Also called: Head of Design, Brand Design Director
Runs the design team inside a company (like a sports brand, tech company, or retailer), keeping every product, ad, and store looking on-brand.
They plan which projects their team tackles, hire designers, and meet with marketing and product leaders. A morning might be a brand guidelines review; the afternoon, approving holiday packaging. They protect the brand's look across thousands of touchpoints.
Estimate based on art director upper percentiles and industry salary surveys.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 12 years after high school. Bachelor's in design plus many years of experience and management.
Ways in: 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Graphic Design, Communication Design, Marketing.
Growing about average (about 4% over 10 years). Follows art director projections.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI generates on-brand assets at scale; setting brand standards, managing designers and cross-team judgment stay human.
Classes: Graphic design CTE, AP Studio Art, Business or FBLA.
Official data: O*NET occupation 27-1011.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.