Lead Digital Designer

Guardian News & Media is looking for a Lead Digital Designer to strengthen US editorial design practice and elevate newsroom visual storytelling across digital platforms. Working within the Editorial department, you will balance hands-on craft with leadership, shaping how complex journalism becomes clear, immersive, and scalable story experiences.

This hybrid role is based in New York, NY, with a salary range of USD 125,000 - 135,000 per year. The position requires at least 5 years of relevant experience.

Role focus

• Shape US editorial design practice and push newsroom visual storytelling across digital platforms.
• Lead hands-on design work including wireframes, prototypes, templates, and editorial story experiences.
• Collaborate with editors, designers, developers, and other contributors to deliver cohesive, brand-aligned experiences.

Responsibilities

• Work with a small design team, help set priorities, and support a collaborative, engaged, and ambitious design culture.
• Translate complex journalism into clear, immersive, and scalable digital experiences, including visual story packages, interactives, explainers, tools, templates, and experimental formats.
• Design story experiences that integrate text, graphics, maps, photography, illustration, video, audio, motion, and interactive elements where appropriate.
• Create wireframes, prototypes, and polished editorial treatments.
• Partner with developers to ensure designs are technically feasible, effective, accessible, and achievable within project timelines.
• Spot opportunities to improve reusable design treatments, templates, workflows, and production processes across the visuals team.
• Support quick-turn news coverage by developing clear, effective, and visually distinctive treatments on deadline.
• Help develop new editorial formats and digital storytelling approaches that reach audiences in fresh and useful ways.
• Collaborate with illustrators, artists, designers, and other contributors from concept through final execution.
• Apply and evolve design guidelines across daily news and feature stories, using sound judgment about story priority and the broader news agenda.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of experience in digital design, editorial design, visual journalism, or a comparable creative environment.
• Experience working in news or a similarly deadline-driven editorial environment.
• A strong portfolio showing exceptional digital design, interactive design, editorial judgment, and visual craft across a range of formats within brand guidelines and systems.
• Hands-on experience with HTML, SCSS, and JavaScript.
• Ability to design intuitive, accessible user journeys from concept through final execution, including complex templates or scalable story formats for mobile and desktop audiences.
• Advanced proficiency in Figma and the Adobe Creative Suite.
• Experience creating wireframes, prototypes, design systems, and polished editorial experiences.
• Capacity to balance fast-turn assignments with more ambitious medium- and long-term projects.
• Strong awareness of, and curiosity about, emerging visual trends in digital design.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience developing reusable templates, design systems, or story formats for a newsroom.
• Experience designing election results experiences or other complex data-driven storytelling.

Technologies

• HTML
• SCSS
• JavaScript
• Figma
• Adobe Creative Suite

Benefits

• 25 days of vacation leave in addition to 12 company holidays
• Unlimited sick time
• Employee Assistance Programs
• 401(k) Match
• Subsidized healthcare coverage including medical, vision, and dental
• Medical and Dependent Flexible Spending Accounts
• Generous parental leave with 100% pay
• Long Term and Short Term Disability insurance
• Life insurance
• Commuter benefits
• Work/Life balance: Flexible hybrid schedule

How to apply

To apply, upload your resume and cover letter.

Culture & wellbeing

• Morning conference with a live discussion on the news story of the day and insight from journalists.
• Support for wellbeing through access to Employee Assistance Programs.

Learning & development

• Encouragement of personal and professional growth.
• Support for professional qualifications through vocational courses and apprenticeships.

Sustainability

Guardian News & Media aims to become an environmentally regenerative company, supported by a sustainability vision and strategy.