Brand Design Lead

Description

As our Brand Design Lead, you will own Cradle's entire visual identity, acting as the developer and guardian of Cradle’s visual DNA. This pivotal role involves setting the creative direction for Cradle and building a high-performing design function during a period of significant growth and increased exposure for our brand.

You will own all visual output while maintaining a hands-on approach with critical, high-impact projects—ranging from pitch decks to interactive platform features—to guarantee world-class quality as we scale.

Responsibilities

• Unify Cradle’s Visual DNA: Own and evolve Cradle’s brand guidelines, ensuring a cohesive identity across the product platform, website, and marketing materials.
• Creative Leadership: Act as the ultimate visual quality bar-setter for critical company initiatives, including major product launches and customer-facing materials.
• Building the Design Infrastructure: Establish visual design as a formal function at Cradle, defining the roadmap and hiring freelance collaborators and agencies to support scale.
• Cross-Functional Art Direction: Partner with Marketing, ML, Product, and Biology teams to provide art direction for engaging scientific and technical storytelling.
• External Partner Management: Oversee the budget and creative direction for external resources, including freelance illustrators, motion designers, and agencies.
• Experiential Design: Influence how the brand comes to life physically, from office aesthetics to how the team presents itself at global industry events.

Qualifications

Must-haves

• World-Class Portfolio: Proven track record of building and scaling sophisticated brand systems for high-growth, industry-leading tech companies.
• High-Fidelity Craft: Expert proficiency in modern design tools e.g. Figma, Creative Suite, Framer; we are looking for a designer who can lead by example.
• Systems Thinking: Ability to build scalable visual frameworks and asset libraries that empower the wider team.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in Biotech, Deep Tech, or other sectors.
• Experience with motion design or 3D visualization.
• Experience or passion for scientific communication would be ideal. Translating complex ML and Biology topics into captivating visuals will be a key part of this role at Cradle.