Senior Manager, Design, NEF

Job Description: Senior Manager – Design (NE Franchise IMX Team) 

Function: Integrated Marketing Experience (IMX) 
Reports to: NE Franchise IMX Lead 
Location: Nigeria/Egypt 

Role Overview 

The Senior Manager – Design is a key leader in the NE Franchise IMX organization, responsible for driving end-to-end design excellence across brands, categories, and consumer experiences. This role ensures that all design work strengthens brand equity, elevates consumer engagement, and delivers distinctive, culturally relevant expressions that perform at scale. 

Operating as part of a highly connected OU–Market IMX model, the Senior Manager – Design integrates global and OU design platforms with local market insights to create world-class visual identity systems, packaging, communication assets, instore experiences, and digital content. 

The role partners closely with the Franchise IMX Lead and cross-functional teams—including Marketing, Strategy, Insights, Commercial, and bottlers—to orchestrate design solutions that are both inspiring and commercially impactful. 

Key Responsibilities 

1. Design Leadership & Brand Stewardship 

• Lead the creation, adaptation, and execution of visual identity systems, packaging designs, retail assets, and consumer experience touchpoints. 

• Ensure brand design excellence across all channels and consumer moments. 

• Maintain and evolve design guidelines to support consistent, high-quality execution in the Franchise. 

• Safeguard brand integrity while driving modern, culturally relevant interpretations. 

2. Partnership with IMX & Marketing 

• Collaborate with the Franchise IMX Lead to translate marketing strategies into best in class design solutions. 

• Provide expert design guidance across campaigns, innovations, experiential marketing, digital content, and activation plans. 

• Partner with OU Design Teams, global studios, agencies, and production partners to deliver high-impact creative work. 

3. Creative Direction & Agency Management 

• Lead design agencies, production partners, and multidisciplinary creative teams, ensuring work is on brief, on brand, and on time. 

• Enable a seamless creative development process from concept to delivery. 

• Assess agency output, identify improvement areas, and foster high-performance design partnerships. 

4. Consumer-Centric & Data-Driven Design 

• Translate insights and cultural trends into design opportunities that deepen consumer connection. 

• Leverage testing tools, data, and technology to validate design performance and optimize for impact. 

• Ensure designs work effectively across physical and digital environments. 

5. Capability Building & Operational Excellence 

• Build design literacy and excellence within marketing, commercial, and bottler teams. 

• Support the deployment of OU-wide design capabilities, including tools, templates, and best practices. 

• Drive operating discipline across design workflows, approvals, and execution standards. 

Success Measures 

• Consistent delivery of distinctive, high-quality design work across brands and channels. 

• Strong alignment and collaboration across IMX, marketing, commercial, bottlers, and agency partners. 

• Increased design capability and adoption of best practices by Franchise teams. 

• Design solutions that elevate brand desirability, cultural relevance, and market impact. 

• Efficient processes that ensure speed, clarity, and excellence in execution. 

Experience & Qualifications 

• 7+ years of experience in design, creative development, brand visual identity, or related fields. 

• Strong portfolio demonstrating brand identity, packaging, digital design, and consumer experience systems. 

• Experience managing multiple design projects across categories, countries, or cross functional teams. 

• Proficiency working with agencies, creative studios, and production partners. 

• Deep understanding of marketing, brand-building principles, and consumer insights. 

• Exposure to digital design, motion graphics, or tech-enabled design tools is an advantage. 

Behavioural & Leadership Expectations 

• Creative Thinker & Problem Solver: passionate about design, curious, and able to turn insights into bold, relevant creative solutions. 

• Enterprise Mindset: collaborates seamlessly across teams and puts system-wide impact first. 

• Growth Mindset: embraces experimentation, continuous learning, and new approaches. 

• Influential Communicator: able to inspire, articulate creative rationale, and align diverse stakeholders. 

• High Ownership: accountable, structured, and able to manage complexity with discipline and clarity. 

Other Considerations 

• Travel may be required for agency reviews, market visits, and production oversight. 

• Role operates within an OU–Market model that requires strong collaboration and agility.