Senior Design Director, Publishing Platform

Condé Nast is a global media company producing the highest quality content with a footprint of more than 1 billion consumers in 32 territories through print, digital, video and social platforms. The company’s portfolio includes many of the world’s most respected and influential media properties including Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Self, GQ, The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler/Traveller, Allure, AD, Bon Appétit and Wired, among others. Job Description Location: London, GB Condé Nast thrives on collaboration, and our teams come together in the office four days a week (Monday - Thursday). We value diversity of background, views and cultures. We celebrate people for their personal qualities, skills and contributions, recognising the power our brands have to influence and shape culture. The Opportunity This is a rare opportunity to define the foundational design layer of some of the world's most storied media brands - and to do it at a moment when what "platform design" means is genuinely changing. The Publishing Platform group sits at the heart of how Condé Nast's brands are built, expressed, and experienced at scale. It spans our design system, component library and templates, editorial tooling and CMS. The work here enables every brand, from The New Yorker to Vogue to Wired, to move with greater creative confidence and coherence, and to deliver experiences that are faster, more beautiful, and more meaningful for the users they serve. Get it right, and the effect is felt across everything. We're looking for a Senior Design Director who is both a rigorous systems thinker and a deeply craft-led leader: someone who understands that great platform design isn't just about efficiency, but about enabling expression. This is a player-coach role. You'll lead a team of senior ICs and some emerging leads, but you'll be in the work alongside them when it matters, setting the standard through doing as much as directing. This is also a role for someone who is energised by change, not unsettled by it. The team, the platform, and our ways of working are all evolving - and this person will help shape what they evolve into. What you'll be doing Defining the Design vision for the Publishing Platform. In collaboration with Product and Engineering, you'll set the direction for the group: a portfolio that spans design systems, editorial tools, newsletters, puzzles, and games. You’ll ensure that vision is clear, shared, and actionable for your team and your cross-functional partners. You'll connect the day-to-day work to a longer-term picture of what this platform should become, and you'll bring people along with you. Owning the line between scale and expression. You'll be the principal decision-maker on one of the most consequential design tensions in the business: what gets unified and what stays bespoke. You'll develop principled frameworks for when the system should hold the line and when a brand's unique voice warrants something purpose-built — and you'll be a credible, evidence-based advocate for both sides of that argument. Expression here means the full user experience: typography that makes long-form reading a pleasure, interactions that feel effortless across reading, watching, and play, ad experiences that don't undermine editorial trust, and accessibility that ensures great content reaches everyone. Leading through craft, not just process. This is a player-coach role: You'll be in the work when it matters, in reviews, in critiques, and occasionally in the details, because that's how you set the standard and build the capability of those around you. You'll know when to get close and when to step back, and you'll use both to grow your team. You'll lead the forums, rituals, and culture that make craft excellence the norm, not the exception. Bringing technical depth and forward-looking thinking. You'll bring genuine technical fluency across front-end technologies, design systems, and component architecture. You'll understand the implications of design decisions at the platform level and care deeply about what those decisions mean for the reader's actual experience: Core Web Vitals, load times, ad rendering, and the p95 user who isn't on a fast connection with a new device. You'll partner closely with your Product and Engineering counterparts to ensure design and technology strategy are tightly aligned, not just coordinated. Leading with AI — actively, not theoretically. You'll have a considered, evolving point of view on what AI means for platform design: for the system itself, for your team's workflow, and for the relationship between design and engineering. You'll use AI tools as a working part of your own practice — for prototyping, for accelerating exploration, for closing the gap between concept and execution — and you'll bring your team along with you. You won't wait for best practices to be established; you'll help establish them. Partnering and influencing cross-functionally. You'll build trusted, productive relationships with Product, Engineering, Editorial, and Revenue leadership. You'll be comfortable navigating a large, complex organisation — getting things done through clarity and influence rather than authority. You'll represent design in high-stakes strategic conversations, connecting the work to OKRs, advocating for design's needs, and being as credible in a conversation about component APIs as in one about brand creative direction. Embed an insights-driven, outcomes-oriented approach. You'll champion a culture of measurement and learning. You'll ensure design decisions are grounded in evidence, working closely with research and analytics partners to build a qualitative and quantitative picture of what's working and what isn't. You'll connect the group's work to measurable outcomes, track impact post-launch, and bring a fluency in the commercial dimensions of the platform — subscriptions, advertising, and commerce — that allows you to inform Product's thinking credibly and constructively. Building and developing your team. You'll attract, develop, and retain strong design talent. You'll think carefully about how to organise the team as the portfolio evolves: when to centralise, when to embed, how to balance specialism and breadth. You'll invest deeply in individual development, foster psychological safety and creative ambition, and build a cohesive team that performs well even in periods of change. You'll thrive here