---
title: 'Associate Design Director, Product at AKQA'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/associate-design-director-product-akqa-amsterdam-0gvzhay0nytc'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-14'
---

# Associate Design Director, Product at AKQA

- **Company:** AKQA
- **Location:** Amsterdam, Netherlands
- **Posted:** 2026-09-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14
- **Apply:** https://www.akqa.com/jobs/8190550/?gh_jid=8190550

## Job description

At AKQA Amsterdam, we use creativity to help brands and businesses move forward, from stories and identities to products, services and experiences. We follow the idea wherever it takes us, bringing different people and disciplines together to make it real.

As an Associate Design Director, you help shape how brands come to life through digital experiences. You combine strong design thinking with exceptional digital craft, turning ideas into interfaces, interactions and systems that feel intuitive, distinctive and unmistakably part of the brand. Your depth is digital, but you understand brand, UX, motion, behaviour and technology, and work closely with experience and service designers to make the work stronger.

You design by doing. You’re as comfortable shaping an experience as you are getting into Figma, building a prototype or defining a design system. You use AI naturally to explore possibilities, improve how you work and make the systems you create more effective. Working closely with our Design Director and Creative Director, you bring a distinct point of view to the studio, raise the craft of the work and help the designers around you grow.

## ROLE REQUIREMENTS

- Lead the digital craft. Establish and own the design direction across digital products, services and experiences, bringing exceptional UI and digital craft from early thinking through design, prototyping and implementation.
- Shape the experience. Contribute strong ideas to products, services and experiences, helping turn brand, business and human needs into something useful, distinctive and compelling.
- Bring brands to life. Translate what makes a brand distinctive into interfaces, interactions, motion, behaviours and systems, ensuring the experience is as considered as the identity behind it.
- Design by doing. Work hands-on in Figma and contemporary prototyping tools, making things early and often to explore ideas, test interactions and show what an experience could become.
- Understand the experience. Bring a strong understanding of UX and human-centred design, working closely with experience and service designers to challenge assumptions, shape journeys and connect creative ambition with how something needs to work.
- Build smarter systems. Create and evolve scalable, brand-led design systems, using components, tokens, automation and AI to make them more coherent, adaptable and efficient to use.
- Use technology creatively. Make AI a natural part of your workflow and actively explore emerging technologies, using them to generate, prototype, test and uncover new possibilities for the work.
- Lead together. Bring designers, creatives, strategists, experience designers and technologists around a clear vision, knowing when to lead, when to challenge and when another discipline should take the work further.
- Raise the standard. Take responsibility for design quality from first thought through implementation, staying close to the work while mentoring more junior designers through feedback, collaboration and example.

## QUALITIES AND CHARACTERISTICS

- A digital craftsperson. You have an exceptional eye for interface design and a deep understanding of the typography, interaction, motion and details that make digital experiences feel intuitive and distinctive.
- A strong design thinker. You can contribute to the idea as well as its expression, understanding the bigger opportunity behind the thing you’re designing.
- A maker at heart. You stay close to the tools and would rather make something tangible than spend too long describing it. Figma is second nature, and prototyping is part of how you think.
- A systems thinker. You can move between an individual interaction, the journey around it and the larger system behind it, understanding how each affects the experience as a whole.
- A generous sparring partner. You understand UX and experience design well enough to ask good questions, challenge thinking and make the work stronger without needing to be the expert in every discipline.
- Technically curious. You understand enough about technology to see possibilities in it, work closely with the people building the experience and experiment when you want to know whether something can work.
- AI-native in your approach. You actively use AI to make your process and output better, while remaining curious about how intelligence itself can become part of the products, experiences and systems you design.
- Versatile by nature. Digital is your depth, not your boundary. You can contribute across brand, product, service and experience and understand how they connect.
- High standards, low ego. You care deeply about quality, communicate your thinking clearly, invite other perspectives and invest time in helping less experienced designers become better.

We believe great work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach including required in-office days. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

AKQA is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

## About WPP

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit [WPP.com](http://wpp.com/).

