Associate Director – Multimedia Design

About the role

We are seeking a hands-on Senior Design Manager and Art Director to lead the creative direction, design quality, and day-to-day delivery of design work across the Brand Finance Group. Based in Malaysia and reporting to the Marketing & Communications Director - Global, the role combines strategic design leadership with hands-on creative production.

The successful candidate will oversee design workflows, establish consistent standards, direct and review the work of internal and external creative resources, and personally deliver complex, high-priority projects. The portfolio spans analytical reports, data visualizations, executive presentations, campaigns, events, digital communications, and corporate materials. Advanced Adobe InDesign capability and extensive experience producing long-form, data-heavy publications are essential.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Lead the creative direction and end-to-end publication & digital channels’ design process for Brand Finance and Brand Dialogue outputs.

• Set visual concepts, design standards, and quality expectations for major reports, campaigns, events, presentations, digital assets, and corporate materials.

• Remain hands-on by personally designing complex, sensitive, or high-priority work, particularly long-form publications, data visualizations, and executive presentations.

• Review and approve creative work for brand consistency, visual quality, readability, accessibility, data presentation, image quality, and production readiness.

• Manage incoming briefs, clarify objectives, prioritize requests, allocate work, coordinate review stages, and oversee delivery across teams, offices, and time zones.

• Provide functional leadership, mentoring, technical guidance, and constructive feedback to designers and other creative resources.

• Identify capability, capacity, or resourcing gaps and manage freelancers, agencies, printers, and specialist suppliers when required.

• Develop, maintain, and improve Adobe InDesign, PowerPoint, and other reusable templates to support efficient and consistent production.

• Own and improve design systems, shared asset libraries, file-management standards, version-control practices, and quality-assurance processes.

• Transform complex research, rankings, financial information, and analytical content into clear and compelling visual communications without compromising the accuracy of approved information.

• Advise senior stakeholders on creative direction, present design recommendations, explain trade-offs, and manage conflicting feedback constructively.

• Partner with consultants, analysts, marketing, communications, and other internal teams to translate business requirements into effective design solutions.

• Communicate workflow, quality, capacity, supplier, or deadline risks early and recommend practical solutions.

• Identify opportunities to improve production through scalable templates, automation, data-led workflows, and responsible use of AI-assisted design tools.

• Ensure appropriate handling of confidential information, unpublished data, licensed assets, copyright, and intellectual property.

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REQUIREMENTS AND SKILLS

• Diploma/degree in creative media studies such as Graphic Design / Advertising, creative media or related discipline with prior work experience, supported by a portfolio in graphic design work focused on layout, social media, data visualization, presentation materials, etc. with familiarity of other design tools/software.
• At least eight years of professional design experience, including experience in an art director, design lead, design manager, or comparable senior role.
• Extensive experience leading complex, high-profile creative projects and reviewing or directing the work of other designers.
• Advanced Adobe InDesign expertise, including long-form document production, master pages, paragraph and character styles, tables, grids, books or multi-document workflows, preflight, packaging, and print-ready output.
• Advanced PowerPoint skills, including executive-level presentations, editable templates, charts, and reusable slide libraries.
• Strong proficiency in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating art direction, long-form reports, data visualization, presentation design, typography, campaigns, and complex information layout. Applicants should include at least two substantial reports or publications created in Adobe InDesign.
• A strong understanding of typography, grids, color, visual hierarchy, information design, accessibility, brand systems, and print and digital production.
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, stakeholders, deadlines, suppliers, and rounds of feedback in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to interpret complex business and analytical content and present it clearly without compromising accuracy.
• Confident senior stakeholder management, including the ability to challenge incomplete briefs, explain design decisions, and align competing views.
• Excellent written and spoken English, with the confidence to work with regional and global teams.
• Highly organized, proactive, detail-oriented, self-motivated, and comfortable working with limited supervision.
• Malaysian citizenship or residency.

DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE

• Experience in consulting, professional services, financial services, research, publishing, or another data-intensive environment.

• Experience managing, mentoring, recruiting, or onboarding designers.

• Experience working across international teams and time zones.

• Knowledge of print production, pre-press, color management, digital publishing, and supplier management.

• Experience developing design systems, scalable templates, Adobe data merge, or other automated publication workflows.

• Experience with digital campaigns, event-related creative, websites, motion graphics, video, photography, or environmental design.

• Commercial awareness and experience scoping external work, evaluating quotations, and managing creative suppliers within agreed budgets.

• Experience using AI-assisted design tools responsibly in a commercial environment with appropriate human review.

MEASURE OF SUCCESS

• Consistently high-quality, accurate, and on-brand creative output across the Brand Finance Group.
• Clear creative direction and reliable delivery against agreed priorities, review stages, and deadlines.
• More efficient and scalable report, presentation, and campaign production through improved templates and workflows.
• Fewer production errors, avoidable inconsistencies, and late-stage corrections.
• Stronger stakeholder alignment and increased capability and consistency across internal and external design resources.

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