Creative & Brand Design Manager

Zymo Research is seeking a Creative & Brand Design Manager to lead a creative team of three while contributing as a player-coach graphic designer. The role owns the company’s brand design and visual identity, translating brand strategy into clear, repeatable visual standards and delivering key corporate brand assets across multiple channels.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage, coach, and develop the creative team through clear expectations, regular feedback, performance reviews, and professional development.
• Assign design work based on priorities, capacity, and individual strengths; coordinate timelines and workloads with project managers and Marketing leadership.
• Provide art direction and constructive design feedback to strengthen creative judgment, skills, and independence.
• Build a collaborative environment where team members contribute ideas and work directly with internal partners throughout projects.
• Support hiring and onboarding as the creative team evolves.
• Own and continually refine Zymo Research’s visual identity across digital, print, social media, email, presentations, events, product collateral, and other brand touchpoints.
• Translate brand strategy into practical visual principles, including typography, layout, color, imagery, iconography, and visual hierarchy.
• Act as the lead reviewer for brand design, ensuring major assets are clear, polished, consistent, and aligned with brand direction.
• Develop creative concepts and produce finished graphic design work with primary emphasis on corporate brand programs and company-wide initiatives.
• Design corporate presentations, company overviews, brand campaigns, event materials, internal communications, and other materials representing Zymo Research.
• Manage assigned design projects from brief and concept development through revisions, production, and final delivery.
• Create flagship brand assets and reusable examples that set a clear direction for the broader creative team.
• Maintain an active individual design workload while balancing team leadership, creative reviews, and brand development responsibilities.
• Lead development and maintenance of the brand guide, expanding it beyond logos and colors into a practical system for everyday design decisions.
• Create and refine templates for presentations, social media, email, brochures, product sheets, events, and internal communications.
• Ensure brand standards are easy for creative team members, internal partners, and external vendors to understand and apply.
• Audit existing materials, identify inconsistent or outdated designs, and prioritize updates with Marketing leadership.
• Partner with project and operations leads to improve creative briefs, project intake, review cycles, approvals, and delivery workflows.
• Maintain organized asset libraries, approved templates, source files, and version control so teams can find and reuse current materials.
• Review work for visual clarity, brand consistency, and production quality prior to delivery, ensuring files meet requirements for their intended channels.
• Use delivery outcomes, stakeholder feedback, and brand standard adoption to identify improvements in creative quality and team effectiveness.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Commercialization Managers, scientific and technical contributors, and Web teams to translate communication objectives into visual design.
• Involve designers early in project planning and collaborate with subject matter experts to make complex information clear and visually accessible while preserving accuracy.
• Provide visual direction for photography, video, campaign imagery, and website assets with the teams responsible for those channels.

Requirements

• Five or more years of experience in graphic design, brand design, visual identity, or art direction, including direct experience managing and developing creative team members.
• A strong portfolio showing personal design work, excellent typography and layout, visual hierarchy, and consistent brand execution across digital and print.
• Experience developing brand guidelines, templates, visual systems, or design standards.
• Hands-on proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud, especially Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop, plus strong presentation design skills.
• Ability to translate brand strategy and communication objectives into practical visual principles and finished creative work.
• Strong skills in creative review, including the ability to coach designers, explain design decisions, and provide clear, actionable feedback.
• Ability to balance individual design projects with people management, creative direction, and competing deadlines.
• Strong organization, communication, and collaboration across creative, scientific, marketing, and commercial teams.

Technologies

• Adobe Creative Cloud
• Illustrator
• InDesign
• Photoshop
• Figma

Compensation and Location

• Location: Onsite – Zymo Research, 2961 Dow Ave, Tustin, CA 92780
• Base Compensation: Estimated $100,000 to $115,000 annually (at time of posting)

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, Vision, and Life Insurance coverages
• EAP sessions
• Vacation time plus company holidays
• Paid sick leave
• Generous 401(K) with matching
• Employee referral bonus
• Complimentary fruit, snacks, and beverages
• Complimentary catered lunches on Thursdays
• Complimentary EV charging
• Cell phone stipend