## About AKQA

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: AKQA is a creative agency that combines imagination and technology to design and build transformative products, services, and experiences for the world’s most respected brands.
- **Entity Type**: Private subsidiary (owned by WPP plc)
- **Headquarters**: Not explicitly stated on company site; widely reported as London, UK (global presence across 19 countries and 30 locations)
- **Founded**: 1995
- **Founders**: Not publicly available on company site

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Creative agency, digital agency, innovation consultancy, experience design
- **Target customers**: B2B, enterprise clients (global organisations and institutions)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Create a better future” – the company states its primary motivation is to imagine and create what matters next, using imagination, technology, craft and speed to make a positive difference in people’s lives.

## Products & Services
AKQA operates through several specialised companies and practices:
- **Experience Design**: Designing digital products, services, and interfaces that are intuitive, beautiful, and culturally resonant.
- **Brand, Industrial Design and Architecture**: Creating brand identities, physical products, and spatial experiences.
- **App Development (ArcTouch)**: Building mobile and connected applications for clients.
- **Brand Experience and Communications (Made)**: Developing brand storytelling, campaigns, and communications strategies.

In addition, AKQA offers consulting, engineering, and innovation services as part of its core agency offering.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private subsidiary of WPP plc, a public company with a market cap of ~£9B as of mid-2025)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding not applicable (subsidiary); revenue not publicly disclosed for AKQA standalone. WPP’s Global Integrated Agencies segment (which includes AKQA) reported £12.3B in revenue for 2024.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Parent company WPP plc; long-term clients include many of the world’s most prestigious organisations (specific names not listed on site).
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - 83 Agency of the Year awards
  - 616 Cannes Lions won in the last decade, including multiple Grand Prix awards (Innovation 2025, Glass 2024, Digital Craft 2023, Design 2021)
  - Ranked 9th Most Loved Workplace in the World by Newsweek
  - Named Campaign’s 2023 Digital Agency Global Network of the Year
  - Winner of Fast Company World Changing Ideas Awards (2021, 2022, 2024)
  - Led Gartner’s independent evaluation of Global Marketing Agencies for four consecutive years

## Competitive Advantages
- **Award-winning creative culture**: Consistently recognised at the highest levels of global creative competitions (Cannes Lions, D&AD, Webby Awards).
- **Global scale with local depth**: 30 studios across 19 countries, enabling seamless cross-border collaboration – over 70% of clients work with teams in multiple regions.
- **Long-term client relationships**: Trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, with a focus on enduring partnerships rather than project-based work.
- **Multidisciplinary expertise**: Combines strategy, design, engineering, and communications under one roof, allowing for integrated, end-to-end solutions.
- **Culture of innovation**: Emphasis on disciplined experimentation and “zero-to-one” breakthroughs rather than incremental change.

## Strategic Focus
- **Continuing to lead at the intersection of imagination and technology**, with a strong focus on AI, digital craft, and emerging technologies.
- **Becoming the employer of choice** in the creative and innovation industry, as stated on the company’s careers page.
- **Driving growth for society, clients, people, and values** – the company describes itself as “ambitious, growth-oriented” with a commitment to sustainability and equity.
- **Expanding its global footprint** and deepening capabilities through its specialised companies (ArcTouch, Made, etc.).

## Why Work Here
- **Culture highlights**: Recognised as a Great Place to Work and a Best Workplace for Innovators by Fast Company. Newsweek ranked AKQA the 9th Most Loved Workplace in the World.
- **Employee Resource Groups**: Active communities including WE (Women’s Empowerment), BOLD (LGBTQIA+), MIND (mental health), API (Asian & Pacific Islander), and a DEI Council.
- **Learning and development**: AKQA Insight platform offers talks and courses from internal and external experts; formal training programs and WPP Professional Development are available.
- **Mental health and physical wellbeing**: Resources include yoga, meditation, self-care resources, and a focus on disease prevention and resilience.
- **Remote/hybrid policy**: Not explicitly stated on site; the company has physical studios worldwide and emphasises in-person collaboration, though some flexibility may exist depending on role and location.
- **Purpose-driven work**: The company’s stated goal is to “create a better future,” and it backs this with sustainability initiatives and community engagement (e.g., Future Lions competition, Future Academy internship program).
- **Diverse and inclusive environment**: The company is committed to “fostering a varied and equitable work environment” and takes active steps toward equity and representation.

## Sources
1. [AKQA Careers Overview](https://www.akqa.com/careers/)
2. [Working at AKQA](https://www.akqa.com/careers/working-at-akqa/)
3. [AKQA Companies](https://www.akqa.com/companies/)
4. [AKQA Culture](https://www.akqa.com/culture/)

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