Description
The Country Design Lead plays a pivotal role in Canva’s mission to democratise design by ensuring content is truly local, culturally resonant, and of the highest design quality.
Key Responsibilities:
- Creative Direction: Develop a compelling creative vision that delivers and executes against the Country Content Strategy Lead and Country Manager’s strategic priorities.
- Content Creation & Curation: Oversee the creation of content, including design kits, campaign documents, creator briefs, and in-house production where needed.
- Market Understanding & Cultural Insights: Build and maintain a deep knowledge of local culture, consumer behaviour, and design trends to inform content direction and strategy.
- Content Performance Monitoring & Analysis: Conduct template and element audits to identify improvement areas and opportunities for new content.
- Partnership & Stakeholder Management: Partner closely with Country Content Strategy Lead, as well as collaborate with local SEO, Marketing, and Country Managers.
- Competitive Analysis: Monitor competitor activity and creative trends across the region to identify new opportunities and maintain strategic edge.
- Project Management: Monitor project execution, mitigate risks, and escalate challenges when necessary to ensure timely, high-quality outcomes.
- Freelance & Creator Management: Oversee local freelance designers, managing recruitment, briefing, output review, and development.
- Reporting & Communication: Report on the performance and ROI of creative campaigns, using analytics to guide and improve future content plans and outputs.
- Feedback & Quality Assurance: Provide timely feedback and approvals across creative workstreams, maintaining alignment with both business goals and creative standards.
- Team Building & Culture: Contribute to and foster a collaborative, innovative, and high-performing regional creative team culture.
What you'll be doing:
- Operate with high ownership and autonomy while collaborating across multiple teams, functions, and time zones
- Work at pace, balancing speed and quality, and adapting quickly to shifting priorities and evolving business needs
- Leverage AI tools and workflows to scale content production and improve efficiency
- Build and optimise repeatable systems for content creation, rather than one-off outputs
- Maintain clear, proactive communication with stakeholders and drive alignment across teams
- Lead creative reviews, retrospectives, and continuous improvement loops
- Foster a high-performance team culture grounded in inclusion, psychological safety, and a bias for action
What we're looking for:
- A Bachelor’s degree in Design, Marketing, Communications, or a related field
- Proven experience in creative leadership roles, ideally with international, regional, or market-level remit
- A strong portfolio showcasing exceptional design work and content campaigns that reflect cultural resonance and local user needs
- Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams (SEO, Growth, Marketing, Product)
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and storytelling skills
- A results-focused mindset, balancing creative innovation with business and user goals
- Experience managing freelancers and/or creators, with a focus on quality and alignment
- Comfort working in a fast-paced, evolving environment with an experimentation mindset