Senior Design Lead

Role Purpose

The Senior Design Lead will shape, protect and evolve the visual identity of Uniphar Retail, Supply Chain and Consumer brands. Combining strategic creative leadership with hands-on design delivery, the role will raise creative standards, strengthen brand consistency and build greater in-house capability across Retail, Consumer and Supply Chain marketing.

The role will prioritise McCauley, Allcare, Uniphar own brands (such as Aya, Kit & Kaboodle) and B2B brand communication for Uniphar Ireland, working across creative campaigns, digital and social media channels, point of sale, presentations and the in-store customer experience (POS as well as retail store design).

Key Responsibilities

• Lead creative projects from concept to delivery across brand campaigns, digital, print, retail and spatial touchpoints.
• Act as brand design guardian, evolving and maintaining visual identities, design systems and brand guidelines. Championing design orientation mindset across the business – showing the importance of a unifying brand system that ensures meaning and recognition (visual brand architecture)
• Translate marketing and business objectives into distinctive conceptual ideas and best-in-class creative solutions.
• Provide strategic design input into marketing campaigns, in-store environments, packaging and customer experience initiatives.
• Remain hands-on, delivering priority creative work as well as supporting POS, digital assets, presentations and smaller design requirements when needed.
• Manage and mentor one Graphic Designer, providing clear direction, feedback, coaching and development.
• Plan and manage the design workflow, prioritising briefs, allocating work and responding effectively to changing business needs.
• Champion the responsible use of AI-enabled creative and productivity tools to improve concept development, content adaptation, workflow efficiency and speed to market, while maintaining human creative judgement, brand integrity, accessibility and appropriate governance.
• Direct and quality-control external creative agencies and suppliers, bringing work in-house where this improves speed, quality or value and retains brand guardianship.
• Proactively identify design opportunities, brand inconsistencies and customer-experience issues, and recommend practical solutions.

Experience and Qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant design experience in an in-house or agency environment, with demonstrable senior-level responsibility.
• A strong portfolio showing conceptual campaign thinking, brand identity development and high-quality execution across multiple channels.
• A qualification in Visual Communications, Graphic Design or a related discipline.
• Demonstrable experience creating, evolving and applying brand guidelines and visual identity systems.
• Experience producing varied digital assets, including interactive formats, and strong knowledge of print production techniques.
• Experience managing multiple projects, timelines, stakeholders and external suppliers.
• Confidence presenting creative thinking and constructively challenging briefs or inconsistent brand execution.
  

Technical Skills

• Advanced Adobe Creative Suite skills, including InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop.
• Working knowledge of Adobe After Effects to support smaller motion-design projects.
• Strong Microsoft Office capability, particularly PowerPoint presentation design.
• Practical experience using Microsoft Copilot and other generative AI tools to support research, ideation, presentation development, briefing, versioning and administrative efficiency.
• Strong working knowledge of Canva, including the creation of controlled templates and brand kits that enable wider teams to self-serve without compromising brand standards.
• Good understanding of digital production, accessibility, image preparation, artwork delivery and print specifications.

Desirable Experience

• Motion graphics, animation or interactive design.
• Packaging, environmental or spatial design.
• Experience with retail, pharmacy, healthcare, FMCG, food and drink, or consumer brands.
• Experience balancing strategic brand development with fast-paced day-to-day delivery.
• Experience embedding AI-assisted or automated creative workflows within an in-house or agency design environment.

Core Behaviours

• Strong creative judgement and an exceptional eye for typography, layout, hierarchy and detail.
• Self-starter who identifies opportunities and problems and addresses them effectively.
• Digitally progressive and curious, with evidence of adopting new tools and ways of working to improve quality, efficiency and team capability.
• Commercial and customer-focused, with the ability to connect design decisions to business and brand outcomes.
• Collaborative, pragmatic and comfortable influencing stakeholders at different levels.
• Able to combine high creative standards with pace, prioritisation and hands-on delivery.

Measures of Success

• Improved consistency and quality across key brand touchpoints.
• Stronger campaign concepts and creative effectiveness.
• Reduced dependency on external design support for recurring work.
• Faster, more efficient design workflows and fewer rounds of rework.
• Responsible adoption of AI and template-based tools, with measurable improvements in turnaround time, asset versioning and stakeholder self-service.
• Effective development and performance of the in-house Graphic Designer.
• Positive stakeholder confidence in the in-house design function.