Design Director

Job Description

Instrument is a digitally native design and technology company built to help brands unlock their full potential. Since 2005, our team of makers, thinkers, and storytellers has partnered with leading brands like Google, Nike, Uber, ŌURA, and Eventbrite to craft digital experiences that create impact and drive results.

Unlike traditional agencies, we don’t just design—we build. Our work lives at the intersection of taste and technology, powered by curiosity, thoughtful curation, and a commitment to delivering the most fitting solution for every brief. We bring this to life across three core offerings: Brand, Marketing, and Product.

As a member of our freelance network, you’ll collaborate with our teams to bring bold ideas to life—whether launching new brands, building digital products, or shaping experiences that move people. We welcome collaborators from all backgrounds and experiences who share our curiosity, creativity, and care for craft.

We believe great work comes from diverse perspectives and shared purpose. If you’re passionate about learning, experimenting, and making work that matters, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re looking for a freelance Design Director to lead the design of two large-scale website redesigns for a major furniture brand. These experiences will share a common design system and component library, requiring a leader who can think holistically across platforms while ensuring craft and consistency at every level.

You’ll be hands-on in the work while guiding a team of designers across both sites—driving design direction, aligning systems thinking, and ensuring a cohesive, high-quality output. This role requires someone who can zoom out to define scalable frameworks and zoom in to refine interaction details.

Contract: ³⁄₁₉ – ⁶⁄₂₆

Hours: 40 hrs/week

Location: Remote (U.S. preferred)

What You’ll Do

• Lead design direction across two concurrent website redesigns, ensuring a cohesive system-driven approach across both experiences

• Define and evolve a shared design system, including components, patterns, and templates that scale across multiple sites

• Guide and mentor a team of designers, providing clear feedback and direction to elevate the work

• Partner closely with product, engineering, and production to ensure feasibility and quality in execution

• Stay close to the work—reviewing flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity designs to maintain a high bar for craft and usability

• Establish and reinforce best practices for responsive design, accessibility, and component-based thinking

• Drive alignment with stakeholders, clearly articulating design rationale and decisions

• Identify risks, gaps, or inconsistencies across both builds and proactively solve for them

• Balance speed and quality in a fast-moving, iterative environment

What You’ll Bring

• 8+ years of experience in digital product or web design, with time spent in a Design Director or Lead role

• Proven experience leading large-scale website redesigns, ideally for enterprise or eCommerce brands

• Strong expertise in design systems and component-based design, with experience scaling across multiple properties

• A portfolio demonstrating both high-level design direction and hands-on execution

• Experience managing and mentoring designers while staying close to the work

• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, especially with engineering and product partners

• Ability to articulate design decisions clearly to stakeholders and clients

• High attention to detail with a passion for craft, interaction, and usability

Pay Range

• The expected pay range for this role is $103 -$122 per hour based on the US 3 pay range
  • Our company has three regional pay bands that it adheres to depending on your location, we reference them as US 1, US 2, and US 3
  • US 3 is our base pay. Examples of cities in US 3 are Portland, Houston and Miami.
  • US 2 pay is 7.5% higher than US 3 to meet the market rates. Examples of cities in US 2 are Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle
  • US 1 pay is 15% higher than US 3 to meet market rates. Examples of cities in US 1 are Brooklyn and San Francisco
• If you are curious which region you are in, please apply and get connected with our recruiting team!

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.