Positively disrupting an industry that has not seen any innovation in over 50 years, Tekion has challenged the paradigm with the first and fastest cloud-native automotive platform that includes the revolutionary Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC) for retailers, Automotive Enterprise Cloud (AEC) for manufacturers and other large automotive enterprises and Automotive Partner Cloud (APC) for technology and industry partners. Tekion connects the entire spectrum of the automotive retail ecosystem through one seamless platform. The transformative platform uses cutting-edge technology, big data, machine learning, and AI to seamlessly bring together OEMs, retailers/dealers and consumers. With its highly configurable integration and greater customer engagement capabilities, Tekion is enabling the best automotive retail experiences ever. Tekion employs close to 3,000 people across North America, Asia and Europe.
Job Description
We need an Associate Principal Graphic Designer who can think strategically and ship great work. You'll manage our brand's visual identity across all digital channels and work directly with the communication team, marketing, and leadership to create designs that connect with our audience. You'll mentor the design team, maintain quality standards, and help build the way we work. This role fits someone who wants to lead, create, and grow a design practice at a technology company that moves fast.
Key Role and Responsibilities
Brand Vision & Consistency: You'll maintain our brand's visual standards and build the design systems that keep everything consistent. That means creating guidelines, components, and patterns that work across all platforms - so every project reinforces the brand without starting from scratch.
End-to-End Creative Leadership: You'll own design projects from start to finish across web, mobile, and marketing campaigns. That means taking concepts from initial ideas through final launch. You'll work with communications, marketing, product, and leadership to create designs that look sharp and move business metrics - whether that's revenue, adoption, or conversion.
Ideation & Storytelling: You'll research concepts and turn them into working designs. Then you'll present your work to different teams - product, marketing, leadership - and explain the thinking behind your JD - Associate Principle Graphic Designer 1 choices. That means showing why certain design decisions solve specific problems, not just what looks good. You need to make your case clearly whether you're talking to designers or marketers or executives.
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Team Leadership & Growth: You'll manage a small design team and help them grow. That means coaching designers on their projects, giving feedback that improves their work, and building accountability around quality. The goal is creating a design powerhouse where people own their craft and keep getting better at it. Holistic Design Oversight: You'll review all design work before it ships - product interfaces, illustrations, brand materials, presentations, and campaign visuals. That means maintaining quality standards across everything and making sure it all feels consistent. Nothing goes out without your approval.
Systems & Workflow Innovation: You'll build design systems and workflows that make the team more efficient. As we grow, you'll keep improving how we work - finding ways to move faster without dropping quality. The goal is scaling output while keeping the work sharp.
Strategic Design Advocacy: You'll represent design in leadership meetings and cross-functional discussions. That means explaining design decisions to executives and showing how they connect to business goals - whether that's Brand perception, revenue, adoption, or user retention. You'll need to make the case for design quality and user experience when priorities compete.
Qualifications
9+ years of hands-on visual and brand design experience in tech or SaaS, with a portfolio that shows clear thinking, strong storytelling, and high craft.
A track record of leading or managing designers on real projects, with experience owning outcomes, not just visuals.
Deep expertise in Figma and Adobe Creative Suite, plus comfort exploring new tools for motion, prototyping, and collaboration.
Proven ability to build and evolve brand identities, logos, and web experiences that can scale across enterprise audiences and channels.
Strong communication skills with real executive presence: you can defend your work with clarity, invite feedback, and align teams around a shared vision.
Experience running projects end to end, from brief and discovery through delivery, with a structured approach to planning, prioritizing, and followthrough.
A habit of staying ahead of design, product, and culture trends, and turning that curiosity into concrete ideas we can ship.
High personal accountability: you take ownership, push for better outcomes, and hold yourself and others to a strong quality bar.
Genuine passion for design and storytelling, and a desire to grow a small team into a tight, proud, high-performing creative group.
Perks and Benefits
Competitive compensation
Generous stock options
Medical Insurance coverage
Work with some of the brightest minds from Silicon Valley’s most dominant and successful companies
Tekion is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, victim of violence or having a family member who is a victim of violence, the intersectionality of two or more protected categories, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
For more information on our privacy practices, please refer to our Applicant Privacy Notice here.
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