if… You're energised by building in complexity — you've led design through significant change before and know how to create momentum and confidence in a team while the ground is shifting You're a genuine player-coach: you lead through others, but you're not above getting into the details, and your team knows the difference between your involvement being a signal of support and a signal of concern You have deep craft instincts — for typography, systems, interaction, and the reading experience — and you hold the line on quality even under pressure You think across the system and the story simultaneously: you understand that a great design system exists to enable brand expression, not constrain it You have a real, working relationship with AI tools — not as a talking point, but as part of how you actually design and lead You're fluent in multi-brand complexity: you've worked across genuinely different editorial cultures within a shared platform, and you have principled views on governance and flexibility You operate through influence and clarity, not authority — you're as comfortable in a conversation with a CTO as with a junior designer, and you build trust quickly across both You're resilient and low-ego — you can navigate ambiguity, absorb pressure, and keep your team steady without pretending everything is fine What success looks like In your first six months , you'll have built the trust and understanding needed to form a clear, well-grounded point of view on how the foundations of our platform need to evolve, in order to deliver user experiences deserving of our world-class brands, and you'll have started acting on it, with early, measurable improvements to show. By the end of your first year , that point of view will be in motion. The quality bar of our user experiences will be visibly higher, the team will be working in new ways, and the organisation will be aligned around a shared vision for what this platform is becoming. Essential skills and experience Craft and technical foundation Substantial experience leading platform-level, systems-oriented design — including design systems, component libraries, or shared publishing tooling — with a track record of shipping at scale across multiple brands or product lines Deep technical fluency: front-end architecture, design tokens, component design, theming systems, accessibility, and performance trade-offs at a level that earns genuine credibility with engineering partners A hands-on, evolving relationship with AI tooling — someone who has already changed how they work because of it, and is actively curious about what changes next A sophisticated understanding of typography, narrative structure, visual storytelling, and the particular design challenges of publishing products Leadership and people Demonstrated ability to lead as a player-coach: setting standards through doing, raising the craft of those around you, and building team capability through proximity to the work Experience leading design teams through significant change or organisational flux — building confidence and momentum while the environment is shifting Proven ability to attract, develop, and grow senior design talent, including emerging people managers, across a global and distributed organisation Comfort thinking about org design: how to structure a team, where to specialise, how to evolve the team shape as the portfolio grows Strategic and cross-functional A principled, clear-eyed approach to the tension between platform unification and brand expression — with experience making and defending these calls in complex multi-brand environments Fluency in the commercial dimensions of a publishing platform — subscriptions, advertising, loyalty — sufficient to inform and partner credibly with Product leadership on strategic decisions Excellent communication, facilitation, and storytelling skills — able to influence senior stakeholders and technical partners alike, and build alignment across competing priorities Experience leveraging OKR frameworks to connect design direction to measurable business outcomes It would be a bonus to have: Experience working in media, publishing, or content-led consumer products Experience working in large global organisations with distributed teams across multiple time zones About Condé Nast Technology Condé Nast Technology builds the products, systems, and experiences that power our brands — from Vogue and The New Yorker to GQ, Wired, and Vanity Fair. Our mission is to enable creativity and business growth through next-generation publishing, loyalty, and commerce platforms. We're a global team of designers, engineers, product managers, and researchers, working across London, New York, and twelve other markets. We believe that a well-formed design culture is essential. Does this sound like you? Please submit your CV and cover letter/portfolio , which highlights why you'd love to take on this role and why you're a great match for what we're looking for. We value the time and effort behind every application. All submissions are reviewed by a member of our talent team - we don’t use AI-assisted technology to review applications. What benefits do we offer? 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays) and extra days of annual leave if you move house or want to volunteer. You’ll have access to a competitive pension scheme , Bupa Private Healthcare , Season ticket loans and eye tests. We offer a range of tools to support your wellbeing, including core hours , 10 remote days (from home or a country with a Condé Nast office location), access to our Employee Assistance Programme , corporate gym membership and cycle to work scheme. We’re a dog-friendly office , plus you’ll enjoy discounts and magazine subscriptions , keeping you up to date with all things Condé Nast. We encourage personal and professional growth through the Condé Nast Learning Hub, where you’ll find an extensive portfolio of learning courses and training available in local languages. Our Employee Resource Groups provide a platform for employees to identify shared objectives, exchange ideas, and work on community priorities for our global workforce. What happens next? If you are interested in this opportunity, please apply below, and we will review your application as soon as possible. You can update your resume or upload a cover letter at any time by accessing your candidate profile. Condé Nast is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, familial status and other legally protected characteristics.