Purpose Statement:

• Act as the group’s expert centre on design and leading design professional, providing world-class design for all products.
• Establish, evangelise, and enact an overarching design strategy aimed at unifying all products under a single design look and feel umbrella, taking advantage of specific products and platforms while communicating a joined-up product vision to our customer.
• Lead a team of professionals to provide timely execution of all design projects, encompassing user experience design as well as graphic design
• Lead the outsourced delivery of design projects, acting as the group’s professional counterpart to external design teams.

Key Facts and Figures:

• 5+ direct reports
• Budget responsibility
• Partial freedom in decision making

Main Responsibilities:

• To provide design resource to both corporate and external stakeholders fulfilling design project needs while ensuring a coherent design output for all products.
• Responsibility for Graphic and some aspects of User Experience design for all products
• Responsibility for industrial design where relevant.
• Responsibility for internal design deliverables to support marketing and product initiatives.
• To provide design services where required to external parties.
• To develop and own design guidelines for all products and services.
• Manage a pool of in-house design staff.
• Support the identification of suitable third-party design agency resource.
• Manage the on-boarding and on-going support of third-party resource.
• Identify and manage a pool of freelance design resource.
• Provide team management, including all quality oversight, HR, reporting, tasks etc.
• Ensure, where appropriate, the timely transfer of tasks and responsibilities to local management.
• Be pro-active, instigate improvements and encourage best practice across markets with the objective to drive product leadership.
• The Creative Director is involved in the overall management of the team, team strategy, budgets and other general management tasks as directed.
• The Creative Director will also be expected to take part in management meetings and updates for other departments within a matrix environment.

• Fluent spoken and written English – ideally other European languages
• Graduate calibre with a relevant qualification
• More than 10 years of design or similar experience; 4 years or more of relevant line management experience.
• Outstanding creative credentials, with a focus in one of the following areas, but an awareness and (ideally experience) of all: Graphic design, Interaction Design, Web Design, Moving image design, Print design.
• Expert knowledge of the TV, online, and mobile domains, strategies, new services and industry trends and developments. Intuitive understanding of viewer behaviour and content consumption preferences.
• Outstanding team management, mentoring, and training skills.
• Able to credibly lead a highly skilled and creative team – leading by example of best practice.
• Knowledge of building a subscription based business, with strong emphasis on customer retention.
• Leadership of cross-functional teams in the creation of successful new product solutions
• Experience of matrix organisations combining centralised corporate marketing function and local affiliate territory marketing operations. Ideally first-hand experience of both types of environments within Europe.
• Confident and credible influencer, able to command respect
• Ability to bring clarity to ambiguous situations and to act decisively
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills to broadly influence and effectively forge partnerships both internally and externally
• Ability to be supportive, consultative and collaborative and to work effectively across national boundaries
• Ability to quickly understand business objectives and to recognise and capitalise on market opportunities with an analytical, numerate mind.
• A technical aptitude to understand product features and functions
• Ability to lead and motivate a highly capable and competitive team
• Significant experience of board-level presentations, creative pitches, and communication of design ideas.

Madison Parker International is a strategic resourcing consultancy specialized in the global recruitment of permanent and temporary business and technology professionals to clients in the commercial, finance and technology sectors within the Netherlands and various international markets.

We provide an innovative, flexible and personalized search service – which is why companies both large and small rely on us to help them locate the best people on the market. Our growing reputation has been achieved through the consistent delivery of professional services to clients and candidates alike.

At Madison Parker, we have developed a simple set of values to which we attach great importance. These are:

• To act professionally and with integrity at all times
• To build long term partnerships based on trust and mutual respect
• To provide a consistently high level of service
• To focus on quality not quantity

These values serve as our guiding light throughout every assignment and in every business relationship.
In the fast moving world of recruitment, Madison Parker is committed to your success.

Our client is a pace setter in providing advanced media and telecommunication services. With activities in 3 continents and over $10 billion in revenues it is one of the main players in the media-telecom industry. They are now looking to recruit a Creative Director.