Creative Design Manager

Plaid · Fintech · San Francisco, CA · All Cost Centers

Plaid is seeking a Creative Design Manager to lead their Creative Studio team. This role involves coaching designers, leading creative direction for marketing channels, managing pipelines, building scalable systems, and overseeing external agencies. The ideal candidate has extensive experience in brand, visual, or marketing design, with a strong background in managing design teams and a portfolio showcasing multi-channel marketing work. Proficiency with modern design tools and experience in B2B SaaS or fintech are preferred.

What you'd actually do

  1. Coach, review, and uplevel craft across a team of brand designers, production designers, and presentation designers
  2. Lead creative direction and execution across all marketing surfaces — paid, social, webinars, and campaigns
  3. Work with Design Ops to manage pipeline and prioritization of incoming marketing requests
  4. Build and implement scalable systems of Figma templates, production tooling, and creative standards
  5. Manage external agencies and contractors across production design, creative, and presentation

Skills

Required

  • brand design
  • visual design
  • marketing design
  • team management
  • creative direction
  • Figma
  • cross-functional partnership
  • communication skills

Nice to have

  • B2B SaaS
  • fintech
  • animation
  • illustration
  • video direction
  • creative performance data interpretation

What the JD emphasized

  • 9+ years of professional design experience
  • 5+ years managing brand designers
  • portfolio showing consistent, high-craft execution
  • Proven ability to work as a player/coach
  • Experience building scalable systems, templates, and self-serve creative tooling
  • Experience briefing, managing, and scaling work with external agencies and contractors
  • Proficiency with modern efficiency tools