Department: Advancement and External Relations 

Job Type: Limited Term

Full-time/Part-time: Full Time (>=1249 hrs/year) 

Campus: Waterloo 

Reports to: Creative Design Manager

Employee Group: WLUSA 

Application Deadline: January 6, 2025

Requisition ID: 8830 

Wilfrid Laurier University is a leading multi-campus university that excels at educating with purpose. Through its exceptional employees, students, researchers, leaders, and educators, Laurier has built a reputation as a world-class institution known for its rich student experience, academic excellence, and global impact. With a commitment to Indigenization and commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, Laurier’s thriving community has a place for everyone.

Laurier has more than 21,000 students and 2,100 faculty and staff across campuses in Waterloo and Brantford, as well locations in Kitchener and Milton. The university is committed to providing an inclusive workplace, a flexible work policy and employing a workforce that is reflective of local and national demographics. Laurier's Waterloo, Kitchener, and Brantford campuses are located on the shared traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. This land is part of the Dish with One Spoon Treaty between the Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabe peoples and symbolizes the agreement to share, protect our resources, and not to engage in conflict.  Laurier's Milton campus is located on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, and part of the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 between the British Crown and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

Position Summary

Wilfrid Laurier University is hiring a Digital Designer to join our dynamic central Marketing team in External Relations. Reporting to the Creative Design Manager, the Digital Designer will work closely and collaboratively with other Marketing team members, including Designers, Marketing Manager and Specialist, Videographer and Multimedia Producer, and Director of Marketing, to build the Laurier brand. 

As part of the Marketing team, the Digital Designer will be instrumental in building the Laurier brand through the development of exceptional creative ideas, concepts and marketing materials that deliver impactful results across digital touchpoints. The Digital Designer will take an audience-first approach to design content that effectively engages our target audience(s) across key channels to achieve business objectives. With excellent experience in developing and working with brand guidelines, the Digital Designer will successfully bring the Laurier brand to life across platforms consistently to ensure a positive, cohesive experience for our audiences, and to strengthen the brand (and its distinctive brand assets). With strength in design fundamentals (typography, composition, design principles, colour theory), the Digital Designer will bring innovative design ideas to digital projects, and may also lead and/or contribute to more traditional design projects (signage, print, etc.).

We are looking for an experienced graphic designer with a passion for digital advertising and brand marketing; a drive for understanding and optimizing campaign/content results; and proven experience in creating impactful digital ads that deliver strong results. The Digital Designer brings deep understanding of digital best practices and strong experience working with current and upcoming digital design programs. With a passion and curiosity for design trends and discovering innovative ways to breakthrough in marketing, the Digital Designer is excited to test and embrace rapidly changing platforms/tools, and share learnings and insights with team members and the university community. 

This position has a university-wide mandate, and supports Laurier’s multiple campuses and locations with design expertise. This position is based on our Waterloo campus, and may take advantage of Laurier’s flexible work policy. Some travel may be required to our multiple campuses (Brantford, Milton) to support photo/video shoots, campus meetings, training, etc.

Accountabilities

Brand Expert & Champion:

• The Digital Designer will be an expert and champion of the LAURIER brand’s visual identity – and will advocate for the consistent use and elevation of the brand across all digital/marketing touchpoints
• Ensures our brand promise resonates in a clear, compelling and consistent manner – to deliver a cohesive brand experience to our audiences
• Supports the continued evolution and expansion of brand guidelines to incorporate, define and launch digital best practices, guidelines, examples
• Works with team members to develop branded tools and templates to share with campus partners to enable consistent marketing execution across the university
• Liaise collaboratively with and support agency/vendor partners to ensure consistency in design approach and excellent execution
• Strong understanding of the digital landscape and how to design effectively to bring the brand to life digitally: consistently but uniquely meeting the needs of various platforms/audiences to ensure flawless execution that delivers a positive user journey and brand experience

Creative Development and Design:

• Lead the graphic design of marketing projects from initial ideas and concepts through to production of final assets that generate interest and drive results
• With a specialty in digital design, this role will lead the design-development of digital ads and campaigns with eye-catching/thumb-stopping creative that drives results
• Lead with an audience-first approach to developing materials; leveraging research, results and stakeholder-insights to build positive audience brand experiences and strategically achieve business objectives
• Leverage current and emerging industry best practices and trends to recommend and develop creative products that will breakthrough, attract attention and drive action, including best in class digital-first solutions
• Consistently produce high-quality design deliverables on-time, on-brief and on-brand
• Work closely with internal team and external agency partners as needed to gather and provide input into creative direction and execution
• Help direct photo and video shoots – including ideation, developing creative concepts and providing on-site direction; support excellent execution via preparing pre-production direction of shot lists, etc.
• Design with learning in mind – to enable A/B testing to learn and optimize based on results
• Familiar with accessibility best practices to design inclusively
• Contribute to the team’s positive creative culture: sharing ideas and best practices; supporting collaborative brainstorm sessions to generate ideas; and continuously learning and sharing

