapt across formats and applications.
  • Find creative solutions when briefs have complex constraints or technical challenges – balancing creative ambition with practical realities of budget and timeline.
  • Outstanding design skills with a strong portfolio demonstrating craft and versatility across all media – digital, print, motion and animation, and environmental.
• Brand governance & quality
  • Champion and evolve the brand’s visual identity, ensuring every piece of creative work meets the highest standards of design quality, consistency, accessibility, and brand integrity.
• Team management & development
  • Manage and inspire your team of graphic and digital designers day-to-day, building a collaborative, supportive culture where designers thrive.
  • Assist the Studio Managers to help allocate the work out strategically across the team based on skills, capacity, and development needs – balancing workload sustainably and preventing burnout.
• Organisation & planning
  • Manage multiple projects simultaneously with excellent organisational skills and a systematic approach to file management and version control.
• Collaboration & workflow
  • Work closely with the Principal Creative to execute their vision; partner with copywriters, digital designers, and strategists to create integrated work.
  • Engage with Account Managers on realistic timelines and delivery; coordinate with production partners, printers, and suppliers on technical requirements.
• Design systems & process
  • Develop and maintain design templates, toolkits, and systems that enable efficiency without sacrificing creativity.
  • Establish design processes and workflows that balance quality with speed; implement quality control checkpoints throughout.
  • Ensure design files are properly organised, named, and archived; maintain asset management standards across the team.
• Communication
  • Communicate and present creative work effectively, confidently articulating design decisions, embracing feedback, and constructively challenging briefs to achieve the best outcomes.

Essential skills / Experience

• Strong previous experience in graphic design or visual design roles.
• Experience in managing or leading design teams.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating design excellence across multiple channels and formats.
• Experience working on integrated campaigns from concept through to execution.
• Background working on major consumer brands, ideally in telecommunications or technology.
• Proven track record of maintaining brand consistency across diverse applications.
• Experience managing design production and working with suppliers.
• Demonstrable experience mentoring or developing junior designers.

Technical proficiency

• Expert-level Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign).
• Strong skills in digital design tools (Figma, Sketch, or similar).
• Knowledge of file preparation, technical specifications, and production processes across web, social, print, and outdoor.
• Understanding of photography, illustration, and image-making direction.
• Working knowledge of motion design/animation tools (e.g. After Effects) to support concepting and short-form animation content.

Desirable skills / Experience

• Previous in-house agency or brand-side design experience.
• Background in both digital and traditional design disciplines.
• Award-winning design work or industry recognition.
• Experience developing design systems or brand guidelines.
• Understanding of UX/UI design principles.
• Familiarity with motion design or basic animation.
• Experience with agile working methodologies.

Our Package

Tailored benefits make a real difference. That’s why we offer a comprehensive range to support your growth, wellbeing, and everyday life. You can design the package to suit you and your lifestyle. Your core benefits include:

• 10% on target annual bonus.
• Access to an online private GP 24/7 for you and your immediate family.
• Market-leading paid carers leave with up to 2 weeks off.
• Equalized maternity, paternity, and adoption leave - 18 weeks full pay and 8 weeks half pay.
• Discounted EE and BT products, including mobile and broadband.
• Market leading Pension scheme – 5% from you and 10% from us.
• Holiday purchase scheme.

You can select additional benefits, including healthcare, dental, gym memberships and more when you’re ready.

About BT Group

BT Group is the UK’s leading communications group and the holding company behind some of the country’s most recognised brands – including BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet. Our purpose is as simple as it is ambitious: we connect for good. Our customers include consumers, small, medium and large businesses, public sector organisations and other communications providers. BT Group’s role is about setting direction, unlocking value and creating the conditions for our brands and businesses to thrive. Having come through the most capital-intensive phase of our fibre investment, our focus now is on what comes next – simplifying how we operate, using technology and AI to work smarter, and organising ourselves to serve customers better and grow sustainably. Group teams shape strategy, policy, brand, capital allocation and transformation, helping the whole organisation perform at its best. We have a singular culture that unites all our people: we are customer-first challengers, who are committed, clear and connected. These behaviours unite us as one team to deliver for our colleagues, our customers, our stakeholders and the country. Joining BT Group means working at the heart of a business that matters to the UK, with the opportunity to shape decisions, influence outcomes and help set the future course of one of the country’s most important companies.