Design Manager in Barnsley

Design Manager

Location: Barnsley, UK

Salary: Up to £40,000 per annum

Benefits:

• Opportunity for career growth and development within a dynamic company
• Positive and supportive work culture with a focus on employee well-being.

Elevation Recruitment Group are partnering with is a leading importer and distributor of a wide range of products, catering to various industries. With a strong commitment to quality and customer satisfaction, they specialise in sourcing and delivering innovative products to meet their clients' diverse needs.

We’re looking for an experienced and commercially minded Design Manager to lead a busy, fast-paced design team of six. This is a hands-on role for someone who can balance creative delivery with strong organisation, understand business demands and ensure the team consistently delivers high-quality work to deadline.

You’ll oversee a broad range of design activity across packaging, surface, digital and offline design, working closely with Buying, Marketing, Sales and Far East Suppliers.

The Role:

• Lead and support a team of six designers, delegating briefs, setting priorities and managing deadlines according to business demand.
• Oversee the delivery of packaging, surface, digital and offline design projects, with packaging being a key area of focus.
• Manage new design briefs from concept through to final delivery.
• Develop packaging concepts and presentations for major national retailers, supporting the Sales team in winning new business.
• Ensure surface and packaging designs are effectively developed and rolled out across products.
• Work closely with Buying team to ensure designs are commercially viable and delivered effectively.
• Oversee digital design activity, including the development of a new B2C.
• Support marketing design across brochures, websites, POS and other offline materials.
• Monitor team KPIs, performance and workload, providing coaching, training and development where required.
• Ensure the team operates efficiently in a fast-paced environment, prioritising work according to changing business requirements.
• Champion new technology and proactively explore AI and emerging design software to improve efficiency, creativity and turnaround times.
• Maintain high creative standards while ensuring projects are delivered accurately, commercially and on time.

Requirements:

We’re looking for someone with previous experience managing or leading a design team, ideally within a fast-paced commercial, retail, packaging or product-led environment.

You’ll be highly organised, commercially aware and confident managing competing priorities, while still being creative and hands-on when required.

You’ll also bring:

• Strong experience across packaging design, with additional experience in surface, digital and/or marketing design.
• Experience managing workloads, deadlines and KPIs within a design team.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• A proactive approach to learning and adopting new technology.
• An interest in using AI tools and software to improve design processes and turnaround times.
• The ability to work collaboratively with Buying, Marketing and Sales.
• A strong eye for detail and high creative standards.
• The confidence to challenge ideas, improve processes and bring fresh thinking to the team.