Jobs Companies AKQA Freelance Design Lead

Über diese Freelance Design Lead Stelle bei AKQA

AKQA · Vor Ort · Atlanta

At AKQA, we believe in the imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful ideas, products and services. With an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach, we design adaptive digital services and applications that capture the imagination, delivering impressive returns for our clients.

Design Leads at AKQA bring artistry, craft, and creative vision to complex digital challenges. They inspire and guide designers, champion design systems, and ensure creative excellence across all deliverables. Hands-on and deeply thoughtful, they shape the look, feel, and coherence of digital experiences from early concept through final delivery, elevating both the work and the people around them.

We are seeking an experienced Freelance Design Lead to support one of the world's most recognized travel brands, a globally admired company whose digital products and services reach millions of customers every day. In this role you will guide and inspire designers, lead the evolution of complex design systems, and ensure creative excellence across a flagship digital product experience. This is a high-visibility engagement where strong design leadership and systems-level thinking have a direct and meaningful impact on the people using these products every time they travel. This is a freelance role from August 17 through December 23, 2026.

 

ROLE REQUIREMENTS

  • Provide hands-on leadership and creative direction, guiding a team of designers to produce world-class digital product experiences
  • Oversee the creation, maintenance, and evolution of complex design systems, ensuring scalability, consistency, and craft at every level
  • Shape the creative vision for digital platforms and products, aligning with client goals and the needs of a diverse, global user base
  • Collaborate closely with UX, strategy, and development teams to deliver cohesive, high-quality solutions
  • Present creative concepts and design solutions to clients with clarity, confidence, and strategic insight
  • Actively mentor and support junior and mid-level designers, fostering collaboration, accountability, and professional growth
  • Contribute to a culture of creative excellence, pushing for the most distinctive and effective solutions at every stage of the work

 

QUALITIES AND CHARACTERISTICS

  • 5+ years of experience in UI design, art direction, or a related field, with a strong portfolio showcasing digital platforms and products
  • Proven ability to lead and inspire teams, with a track record of mentoring and elevating designers
  • Deep expertise in creating and evolving design systems, with a focus on scalability, consistency, and innovation
  • Strong working knowledge of user interface, application, mobile, and responsive design principles
  • Expert proficiency in Figma, including advanced component and library management
  • Exceptional communication skills, including the ability to present and defend creative work to clients and stakeholders
  • Experience collaborating with cross-disciplinary teams, including UX and development, to deliver integrated solutions
  • A proactive mindset and the ability to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of technology and design
  • A strong point of view and the ability to promote and encourage conceptual thinking across the team

 

Location & Commitment

  • Remote (United States only); Atlanta-based candidates are especially welcome and, if local, encouraged to join the team in person from time to time
  • August 17, 2026 through December 23, 2026
  • 40 hours/week
  • Expected weekly compensation: 3,000 to 3,400 USD

We believe great work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach including required in-office days. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

AKQA is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.


About WPP

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.

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Über AKQA

CORE VALUES

Our founding values guide our work and the philosophy of our firm:

 

Innovation – pioneering ideas combined with the application of technology, to achieve lasting improvements in performance for our clients.
Service – outstanding service to our clients and colleagues, so we retain exceptional people and create trust-based relationships with clients.
Quality – adhere to the highest professional standards and superior quality.
Thought – recommending the best solutions through the most rigorous thinking process.

 

TEAMWORK

AKQA provides the highest quality ideas and innovation services to clients around the world. Our consistent track-record of results achieved for clients have set our firm apart. Through our focus on our core values, thought-leadership, rigorous delivery, and industry initiatives, AKQA is today one of the world’s most influential companies. Our goal is to become a high-performance environment where the most talented people flourish. With our perfectionist approach, people join AKQA for the opportunity to do the best work of their careers.

 

We create digital products, services and immersive experiences that are useful, usable, delightful and enjoyed by millions. We employ a rapid ideation and prototyping process that focuses on getting pilots into market quickly, helping clients make a sustained impact, increase their relevance and expand their connection. By embracing a pioneering approach that continues to lead and define the industry, we deliver cohesive blueprints that fulfil audience needs and surpass business goals.

 

LONG-TERM COMMITMENT

AKQA is committed to helping our team develop into the best possible practitioners and to providing them with an unparalleled foundation for their career. We help develop well-rounded professionals acquire leadership skills more quickly than at other organisations. Our employees benefit from the trusted long-term nature of our client relationships as well as the cultural alignment between the client and our own organisation, creating an optimum environment to deliver the work without any compromises.

 

 

ORGANISED TO SUCCEED

The core motivation at AKQA is product excellence. Although we are part of WPP, AKQA operates as an independent firm. Organically grown, our team works as a single firm, without geographic division. This means we can bring the best resources from our network to provide solutions for our clients.

 

In addition to our own Future Lions initiative, we have formed partnerships with many of the world’s leading universities so we can hire their best graduates. We combine youth and energy with maturity and experience to form a community that has a unique diversity of knowledge and exceptional professional judgement.

 

DEVELOPMENT

In addition to on-the-job training, AKQA offers a menu of training through the AKQA Academy and WPP Professional Development. This comprehensive curriculum of formal training is designed to equip our team with the substantive creative, engineering, business acumen, communications, management and analytical skills required to have professionally rewarding careers. AKQA Academy and WPP Professional Development courses are taught by leaders in their fields including AKQA’s own senior team and respected external experts.

 

To maintain the continuous focus on our core values, and provide a clear career path for our team, all of our Managing Directors and Executive Partners are promoted from within AKQA.

All AKQA employees and clients are invited to participate in the AKQA Insight and AKQA Tech.Insight thought leadership programmes. These comprise a series of informative lectures and Q&A sessions with authors, artists, athletes, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs who are recognised leaders in their respective disciplines.

 

DIVERSITY

We believe that diversity is vital to AKQA’s ability to provide our clients with the best recommendations and are committed to fostering a varied and inclusive work environment. We provide our employees with the canvas, tools and confidence to help them advance their careers in a way that best suits them.

 

 

SUSTAINABILITY

At AKQA we believe everything a company does should be about taking the responsibility to be respectful towards the community and the environment. We consider community and pro-bono work to be an important commitment of our employees. We encourage our team to devote their skills to a broad range of pro-bono and community activities, working with myriad charitable and not-for-profit organisations. AKQA is part of WPP’s Sustainability initiatives. WPP is ranked no. 49 in an annual round-up of the World’s Greenest Companies.

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