Senior Design Director (Publishing Platform) in London

Condé Nast is a global media company producing the highest quality content with a footprint of more than 1 billion consumers in 32 territories through print, digital, video and social platforms. The company’s portfolio includes many of the world’s most respected and influential media properties including Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Self, GQ, The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler/Traveller, Allure, AD, Bon Appétit and Wired, among others.

Location: London, GB

Condé Nast thrives on collaboration, and our teams come together in the office four days a week (Monday – Thursday). We value diversity of background, views and cultures. We celebrate people for their personal qualities, skills and contributions, recognising the power our brands have to influence and shape culture.

The Opportunity

This is a rare opportunity to define the foundational design layer of some of the world’s most storied media brands – and to do it at a moment when what "platform design" means is genuinely changing. The Publishing Platform group sits at the heart of how Condé Nast’s brands are built, expressed, and experienced at scale. It spans our design system, component library and templates, editorial tooling and CMS. The work here enables every brand, from The New Yorker to Vogue to Wired, to move with greater creative confidence and coherence, and to deliver experiences that are faster, more beautiful, and more meaningful for the users they serve.

What you’ll be doing

• Defining the Design vision for the Publishing Platform.
• Owning the line between scale and expression.
• Leading through craft, not just process.
• Bringing technical depth and forward‑looking thinking.
• Leading with AI – actively, not theoretically.
• Partnering and influencing cross‑functionally.
• Embed an insights‑driven, outcomes‑oriented approach.
• Building and developing your team.

You’ll thrive here if…

• You’re energised by building in complexity.
• You’re a genuine player‑coach.
• You have deep craft instincts.
• You think across the system and the story simultaneously.
• You have a real, working relationship with AI tools.
• You’re fluent in multi‑brand complexity.
• You operate through influence and clarity, not authority.
• You’re resilient and low‑ego.

What success looks like

In your first six months, you’ll have built the trust and understanding needed to form a clear, well‑grounded point of view on how the foundations of our platform need to evolve, in order to deliver user experiences deserving of our world‑class brands, and you’ll have started acting on it, with early, measurable improvements to show. By the end of your first year, that point of view will be in motion.

Essential skills and experience

• Substantial experience leading platform‑level, systems‑oriented design.
• Deep technical fluency.
• A hands‑on, evolving relationship with AI tooling.
• A sophisticated understanding of typography, narrative structure, visual storytelling.

Leadership and people

• Demonstrated ability to lead as a player‑coach.
• Experience leading design teams through significant change.
• Proven ability to attract, develop and grow senior design talent.
• Comfort thinking about org design.

Strategic and cross‑functional

• A principled, clear‑eyed approach to the tension between platform unification and brand expression.
• Fluency in the commercial dimensions of a publishing platform.
• Excellent communication, facilitation and storytelling skills.
• Experience leveraging OKR frameworks.

It would be a bonus to have

• Experience working in media, publishing or content‑led consumer products.
• Experience working in large global organisations with distributed teams.

About Condé Nast Technology

Condé Nast Technology builds the products, systems and experiences that power our brands. Our mission is to enable creativity and business growth through next‑generation publishing, loyalty and commerce platforms.

What benefits do we offer?

• 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays) and extra days of annual leave.
• Competitive pension scheme, Bupa Private Healthcare, season‑ticket loans and eye tests.
• Tools to support your wellbeing.
• Dog‑friendly office and discounts and magazine subscriptions.
• Personal and professional growth through the Condé Nast Learning Hub.
• Employee Resource Groups to identify shared objectives.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Condé Nast is an equal‑opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, familial status and other legally protected characteristics.