Design Director

About Saylor

Saylor is an entertainment-led creative agency with teams in Los Angeles and New York City. Founded by former entertainment executives, we set sail in 2021 to build an independent agency that rethinks how brands communicate with today's audiences.

We believe every brand is an entertainment brand. That is why we craft ideas that move with culture, creating work that earns attention, sparks connection, and builds fandoms that last. Our clients include Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Hilton, Anthropologie, and more.

We're a tight‑knit crew of creatives, strategists, and makers who collaborate without ego, stay curious, and always show up for one another. We foster a supportive space where diverse perspectives are celebrated, hierarchy never blocks great ideas, and everyone is empowered to jump in, solve problems, and push creative boundaries together.

Position Overview

The Design Director is the senior-most leader for Saylor's design team, responsible for setting and upholding our creative standard across all design and motionwork. This role balances creative excellence, hands-on design leadership, people management, and operational partnership so design at Saylor is consistently high-quality, scalable, and aligned with the agency's creative ambition.

This is a hands-on design leadership role. While the Design Director is responsible for setting standards, mentoring the team, and partnering cross-functionally, they are also expected to actively design, concept, and execute work on high-impact projects.

The Design Director partners closely with Creative Directors, Strategy, Production, Editorial, and Account leadership, and manages the design team along with the Design Resource Manager, who oversees design staffing allocation and resourcing.

Location and Salary

This is a full-time, exempt role with a salary range of $140,000-$190,000, depending on experience. This person must be LA-based and available to come into the Saylor office in Echo Park on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Responsibilities:

• Set, maintain, and evolve the visual design standard across all Saylor client work, including brand, social, paid media, experiential, and OOH.
• Ensure all design work is conceptually strong, on-brand, and aligned with creative direction and Saylor's creative standards.
• Provide clear, actionable feedback across multiple projects, teams, and accounts.
• Act as a hands-on designer on key projects when needed, particularly high-visibility or strategically important work.
• Champion strong visual systems, craft, and attention to detail across all deliverables.

• Serve as the primary creative and design leader for the design team - representing the team in leadership conversations/meetings.
• Mentor and coach designers at all levels, helping them grow both creatively and professionally.
• Establish clear expectations, feedback loops, and growth paths for designers.
• Partner with People Operations and leadership on performance reviews, promotions, hiring needs, and team development.
• Foster a design culture rooted in craft, curiosity, inclusivity, and collaboration.

• Partner closely with the Design Resource Manager to align creative needs with staffing capacity and skill sets.
• Collaborate with Creative, Production, and Accounts to help define scopes, timelines, and realistic design deliverables.
• Identify workflow challenges or inefficiencies and help evolve design processes to support scale and quality.
• Uphold consistency, quality, and efficiency across multiple teams and accounts.

• Collaborate with Creative, Strategy, Editorial, Production, and Account leadership to bring ideas to life visually.
• Translate strategy and creative concepts into compelling visual systems and executions.
• Establish design standards that support broader brand storytelling, campaign goals, and business objectives.
• Act as a design voice in senior-level creative discussions and decision-making.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of professional design experience, including senior-level leadership roles.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating excellence across brand, digital, and campaign work.
• Proven experience leading, mentoring, and growing multidisciplinary design teams.
• Comfortable balancing hands-on design work with high-level creative oversight and direction.
• Experience working in fast-paced, agency environments with multiple clients and workstreams.
• Strong communicator with the ability to deliver clear, constructive, and motivating creative feedback.
• Deep understanding of brand systems, visual storytelling, and modern design tools and workflows.

Benefits

We offer a competitive salary, health insurance, 401k, generous vacation, and great opportunities for growth within the company.

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Saylor is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all team members.​​ Qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.