In this role, you'll: • Set and uphold the craft standard for Mercury's brand - across campaigns, web, social, events, and every surface the brand touches. • Lead the most technically complex and high-visibility brand design projects end-to-end, from brief through delivery. • Partner with a staff-level brand designer and creative leadership to co-lead the evolution of Mercury's creative direction - defining and executing visual standards across typography, imagery, layout, and motion. • Provide hands-on craft oversight across Brand Studio output - reviewing work, raising the quality floor, and helping the team make better decisions. • Commission and art-direct external creatives: photographers, illustrators, and motion designers. • Develop brand system documentation and decision-making frameworks that help the team move with confidence and consistency. • Mentor IC3 and IC4 designers through critique, pairing, and direct feedback - elevating their craft through the work, not just in conversation. • Collaborate with brand strategists, copywriters, PMMs, and leadership on how Mercury shows up across all channels. • Shape how Brand Studio uses AI in its craft. You'll set the standard for where AI belongs in the creative process, build AI-ready brand guidelines the team can design against, and hold the quality bar as these tools become part of how work gets made. What you'll bring: • A portfolio that is simply excellent - work that demonstrates mastery of typography, layout, color, and composition across a range of brand contexts. • A clear and deeply held aesthetic point of view: you can articulate what makes something great and what makes something fall short, and you've built that perspective through years of rigorous practice. • Fluency in brand systems - you understand how to build for scale and consistency, and you've stewarded a brand through growth or change. • 7-10+ years of brand design experience, with a background that includes high-craft environments: agency, fashion, elevated consumer, or design-forward tech. • Experience operating at a staff level: you work autonomously, influence without authority, and make decisions that shape the output of an entire team. • Proficiency in Figma and hands-on experience contributing to or owning a design system. • Strong verbal and presentation skills - you can communicate the process, intent, and impact of your design decisions with clarity. • The judgment to know when to zoom in and when to zoom out, and the discipline to hold both at once. • A considered point of view on AI's place in high-craft design. You've used AI tooling in real creative work and can guide a team on where it belongs and how to use it without lowering the bar. • Curiosity, restraint, and a genuine passion for doing work that's worth doing. #LI-SE1 **Total Rewards** The total rewards package at Mercury includes base salary, equity (stock options/RSUs), and benefits. Our salary and equity ranges are highly competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and are updated regularly using the most reliable compensation survey data for our industry. New hire offers are made based on a candidate's experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers. Our target new hire base salary ranges for this role are the following**:** US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $189,400-$236,700 USD US employees outside of New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $170,400-$213,000 USD Canadian employees (any location): $179,000-$223,700 CAD