Role Purpose

The Senior Design Lead will shape, protect and evolve the visual identity of Uniphar Retail, Supply Chain and Consumer brands. Combining strategic creative leadership with hands-on design delivery, the role will raise creative standards, strengthen brand consistency and build greater in-house capability across Retail, Consumer and Supply Chain marketing.

The role will prioritise McCauley, Allcare, Uniphar own brands (such as Aya, Kit & Kaboodle) and B2B brand communication for Uniphar Ireland, working across creative campaigns, digital and social media channels, point of sale, presentations and the in-store customer experience (POS as well as retail store design).

Key Responsibilities

• Lead creative projects from concept to delivery across brand campaigns, digital, print, retail and spatial touchpoints.
• Act as brand design guardian, evolving and maintaining visual identities, design systems and brand guidelines. Championing design orientation mindset across the business – showing the importance of a unifying brand system that ensures meaning and recognition (visual brand architecture)
• Translate marketing and business objectives into distinctive conceptual ideas and best-in-class creative solutions.
• Provide strategic design input into marketing campaigns, in-store environments, packaging and customer experience initiatives.
• Remain hands-on, delivering priority creative work as well as supporting POS, digital assets, presentations and smaller design requirements when needed.
• Manage and mentor one Graphic Designer, providing clear direction, feedback, coaching and development.
• Plan and manage the design workflow, prioritising briefs, allocating work and responding effectively to changing business needs.
• Champion the responsible use of AI-enabled creative and productivity tools to improve concept development, content adaptation, workflow efficiency and speed to market, while maintaining human creative judgement, brand integrity, accessibility and appropriate governance.
• Direct and quality-control external creative agencies and suppliers, bringing work in-house where this improves speed, quality or value and retains brand guardianship.
• Proactively identify design opportunities, brand inconsistencies and customer-experience issues, and recommend practical solutions.

Experience and Qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant design experience in an in-house or agency environment, with demonstrable senior-level responsibility.
• A strong portfolio showing conceptual campaign thinking, brand identity development and high-quality execution across multiple channels.
• A qualification in Visual Communications, Graphic Design or a related discipline.
• Demonstrable experience creating, evolving and applying brand guidelines and visual identity systems.
• Experience producing varied digital assets, including interactive formats, and strong knowledge of print production techniques.
• Experience managing multiple projects, timelines, stakeholders and external suppliers.
• Confidence presenting creative thinking and constructively challenging briefs or inconsistent brand execution.
  

Technical Skills

• Advanced Adobe Creative Suite skills, including InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop.
• Working knowledge of Adobe After Effects to support smaller motion-design projects.
• Strong Microsoft Office capability, particularly PowerPoint presentation design.
• Practical experience using Microsoft Copilot and other generative AI tools to support research, ideation, presentation development, briefing, versioning and administrative efficiency.
• Strong working knowledge of Canva, including the creation of controlled templates and brand kits that enable wider teams to self-serve without compromising brand standards.
• Good understanding of digital production, accessibility, image preparation, artwork delivery and print specifications.

Desirable Experience

• Motion graphics, animation or interactive design.
• Packaging, environmental or spatial design.
• Experience with retail, pharmacy, healthcare, FMCG, food and drink, or consumer brands.
• Experience balancing strategic brand development with fast-paced day-to-day delivery.
• Experience embedding AI-assisted or automated creative workflows within an in-house or agency design environment.

Core Behaviours

• Strong creative judgement and an exceptional eye for typography, layout, hierarchy and detail.
• Self-starter who identifies opportunities and problems and addresses them effectively.
• Digitally progressive and curious, with evidence of adopting new tools and ways of working to improve quality, efficiency and team capability.
• Commercial and customer-focused, with the ability to connect design decisions to business and brand outcomes.
• Collaborative, pragmatic and comfortable influencing stakeholders at different levels.
• Able to combine high creative standards with pace, prioritisation and hands-on delivery.

Measures of Success

• Improved consistency and quality across key brand touchpoints.
• Stronger campaign concepts and creative effectiveness.
• Reduced dependency on external design support for recurring work.
• Faster, more efficient design workflows and fewer rounds of rework.
• Responsible adoption of AI and template-based tools, with measurable improvements in turnaround time, asset versioning and stakeholder self-service.
• Effective development and performance of the in-house Graphic Designer.
• Positive stakeholder confidence in the in-house design function.