Senior Visual Designer and Brand Lead

About New America: New America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. New America is dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation's highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change, and seizing the opportunities those changes create.

About the role: New America is seeking a Senior Visual Designer and Brand Lead who will serve as the in-house visual design lead for New America’s creative products, strategic communications materials, select publications, and other digital assets.

The Senior Visual Designer and Brand Lead, as an important member of New America’s Central Communications team, will be responsible for defining and driving New America’s enterprise-wide brand standards. The ideal candidate is a talented, seasoned visual designer with a strong understanding of design thinking, theory, and branding concepts that can work across a variety of digital and print media.

The Senior Visual Designer and Brand Lead will work closely with the Digital Director, and will collaborate across the organization to conceive and develop high-impact design products that support our mission, build awareness of New America’s programs and people, and drive engagement across mediums. The Senior Visual Designer and Brand Lead will ensure all design products—including digital and web assets, infographics, social media collateral, print collateral for special events, and data visualizations—meet the highest quality standards while keeping on track with tight deadlines.

Responsibilities:

Design Strategy and Leadership – 50%

• Lead on brand identity and graphic design for New America, serving as our chief enterprise-level brand champion, owning the New America brand system and ensuring that final design products adhere to these standards.
• Oversee a brand refresh, developing updated standards and guidance for New America’s visual identity and brand system.
• Collaborate with the Digital Director and colleagues to incorporate the brand refresh into New America’s website redesign project.
• Provide oversight and direction on the creation and development of sub-brands or program-level brand identities, assisting programs with their identity development as well as the implementation of the sub-brand hierarchies.
• Lead organizational and team knowledge management as it relates to design work, including documentation, templates, and best practices.
• Serve as a strategic partner to content creators across the organization.
• Provide guidance and coaching to Central Communications team members and help to shepherd and inform New America’s broader communications strategy.
• Develop and conduct regular training workshops to build staff capacity—especially for communications and development colleagues—enabling staff members around the organization to be more strategic and effective brand ambassadors.
• Monitor project schedules, providing updates and feedback to stakeholders via email and our project management systems
• Manage or advise external design consultants.
• Manage relationships with print vendors.

Graphic Design – 50%

• Design and manage customizable brand templates for core design assets, such as social media graphics, newsletters, infographics, event graphics, and static data graphics.
• Product design support for digital products, including select website features, email newsletters, website and social banners, and social media graphics.
• Design New America collateral for special projects, such as annual reports, high-priority publications, anniversaries, and brand-building or fundraising campaigns.
• Support graphic design needs for video and audio production projects.
• Manage the full project lifecycle for all design projects—from conception to final product— identifying any operational challenges impacting this process and recommending solutions.
• Work with Central Communications colleagues to provide design support and guidance for select data visualization efforts.

Qualifications:

Candidates for this position should have the following:

• At least 6 years of professional experience in graphic design, with a focus on brand development
• Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite, especially InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop
• Experience in Figma, Canva, or other similar design-sharing and collaboration tools is a plus
• Strong understanding of typography, layout, color theory, and visual storytelling
• A robust portfolio that showcases a solid understanding of visual design principles
• An interest in translating complex policy-related content into compelling visuals
• A strong eye for detail
• Excellent organizational, project management, and time management skills
• Superb writing and communications skills
• Commitment to inclusive and accessible design principles
• Prior experience in coding or HTML/CSS is a plus
• Adaptable, solution-oriented, tech-savvy, self-motivated candidates are preferred

Location: Washington, DC-based candidates are preferred, but fully remote situations will be considered for the right candidate.

Compensation and benefits: This position is a full-time role with benefits.  The salary for this position is negotiable and will be determined based on the successful candidate's experience, qualifications, and skills. New America is committed to offering competitive compensation packages to attract top talent. 

New America offers a highly competitive benefits package that includes health care, dental, and vision coverage; a generous retirement plan; observes all federal holidays; 20 days of paid time off (combined vacation and sick days) in your first year of employment and 30 days of paid time off in subsequent years; 12 weeks of paid parental leave; and an office-wide closure between Christmas and New Year.

How to apply: Submit a cover letter, resume and links to portfolios of work. Applicants without a cover letter, resume, and samples of work will not be considered. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so early submissions are recommended. Please, no phone calls or emails.

New America is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization thereby creating a culture that allows us to better serve our clientele, our employees and our communities. We value and encourage the contributions of our employees and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential and drive outstanding results. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies with regard to all aspects of one’s employment, including hiring, transfer, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits, and termination.