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Senior Visual Designer - Contract to Hire
Barbarian
New York City, New York, United States
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Senior Visual Designer


As part of Barbarian’s Creative team, you’ll shape consumer behavior through ideas, craft, and interactive experiences—partnering with world-class brands to raise the bar for digital communications, marketing, and advertising.

As a Senior Designer, you lead with hands-on craft and clear thinking: help define a brand’s look and feel, contribute to art direction and interaction patterns, and consistently deliver industry-leading work. You take ownership of projects with guidance from design leadership, collaborate closely with UX on journeys, wireframes, and prototypes, and produce high-quality interfaces across devices. You can go deep on a single flagship client or support multiple growth accounts—setting a strong craft bar and helping more junior designers succeed.


Grounded in Barbarian’s values—Innovation, Service, Craft, Thought—you thrive on new challenges, continuously improve how we work, and help strengthen client relationships through outstanding design.


Core responsibilities and success metrics

  • Deliver award-winning, high-quality digital design—from concept to launch—setting a strong craft benchmark for your projects.
  • Drive projects forward with a clear, evolving creative point of view; actively contribute to brainstorming and communicate ideas clearly.
  • Take ownership of day-to-day design delivery with limited supervision, ensuring on-time handoffs and a high level of detail and accuracy.
  • Contribute to art direction, visual style, and interaction patterns; produce best-in-class interface designs across desktop, tablet, and mobile.
  • Apply user-centered design principles (typography, layout, interaction) and collaborate closely with UX partners on journeys, wireframes, and prototypes.
  • Produce implementation-ready assets and participate in visual QA, partnering with Client Services, Technology, and Delivery throughout execution.
  • Help organize and prioritize your own workload across brands/initiatives, escalating risks and resourcing needs to design leadership when needed.
  • Support and mentor junior designers through feedback, shared tools, and collaboration—contributing to a strong craft culture.
  • Build and maintain positive client relationships in collaboration with design leadership; contribute to clear communication and strong client satisfaction.
  • Continuously learn emerging tools/tech and fold them into your process to improve quality and efficiency.
  • Contribute to new-business efforts and pitches as needed, partnering with senior creative leadership.


Qualifications

  • Solid senior-level creative background as a Senior Designer or Senior Art Director in an agency or similar environment.
  • Expert digital design craft across devices (web, mobile, tablet) and formats (websites, microsites, online campaigns, HTML/rich-media emails).
  • Proven success working within cross-functional, collaborative teams from concept through delivery.
  • Experience planning and estimating your own work; able to manage timelines with minimal overruns and flag issues early.
  • Ability to juggle multiple projects and stakeholders while maintaining quality.
  • Demonstrated ability to present work and participate in client discussions with confidence and clarity.
  • Strong presentation skills (visual and written).
  • Hands-on proficiency with current design tools (Adobe Suite, Sketch, Figma) and relevant hardware; awareness of emerging platforms and tools.


Preferred:

  • Work that has earned industry recognition or awards.
  • Experience across online and offline channels (e.g., integrated campaigns).
  • Experience working with European and/or global markets.
  • Participation in new-business efforts (pitches, RFP responses, account growth).
  • Bachelor’s degree in Design, Interaction Design, Visual Studies, or related field (or equivalent experience).


Technical capabilities

At a minimum, the Senior Designer must have a deep understanding of, and high proficiency creating work in, the following design software:

  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Sketch
  • Figma 
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