Lead Designer in London

We are the largest global socially-led creative agency, with unrivalled social media and influencer marketing expertise. With over 1,200 people in four continents, we deliver a global perspective to our clients in a time when social media is shaping culture. We're proud to be a multi award-winning agency, with Cannes Lions, One Show, Webby and Shorty Awards, to name but a few. Our most recent work has seen us help Amazon Music, Activision and Adidas deliver some of their biggest and most innovative campaigns to date. As well as creating for clients, we help educate the wider industry. Our Instagram publication The Feed tracks culture at the speed of social. 6,500 people registered or tuned into our events last year, and our reports garnered more than 20 million views.

The Opportunity

Do you live and breathe social? Are you obsessed with understanding and executing on the social-craft that gets DM-worthy content ranked on the algorithm? Do you want to create award-winning social-first creative for iconic brands? Do you want to turn a love for popular culture into a stream of standout social media content? This is a high-impact, hands-on leadership role for someone who excels at bridging the gap between strategic brand guardianship and world-class social execution. You will act as the lead creative protector for content across major European markets (UK, DE, FR, SP, IT), ensuring design consistency while navigating the nuances of localisation. From leading weekly virtual team meets to "doing the doing" during peak production moments, you will balance mentorship with technical oversight. By partnering with Editorial Directors to translate QBR data into creative optimizations, you’ll not only set the visual standards for global campaigns but also play a fundamental role in driving the agency’s innovation, profitability, and industry presence.

What You’ll Have Delivered Elsewhere

• Experience as a Senior or Lead Designer, with a strong background in multidisciplinary design across social, digital and integrated campaigns.
• Deep expertise in social-first creative craft, with a strong understanding of hooks, pacing, framing, transitions and other thumb-stopping techniques that drive engagement.
• A proven track record of leading high-volume, fast-turnaround global campaigns while maintaining exceptional creative standards.
• Experience acting as a brand and design guardian across multiple markets, ensuring consistency, quality and creative excellence across all outputs.
• Extensive knowledge of social platforms, content formats, emerging trends and platform developments, with the ability to keep work culturally relevant and impactful.
• Ownership of projects from concept to delivery, including creating client-facing presentations, presenting work to internal and external stakeholders, and maintaining quality throughout the creative process.
• Experience mentoring and developing creative talent, raising the standard of work across teams and contributing to wider departmental growth.
• Strong shoot art direction experience, supported by a portfolio showcasing ideas-led creative work and advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite.
• Responsibility for overseeing and approving creative output across multiple brands simultaneously, acting as the final point of quality control and creative sign-off.
• A track record of successfully delivering projects in high-pressure environments, balancing deadlines, budgets and commercial objectives across complex, multi-market programmes.
• Confidence in remaining hands-on when required, leading by example and contributing directly to delivery during peak periods.
• Demonstrable experience leading and inspiring creative teams, nurturing junior talent and encouraging designers to push creative boundaries.
• A collaborative leadership style, with experience establishing new processes and ways of working that have improved both creative quality and operational efficiency.

What Else Are We Looking For?

• A vision-led design leader with the ability to balance strategic oversight with a deep understanding of localisation and market nuances.
• Proven expertise in developing design systems and campaign guidelines that can be effectively scaled across multiple regions while maintaining brand consistency.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to partner closely with Editorial teams to assess performance, identify key insights, and shape future content strategies.
• A passion for driving craft innovation across social platforms, staying ahead of emerging technologies, trends and best practices to ensure work remains culturally relevant and industry-leading.
• Exceptional at simplifying complex challenges into clear, compelling and highly crafted creative solutions.
• A recognised design expert who can create new opportunities through the strength of their work, influence and collaborative relationships.
• Experience leading regular team forums, mentoring designers and creating an environment that encourages growth, collaboration and continuous learning.
• A self-starter with the confidence and autonomy to lead change, support the Head of Design and help build a future-ready, multi-skilled design function.

Benefits

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion runs in the water here at We Are Social. We are transparent about the changes that are needed, we are focused on making real strides, both internally and within the industry and we strive to truly be a workplace that represents, supports and advocates for ALL. Our Charter for Change in the UK can be found here which details our focus areas across People, Work and Culture in 2026. Inclusion at every level is crucial to creative innovation and success, and we want to create a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging. We welcome and encourage talent from ALL backgrounds and are committed to creating a representative team that can deliver creative excellence. If you require any support, adjustments or accommodations for any reason whatsoever during the recruitment process, please let us know via recruitment@wearesocial.net.

So let’s get to the good stuff, we offer all those things you would naturally expect; 25 days holiday, pension scheme & life assurance. But what we love most is connection, so we have our WAS Passport and Work From Anywhere schemes which allow you to truly connect to colleagues all over the world! But what’s life around here really like day-to-day? Well, we ask our people regularly what they think about us/their role and here are some of the most common things they say:

• I value my manager we have a good relationship.
• We love to ‘get social’ with the people I work with.
• Trusted to get on with the job, without ‘micro-management’!

If this all sounds like the place you have been waiting to find then apply now! What are you waiting for?