Senior Packaging Designer

Location We are offering a hybrid working pattern to combine home and studio, your studio days will be in either Leeds or Manchester, depending which location is closest to home

Working Hours Full Time, Monday to Friday, 38 hours per week, Permanent Contract

Company Benefits 25 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays + Your Birthday off! Contributory Pension Scheme, excellent training and development opportunities, early Friday finish!

Role purpose
The role of the Senior Designer within Aire Global is one of the most exciting roles in the creative team. It requires flare, creativity, confidence as well as strong communication and project management skills. As a senior member of our design department, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the strategic, creative and adaptive projects for our clients. This position requires a unique blend of creativity, leadership, and client-facing skills to ensure the successful delivery of visually impactful and disruptive design solution. You’re a good plate spinner and mentor and you understand that the details matter.

Design Leadership
Lead and inspire those around you, providing mentorship and guidance.
You are accountable for your projects, therefore you’ll display ownership of the overall project design process, ensuring high levels of creativity that align with the client objectives.

Creative Ideation
Drive the creative ideation process, generating original and impactful packaging designs that resonate with target audiences.
Stay abreast of industry trends, ensuring designs are cutting-edge and in line with market expectations.

Passion for Design
Exhibit a genuine passion for design, staying motivated and enthusiastic about pushing creative boundaries.
Demonstrate a keen understanding of the impact design has on consumer perception and purchasing behaviour.

Accountability
Take full accountability for project timelines, ensuring deadlines are met without compromising quality.
Proactively identify and address potential challenges, demonstrating a solution-oriented mindset.

Presentation Skills
Demonstrate confidence and articulate design concepts effectively in client presentations.
Clearly communicate the rationale behind design decisions and how they align with clients’ goals.
Believe in what you are presenting with confidence and passion.

Client Interaction
You’ll be client facing when presenting projects, cultivating strong relationships through effective communication and a personable demeanour.
Collaborate with clients and our Client Delight team to understand their brand, vision and design requirements, translating these insights into compelling design concepts.

1. Quality

• Responsible for quality assurance in all aspects of the design process
• Ensure approved design and communication principles are understood and maintained throughout
• Highlight and help resolve any issues ensuring they do not become problems
• Ensure design adaptation / ranges are reviewed and are accurate to agreed standards
• Buddy check and provide feedback on the work of your peers to agreed quality standards
• Ensure all relevant checklist documentation is completed
• Contribute in range reviews presenting back to CD team
• Using in-depth technical knowledge, contribute and help lead PPMs, ensuring all variables are addressed thoroughly and methodically
• Be a strong brand guardian, ensuring consistency and quality is maintained
• Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of POS terminology and take ownership of presentation documents, from content to grammar and spell checking

2. Process and Procedures

• Support the management of the MSH and ISO accreditation in relation to the creative process
• Maintain and strictly follow process and procedure, always looking for improvements in our workflows
• Follow best practice in file management and versioning. Files must always be present and correct on the server
• Actively contribute and proactively share new ideas to help shape procedural efficiencies
• Support in the maintenance and development of reference documents such as knowledge banks and brand guidelines
• Demonstrate a strong understanding of processes and procedures within the department
• Keep your timesheets 100% up to date

3. Collaboration and Communication

• Bridge the gap between studio and client delight to ensure smooth delivery of projects and outcome/inputs
• Work with all departments, to ensure accuracy of input, schedules, necessary reviews and client presentations are achieved and maintained to required standard
• Attend and contribute to the team through fortnightly meetings and team catch up forums
• Support Management and your team with any business developments
• Discuss and ensure all briefs and inputs (including assets) are fit for use prior to work starting
• Establish and escalate timings needed for projects with CD
• Assist CD team in presentation set up when required, including ability to present to clients in an informative and engaging manner when appropriate
• Build collaborative working relationships with other departments and cross functional teams within the business to ensure smooth transition from Design to Production
• Manage own time effectively ensuring that agreed deadlines and delivery of work is achieved
• Provide regular project detail / updates ensuring key stakeholders are kept informed, and that clear lines of communication with CD team / Studio Traffic Manager are maintained throughout
• You are required to provide at least two social posts throughout the year. These can be around putting you forward as an expert within design or they can be self initiated topics that are engaging and interesting
• Your experience as a senior designer means that at times you will be required to provide an expert voice, not just internally but externally as well, such as webinars, seminars and client collaborations

4. Innovation and Technology

• As a technology based business we are actively assessing ways in which AI can be an effective part of the design process, therefore you will be able to investigate and display how this can be applied to the optimisation of your projects
• Proactively seek out key / relevant innovations within the industry and share these findings amongst the team to further strengthen our culture for development and improvement
• Embrace and drive automation and workflow technology within the business
• Support and champion the implementation of technology to improve efficiency and quality, allowing departments and the overall business to grow further
• Regularly review and identify areas requiring improvement, and, if necessary, challenge the business to work smarter by escalating your recommendations
• Actively work closely with the digital solutions team to identify and help support with innovations in technology
• Identify and build your skills through advances in available software

5. Culture

• To lead by example and always display the core values of the business in everything you do
• Do it with pride, use good honest judgement, see the opportunity, seize the opportunity, delight our clients everyday and make stuff happen
• You will act as an ambassador of the company values at all times
• The role requires you to be visible within the business in order for your conduct to be respected across the wider team