Design Director, Opinion

The New York Times Opinion department is looking for a Design Director to work with editors and visual teams to distinguish our coverage wherever it is encountered. You will help convey to audiences on all platforms how Times opinion coverage is distinct from newsroom coverage.

You will partner with senior visual leaders, collaborating with graphics, photography, video and podcast teams. You will work with Opinion editors and teams across the company to reach new audiences with ideas and formats that provoke intelligent conversation and debate. You are an imaginative leader, able to  translate complex ideas into accessible narrative experiences with a high standard of craft.

This is both a design and management role. You will be responsible for hands-on design and art direction. You will also play an active part in the broader design community, mentoring outside artists and designers as contributors and cultivating new talent.  

This is a hybrid position based in New York City and includes regular attendance in the office each week per your departmental guidance.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with the editors to build and achieve a shared vision.
• Oversee the art direction of the daily Opinion report and the weekly Sunday Opinion, including high-impact cover stories, across print and digital.
• Oversee design of print executions: daily, weekly and special editions.
• Collaborate with digital teams on design execution of art direction, typography, and ideating innovative storytelling experiences. 
• Infuse high-level creative teams with the support and spirit necessary to achieve common visual goals.
• Identify, propose and produce visually-driven story ideas and special coverage.
• Work with cross-discipline teams, help translating visuals across all Opinion mediums: print, digital, audio and video. 
• Recruit, commission and direct work from outside artists.
• Manage illustration and freelance budgets; advocate for additional bandwidth.
• Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.
• You will report to the Creative Director.

Basic Qualifications:

• 7+ years of operational design experience in print (not simply directing but creating).
• 3+ years of experience managing designers and art directors.
• Experience with all fundamentals of design — across print, digital, mobile and video platforms. 
• Knowledgeable experience with design software: Figma, Indesign, Adobe suite.
• Relationships with a roster of Illustrators, photographers, film-makers and videographers, both emerging and established, globally and nationally.
• Experience shaping, designing and developing editorial content with a variety of visuals. 
• Experience communicating visual ideas to many audiences through dialogue, sketch or wireframe (editors, writers, engineers, other designers, etc.).
• Portfolio of work that show extraordinary design capabilities; typographic, illustrative and conceptual. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• 2+ years of digital design experience with some understanding of product limitations.
• Familiar with sound UX/UI guidance for complex storytelling with working knowledge of front-end design wireframes.
• Experience working in a news/media environment.
• Highly-developed judgment of trends and styles in both illustration and photography. 
• Experience maintaining brand identities while working with emerging platforms.
• Experience building collaborative environments that foster trust, mentorship and growth opportunities.
• Experience working under tight-deadlines while processing multiple stakeholder feedback. 

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