The role of a Design Director at Canonical

Our Design Director will play a key role making open source software available to the world. Our Design function ensures the experience of using software is true to our intentions, and the Design Director makes this possible through leadership within, and beyond, our teams.

As a Design Director, you bring experience managing delivery teams and have expertise in visual and UX design. This enables you to coach designers cross-context to move towards tangible outcomes and lift the quality of their work. You will manage expectations and ensure deadlines are met in a timely manner against your roadmap. You will be able to communicate clearly and actively listen to product and engineering stakeholders, and your team, to drive sustainable quality improvements and guide individuals towards meaningful growth.

Leading the Brand & Marketing Design team, you will take responsibility for how we express the Canonical and Ubuntu brands and product content operations, especially on our web touchpoints.

Location: This role will be based remotely in the EMEA region

What your day will look like

Reviewing the work of your design team for quality
Working with individual designers to support their professional growth
Continuously improving operational workflows, including production outsourcing and collaboration with Web Engineering
Working with stakeholders, especially Marketing and our Head of Brand, to clearly define and validate outcomes
Evolving design systems and guidelines to drive consistent quality and improve efficiency
Coordinating with the rest of design leadership to mature our collective practice
Bringing your team and others together to share their work and strengthen culture
Engaging the open source community to learn and make the value of our work legible

What we are looking for in you

A portfolio demonstrating quality in UI design, especially visually
Exceptional educational achievements in design or related behavioral science discipline
Full lifecycle experience from user needs discovery through validation and implementation guidance
Commitment to transparent project delivery and owning team deadlines
Experience of managing a team that interacts with technical stakeholders
Familiarity with quantitative optimisation approaches
A passion for balancing consistency and innovation
Willingness to travel up to 4 times a year for internal events

What we offer you

Your base pay will depend on various factors including your geographical location, level of experience, knowledge and skills. In addition to the benefits below, certain roles are also eligible for additional benefits and rewards including annual bonuses and sales incentives based on revenue or utilisation. Our compensation philosophy is to ensure equity right across our global workforce.

In addition to a competitive base pay, we provide all team members with additional benefits, which reflect our values and ideals. Please note that additional benefits may apply depending on the work location and, for more information on these, you can ask in the later stages of the recruitment process.

Fully remote working environment - we’ve been working remotely since 2004!
Personal learning and development budget of 2,000USD per annum
Annual compensation review
Recognition rewards
Annual holiday leave
Parental Leave
Employee Assistance Programme
Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues at ‘sprints’
Priority Pass for travel and travel upgrades for long haul company events

About Canonical

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm that is at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the company that publishes Ubuntu, one of the most important open source projects and the platform for AI, IoT and the cloud, we are changing the world on a daily basis. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company. We expect excellence - in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do.

Canonical has been a remote-first company since its inception in 2004. Work at Canonical is a step into the future, and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game. Canonical provides a unique window into the world of 21st-century digital business.

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer

We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.

#LI-remote

Apply for this Job

* Required

First Name *

Last Name *

Email *

Phone

Resume/CV *

Dropbox Google Drive

(File types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf)

When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review

+ Add another education

During this application process I agree to use only my own words. I understand that plagiarism, the use of AI or other generated content will disqualify my application. *

What are the key ingredients in a successful brand refresh game plan? *

What is the most technically-oriented enterprise product you’ve had to work on? *

Describe your most complex web design project. *

Please attach a PDF portfolio if you have one available

Dropbox Google Drive

(File types: pdf, doc, docx, rtf, txt, xz, ppt, xls, jpeg, gz, tar.gz, .py)

How did you perform in mathematics at high school? *

How did you perform in your native language at high school? *

Please share your rationale or evidence for the high school performance selections above. Make reference to provincial, state or nation-wide scoring systems, rankings, or recognition awards, or to competitive or selective college entrance results such as SAT or ACT scores, JAMB, matriculation results, IB results etc. We recognise every system is different but we will ask you to justify your selections above. *

What was your bachelor's university degree result, or expected result if you have not yet graduated? Please include the grading system to help us understand your result e.g. ‘85 out of 100’, ‘2:1 (Grading system: first class, 2:1, 2:2, third class)’ or ‘GPA score of 3.8/4.0 (predicted)’. We have hired outstanding individuals who did not attend or complete university. If this describes you, please continue with your application and enter ‘no degree’. *

Universities around the world score degrees in different ways. Please indicate your result, or expected result if you are close to graduation, along with information about the grading system.

We expect all colleagues to meet in person 2-4 times a year, at internal company events lasting between 1-2 weeks. We try to pick new and interesting locations that will likely require international travel and entry requirement visas and vaccinations. Are you willing and able to commit to this? *

Please note that if you require any accommodation for travel that relates to a physical disability please do let us know during your hiring process and we will be happy to discuss your requirements further.

In the past ten years, looking only at the time since you graduated your first undergraduate degree, how many companies have you worked for? *

We're focused specifically on the last ten years, and only the portion of that since you left undergrad university. If you graduated three years ago, just count the number of companies you have worked for in those three years. If you graduated 25 years ago, just count the companies in the last ten years.

If you worked for a company which was acquired or renamed, then please count that as one company not two. Don't count any university jobs or internships. If you have your own company or do private contracting work in addition to your employment, please count that as one company.

Website

LinkedIn Profile

Please confirm that you have read and agree to Canonical's Recruitment Privacy Notice and Privacy Policy. *

Recruitment Privacy Notice

In which country do you currently work? *

Please select your current location from the dropdown.

Our system has flagged this application as potentially being associated with bot traffic. Please turn off any VPNs, clear your browser cache and cookies, or try submitting your application in a different browser. If this issue persists, please reach out to our support team via our help center.

Please complete the reCAPTCHA above.