Design Manager - SALT

About This Role

Driven to create unique home-grown food concepts that bring people together, the Independent Food Company is a UAE-based hospitality company with multiple concepts under its umbrella - SALT, Shalwa, Kumo, Parker's, Somewhere and Public.

We are seeking to appoint a Design Manager for SALT, who will take full ownership of how our brands are visually expressed across all brand touchpoints. This role is central to ensuring that all design outputs are consistent, functional and aligned with SALT's identity across campaigns, branches, packaging, digital platforms and activations.

The Design Manager will bridge the gap between the brand's vision, creative execution and real-world production, translating brand direction into clear, scalable and high-quality design systems. This position sits at the center of our creative ecosystem, working across brand, marketing, procurement and operations to ensure that everything we produce is consistently on-brand, both visually and in real-world application.

Key Responsibilities

• Audit the brand's visual identity across all platforms and touchpoint, ensuring consistency across campaigns, branches, packaging, social media and activations, and acting as the final quality control before anything goes live or goes to print
• Manage and guide internal designers and external agencies under the direction of the Head of Visual Design
• Lead design development for brand experience and marketing campaigns, ensuring ideas are translated into clear and consistent visual outputs and all assets are aligned across digital, physical and in-store channels in a timely manner
• Ensure all designs are practical, readable and functional across different applications, adapting outputs to perform effectively across all formats and placements
• Serve as the main point of contact between SALT's Brand, Marketing and Procurement teams, aligning on materials, specifications and production requirements, reviewing samples, mock-ups and prototypes, and working with design finalisers to resolve any execution challenges
• Develop and maintain brand design guidelines, templates and toolkits to ensure consistent execution across all teams, and organize design assets for accessibility and scalability
• Continuously identify inconsistencies and gaps in design execution across channels and branches, refine workflows to improve efficiency and stay updated on design trends and tools relevant to the brand

Skills and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, Marketing or a related field
• 4-7 years of progressive experience in design, branding or creative roles
• Prior experience managing designers or directing external agencies
• Experience within F&B, hospitality, retail or lifestyle brands is preferred
• Experience working with production, suppliers or packaging is a strong advantage
• Exposure to brand-led campaigns and multi-channel design execution
• A sharp eye for detail with the ability to balance creative ambition with practical execution
• Strong communication and coordination skills across cross-functional teams