Senior Designer — Brand Systems, Interaction & Craft Focus

About Us

Cognition Studio is a strategy-led design consultancy at the intersection of science, health, and innovation. We partner with ambitious leaders to turn bold ideas into clear, beautiful, and scalable brand and product experiences—spanning identity systems, digital interfaces, and communications that move audiences to action.

The Role

We’re hiring a Senior Designer to pair with Brand Strategy and lead with craft excellence. You will translate brand platforms into robust brand and visual identity systems, bring interaction design rigor to digital interfaces, and set the bar for design theory across typography, color, composition, and motion language. This is a hands-on expert role (no direct reports) for a designer who loves building large-scale systems and guiding work through thoughtful rationale—from concept to production.

You’ll collaborate with strategists, writers, scientists, and developers across the full lifecycle: discovery, concepting, systemization, documentation, production, and QA. If you’re hungry to work with leaders tackling ambitious, world-changing problems in life sciences and global health, we’d love to meet you.

Location: Seattle, WA or Washington, DC (hybrid)
Focus: Life Sciences & Global Health Innovation
Level: Senior (7+ years; expert craft)
Salary: $125,000-$135,000

Key Responsibilities

• Brand systems & identity: Convert strategy into identity systems (logos, type, color, grids, iconography, motion/interaction rules) that scale across channels and sub-brands.
• Interaction & digital: Design responsive web/UI patterns (flows, components, design tokens) and partner with engineering for feasible, accessible implementation.
• Design theory & craft: Raise the standard on typography, hierarchy, layout, and color; apply research-backed rationale and run high-quality critiques.
• Systemization & documentation: Build component libraries and guardrails (e.g., Figma libraries, token specs, usage guidance) for consistent, fast delivery.
• Multi-channel delivery: Shape campaigns and visual communication across web, presentations, and print collateral; ensure fidelity in prepress/production.
• Quality & outcomes: Own workstreams, uphold QA across prototypes and final art, and connect design choices to brand and user outcomes.
• Client collaboration: Co-create with brand strategists; facilitate working sessions; present clearly to both design and non-design stakeholders.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor in Design (minimum)
• 7+ years professional experience in visual design with significant work in brand/identity, design systems, and digital/interaction.
• Portfolio that demonstrates craft excellence, design theory depth, and large-scale systemization (beyond one-off comps).
• Mastery of Figma (components, variants, libraries) and Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop); strong prepress and digital production chops.
• Interaction fundamentals (flows, states, responsive behavior) and accessibility awareness (contrast, type, structure).
• Proven ability to translate brand strategy into scalable systems with clear rationale; strong client communication.

Preferred

• Experience in life sciences, healthcare, or global health.
• Motion systems for brand/UI; familiarity with design tokens, Storybook/Zeroheight (or similar) documentation.
• Working knowledge of front-end constraints (HTML/CSS fundamentals) to improve feasibility and handoff.
• Experience with environmental/wayfinding or large-format print is a plus.

What Success Looks Like

• Cohesive systems that scale across brand, digital, and print, with high adoption and clear guardrails.
• Interfaces and artifacts that are clear, accessible, performant, and on-brand—supported by well-structured documentation.
• Confident partnership with Brand Strategy that elevates client outcomes and strengthens our reputation for design excellence.

How We Work

• Onsite (in office several days a week), and hybrid collaboration from Seattle with routine client sessions.
• Strategy-first, quality-obsessed, and delivery-minded—balancing creativity with real-world execution in business-forward environments.
• Hybrid collaboration from Seattle for team members mostly in Seattle, but also working across the US with in office work, and onsite sessions and client meetings.
• Clientele are global, with concentration in the Bay Area, Boston, Philly, UK, and Asia.

How to Apply

Please include a portfolio URL, resume, and a brief note describing how you transformed a brand strategy into a scalable design system (and how you measured success).

Equal Employment Opportunity
Cognition Studio, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a workplace free of discrimination and harassment. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds and experiences.