Founding Designer (Brand & Web)

Remote (United States)

Job Details

Location: United States

Workplace: Remote

Employment Type: Full-time

Experience: 7+ years of consumer brand design experience

Core Areas: Visual Design, Brand Identity, Website Design & Development, Figma, Webflow / Framer, Information Design, Email Design, Paid Social Creative

Compensation: $130,000–$165,000 annually

Time Zone: At least 4 working hours of overlap with Mountain Time required.

About the Role

The Founding Designer (Brand & Web) is a senior, hands-on visual design position responsible for developing and executing a cohesive brand experience across websites, digital marketing campaigns, email, educational content, and student-facing materials. As the first dedicated design hire, this role owns the visual design system and translates complex educational programs, curriculum frameworks, and accreditation information into clear, engaging digital experiences.

The position combines brand design, information design, and marketing website development. Responsibilities include designing in Figma, building and publishing websites using Webflow, Framer, or front-end code, and creating visual assets for HubSpot email campaigns, paid social advertising, and online events. The designer works closely with growth leadership, executives, enrollment, and product stakeholders while remaining primarily focused on hands-on creative production rather than people management.

What You'll Do

• Develop and maintain a consistent visual identity across the website, marketing campaigns, educational content, event materials, presentations, and other brand touchpoints.
• Translate complex educational programs, curriculum structures, accreditation details, and conceptual frameworks into accessible visual explanations, diagrams, program pages, course maps, and presentation decks.
• Lead a website refresh, including information architecture, visual storytelling, page layouts, design systems, and implementation.
• Design, build, launch, and maintain marketing website pages using Webflow, Framer, or front-end code, selecting the most appropriate implementation approach.
• Use website and campaign performance data to refine page designs, improve content clarity, and iterate on the digital experience.
• Create lifecycle and campaign email designs in HubSpot, including reusable templates, hero graphics, and creative assets for recurring email communications.
• Establish a scalable visual system for paid social advertising and personally design the initial creative assets before production partners expand campaign volume.
• Design student-facing digital experiences, beginning with onboarding flows and extending to educational materials and the visual theme of the learning platform.
• Apply the established brand language to customer-facing product interfaces in collaboration with product leadership.
• Produce event graphics, presentation decks, documents, and visual materials for internal and external communications.
• Refine headlines, supporting copy, and page content to improve clarity, readability, and visual communication.
• Use authentic photography and video featuring educators to maintain a warm, human-centered visual identity while evolving the existing brand rather than replacing it.
• Ensure that visual communications accurately represent degree credentials, accreditation, program costs, and educational outcomes without misleading claims.
• Collaborate with growth leadership, the co-founder, executive stakeholders, enrollment, product teams, agencies, and freelance production partners to deliver consistent creative work.
• Use AI-supported design and production workflows to support efficient creative development and implementation.
• Share work early, incorporate feedback, evaluate performance metrics, and adjust design decisions based on evidence.
• Help establish the design system and production foundations that can support additional creative resources, including design, video, and production contributors, as the function expands.

Qualifications

Required Experience

• 7+ years of professional design experience working with consumer brands.
• Demonstrated experience translating complex products, programs, or educational content into clear visual systems, such as program pages, course maps, explainers, or presentation decks.
• Proven experience independently designing, building, and launching marketing websites, with the ability to identify and demonstrate personally completed implementation work.
• Experience designing lifecycle or campaign emails and paid social advertising creative.
• Experience using campaign performance data and measurable results to improve visual design and marketing assets.
• A portfolio demonstrating strong visual design judgment, brand consistency, information design, and completed digital projects.

Required Skills

• Advanced proficiency in Figma for creating visual designs, layouts, reusable components, and cohesive brand systems.
• Hands-on website development capability using Webflow, Framer, or front-end code, including the ability to take a page from initial concept through publication.
• Strong information design skills, including the ability to simplify complicated concepts through visual hierarchy, diagrams, structured content, and intuitive page sequences.
• Ability to design effective marketing email templates, hero creative, and paid social advertising assets.
• Working knowledge of basic video editing, with the ability to incorporate photography and video into digital brand experiences.
• Ability to write and edit concise headlines, simplify supporting copy, and integrate clear messaging into visual layouts.
• Ability to interpret website and campaign performance metrics and apply findings to design improvements.
• Practical experience using AI tools in design and creative production workflows.
• Strong independent execution skills, with the ability to manage hands-on design and implementation while incorporating stakeholder feedback.
• Ability to maintain accurate and trustworthy visual communications when presenting regulated educational information.

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience as the first or sole designer at an organization, or experience managing design projects independently through a freelance practice with established clients.
• Experience designing customer-facing product interfaces, applications, portals, or onboarding flows and extending an established brand system into those experiences.
• Experience with education-related or mission-driven consumer brands.
• Motion design capabilities.
• Experience with AI-native design and website development workflows.

Additional Information

• Prior experience in the education industry is not required.
• This is an individual contributor role centered on hands-on design and production, rather than a design management position.
• The position reports to the growth lead and includes regular interaction with executive leadership on brand-related work.
• The hiring process includes a portfolio review, a paid design-and-build exercise for finalists lasting approximately 6–8 hours, and a conversation with the founders.
• Applicants are asked to provide three live websites they personally built, one example of visually explaining a complex concept, one email or advertising design example, and five sentences explaining how they would simplify an existing website page.

Benefits

• Stock options
• Health insurance
• Vision insurance
• Dental insurance
• 401(k) eligibility
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) / Health Savings Account (HSA) eligibility
• Unlimited paid time off (PTO)