Staff Brand Designer – Brand Systems and Creative Direction

Job Overview

The Staff Brand Designer will lead complex and highly visible design projects from initial brief through final delivery. You will work closely with creative leadership, another staff-level designer, brand strategists, copywriters, product marketing partners, and company leaders to shape how Mercury appears across every major channel.

This role requires mastery of typography, layout, color, composition, imagery, motion, and scalable brand systems. You will also provide direct craft oversight, mentor other designers, commission outside creative partners, and guide how artificial intelligence is used within high-quality brand design work.

Key Responsibilities

• Set and maintain the quality standard for Mercury’s brand design.
• Lead complex, high-profile brand projects from creative brief through production and delivery.
• Develop visual work across campaigns, websites, social channels, events, and other brand surfaces.
• Partner with creative leadership and another staff-level brand designer to evolve Mercury’s visual direction.
• Define and apply standards for typography, imagery, layout, motion, and composition.
• Review Brand Studio work and provide hands-on guidance that improves overall execution quality.
• Help designers make stronger creative and technical decisions.
• Commission and art-direct photographers, illustrators, motion designers, and other external creative partners.
• Create brand-system documentation and practical decision-making frameworks.
• Build scalable guidelines that help the team produce consistent work across multiple channels.
• Mentor IC3 and IC4 designers through critique, collaborative work, and direct feedback.
• Partner with strategists, copywriters, product marketers, and senior stakeholders on brand expression.
• Shape the role of AI within Mercury’s creative process.
• Develop AI-ready brand guidelines and maintain quality standards as AI tools are introduced into design workflows.

Required Qualifications

• Between 84 and 120 or more months of professional brand design experience.
• A portfolio demonstrating advanced skill in typography, layout, color, and composition.
• Experience producing strong brand work across multiple creative formats and channels.
• A well-developed aesthetic perspective and the ability to explain design quality clearly.
• Strong understanding of brand systems and how they support consistency at scale.
• Experience helping a brand grow, evolve, or change over time.
• Previous experience operating at staff level or in a similarly autonomous senior design role.
• Ability to influence team output without relying on formal authority.
• Proficiency in Figma.
• Hands-on experience contributing to or owning a design system.
• Strong verbal communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to explain the process, purpose, and business impact of design decisions.
• Sound judgment regarding when to focus on detailed craft and when to consider the broader brand system.
• Practical experience using artificial intelligence tools in real creative work.
• Ability to guide a design team on where AI adds value and where it may reduce quality.

Preferred Background

• Experience in a high-craft agency environment.
• Background in fashion, premium consumer brands, or design-led technology companies.
• Experience art-directing outside creative specialists.
• Experience building brand documentation and scalable visual standards.
• Experience mentoring senior individual contributors.
• Strong understanding of motion design and integrated campaign systems.

Core Design Focus

• Brand identity.
• Creative direction.
• Typography.
• Layout and composition.
• Color systems.
• Art direction.
• Motion design.
• Campaign design.
• Web and digital brand experiences.
• Design-system development.
• Creative quality assurance.
• AI-enabled design workflows.

Leadership and Mentorship

• Raise the overall quality of work produced by the Brand Studio.
• Provide direct and practical feedback during active projects.
• Help developing designers strengthen their craft through real work.
• Influence creative decisions across teams without requiring direct management authority.
• Support consistent design judgment through documentation, critique, and collaborative problem-solving.

AI and Creative Practice

• Set standards for responsible and effective AI use in brand design.
• Determine where AI belongs within creative workflows.
• Help the Brand Studio use AI without weakening craft, originality, or consistency.
• Create guidelines that allow AI-generated or AI-assisted work to remain aligned with Mercury’s visual identity.
• Evaluate new creative tools while maintaining a high quality threshold.

Work Arrangement

• Open to candidates in San Francisco, California.
• Open to candidates in New York, New York.
• Open to candidates in Portland, Oregon.
• Remote work is available within the United States or Canada.
• Collaboration will involve Brand Studio teammates, marketing partners, creative leadership, and company leadership.

Compensation

Mercury provides location-based salary ranges for this position.

• U.S. employees in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle: $189,400 to $236,700 per year.
• U.S. employees outside those markets: $170,400 to $213,000 per year.
• Canadian employees: $179,000 to $223,700 CAD per year.

Individual offers are based on relevant experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity. The total rewards package also includes equity through stock options or restricted stock units and employee benefits.

About Mercury

Mercury is a financial technology company that provides banking-related tools and services for startups. The company focuses on helping founders and growing businesses manage financial operations while spending more time building their companies.

Mercury places a strong emphasis on thoughtful design and considers visual craft an important part of how the company builds trust and communicates with customers.

Mercury is a fintech company rather than an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services are provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., which are Members FDIC.