Art Director, Visual Design for Amazon

Who You Are
You are a hands-on Art Director who has proven your ability to motivate those around you with your vision and dedication to excellence.  You have successfully demonstrated taking business goals and turning them into  inspiring world-class designs.  You understand the complexity of marketing and know how to set the visual standard for different categories in various global markets.  You are a fearless design leader – someone who can inspire and lead designers in Europe and North America. The position is based in our UK corporate Head Office n Slough.

Who We Are
The Visual Experience Design (VXD) team sets the design direction for Amazon’s global online retail websites.  We are responsible for branding and the creative development of style guides for a wide range of services, features and categories (Books, Movies, Music, Video Games, Electronics, Beauty, Sports, Baby, and many more) for Amazon websites across Europe.  Our aim is to deliver intuitive and compelling designs that create a world-class customer experience.  We start with the customer in mind as we strive to create a successful shopping experience.

Responsibilities
• Develop and strengthen brand assets, including style and usage guides, and collaborate with the design community around the world to ensure consistent use
• Mentor and inspire designers around the world, and attract/retain the best performers
• Enhance the team knowledge of best design practices and trends in web and graphic design
• Work with the design manager to improve the efficiency of the design team
• Present design solutions to executive managers around the world
• Understand and respond to promotion performance data (metric tests, usability studies), and steer the direction of future creative designs

Basic Qualifications
• An online portfolio or samples of work demonstrating visual branding, online marketing, and great user-centered design solutions
• Demonstrable experience in web design/online marketing
• The ability to prototype in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, or Flash
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills and the ability to gracefully defend your design decisions to executive management
• Proficiency in a variety of design tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Visio, and Dreamweaver
• An expert understanding of the trends in web design/online marketing
• Bachelor's degree in design or equivalent professional experience

Preferred Qualifications
• eCommerce/retail design experience
• Experience defining or maintaining a design style guide or branding guidelines
• Art direction and experience setting up photo shoots
• Illustration experience
• Experience in localization or launching a site in another country
• Knowledge of information architecture, usability, and UI Design