Brand Fin Consulting (Malaysia) Hiring! Full Time Associate Director – Multimedia Design in WP Kuala Lumpur - Ricebowl

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. 

 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.