Project Management:

• Responsible for coordinating and executing multiple projects from start to finish – including frequent communication with key stakeholders and team members, prioritizing projects to ensure deliverables are met on-time
• Maintain, and organize library of project designs and files, resources, assets and documents to use for future projects – following consistent file naming, organizing, and archiving processes, and identifying opportunities for improved workflow/processes

Collaboration and Partner Support:

• Build and maintain strong relationships with colleagues, campus partners, partner agencies, and vendors
• Work closely with vendor partners as needed to support branded projects, ensure consistent brand visual identity and execution, develop new materials, and share learnings and best practices
• Work closely with media buying agency to ensure digital ad are developed to meet technical requirements, and collaboratively test to ensure excellent execution across channels, platforms, and devices
• Work with campus partners to understand project needs, align on creative briefs and strategic objectives, and translate project needs into creative concepts and executions
• Diplomatically communicate suggestions to strengthen projects, and/or provide alternate solutions
• Work closely with colleagues across External Relations to infuse creative strategy and digital best practices into other, high-impact areas

Qualifications

Experience and education:

• Degree in graphic design, multimedia design, visual art/communications, or related field
• 2-3+ years of relevant experience in graphic design, with expertise and significant experience in creating and execution digital advertising
• Excellent knowledge and experience in Adobe Creative Suite
• Experience with current and upcoming digital design tools (Creatopy, Canva, Figma, etc.)
• Excellent understanding of digital media landscape, design processes, and best practices
• Solid understanding and experience with traditional graphic design for print, etc.
• Experience with incorporating motion and to compliment the design

Experience and passion for marketing and design:

• Strong portfolio demonstrating an ability to conceptualize, design and execute strategic, results-driven, thumb-stopping/eye-catching digital and traditional creative suited to engage audiences across multiple platforms
• Keen interest in and awareness of current and emerging technologies, design trends, and brand marketing best practices – as well as strong passion and interest in staying on top of quickly evolving digital best practices
• Experience expressing a brand identity across a range of channels and campaign
• Detail-obsessed with a keen eye for typography, composition, design principles, colour theory and application, visual identity systems, and UX/UI
• Expert understanding of design best practices, particular within digital advertising
• Strong understanding of AODA and WCAG standards and designing for inclusive experiences
• Excellent attention to detail

Collaborative team member:

• Collaborative, energetic, motivated, and creative individual with great interpersonal and relationship-building skills who contributes to a positive creative culture
• Strong team player who is ready roll up their sleeves to support their colleagues
• Excellent communication skills
• Motivated and self-driven with the ability to work effectively both independently and within a team
• Shares learnings and best practices to support continuous learning among team members
• Open, responsive and flexible to feedback

Project management experience:

• Strong ability to prioritize work across multiple projects based on short- and long-term needs
• Ability to coordinate and work on multiple projects at the same time and with tight deadlines
• Excellent time management, organization, analytical, problem solving, and listening skills
• Demonstrated experience making commitments, setting priorities, and delivering results on time
• Detail oriented to maintain file management, project oversight and timelines consistently
• Excellent client service approach

Hours of Work

This is a full-time, limited term with an anticipated end date of April 10, 2026. The normal hours of work are 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday. Flexibility in hours will be required, including evening and/or weekend work due to periods of high volume. When possible, the manager will adjust the work schedule so that no more than 35 hours are worked in a week.

This position is eligible for a hybrid work arrangement, as per Policy 8.14 (Flexible Work Policy). In-person attendance for events, as required to meet operational needs, is expected. On occasion, this schedule may need to be adjusted to meet operational requirements.

Compensation 

Level: F

Rate of Pay: $45.34  to $47.94 per hour with an annual step progression on anniversary date up to $51.82 per hour. 

Wilfrid Laurier University endeavors to fill positions with qualified candidates who have a combination of education, experience, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position while demonstrating Laurier's Employee Success Factors.

Equity, diversity and creating a culture of inclusion are part of Laurier’s core values and central to the Laurier Strategy. Laurier is committed to increasing the diversity of faculty and staff and welcomes applications from candidates who identify as Indigenous, racialized, having disabilities, and from persons of any minority sexual and gender identities. Indigenous candidates who would like to learn more about equity and inclusive programing at Laurier are welcomed to contact the Office of Indigenous Initiatives. Candidates from other equity deserving groups who would like to learn more about equity and inclusive programing at Laurier are welcomed to contact Equity & Accessibility. We have strived to make our application process accessible, however if you require any assistance applying for a position or would like this job posting in an alternative format, please contact Human Resources. Contact information can be found at careers.wlu.ca/content/How-to-apply/

Should you be interested in learning more about this opportunity, please visit www.wlu.ca/careers for additional information and the online application system. All applications must be submitted online. Please note, a resume and cover letter will be required in electronic form.