Senior Brand Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Brand Designer Company: Atlassian Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Job Type: Other Category: Brand Design / Creative Operations Date Posted: January 15, 2026 Experience Level: 5-10 Years

🚀 Role Summary

• This role is pivotal in shaping Atlassian's brand expression across marketing and in-product experiences, requiring a deep understanding of brand systems and user-centered design principles.
• The Senior Brand Designer will act as a critical liaison between brand, product design, marketing, and engineering teams, fostering collaboration to deliver cohesive and impactful brand experiences.
• A significant focus will be placed on owning, maintaining, and evolving the Atlassian brand system and its associated guidelines to ensure consistent application at scale.
• This position involves contributing to strategic brand visioning and exploring future-looking concepts for Atlassian's product portfolio, influencing roadmaps through thoughtful design exploration.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the original listing is for a "Senior Brand Designer," the provided data and context suggest a strong overlap with operations-centric roles, particularly in Creative Operations and Brand System Management. The emphasis on scalability, consistency, documentation, and enabling other teams aligns with operational efficiency and process management. Therefore, this enhanced description frames the role with an operations lens, highlighting its strategic importance within the broader GTM and marketing functions.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Serve as a key connector and facilitator between brand, product design, marketing, and engineering departments, ensuring user-centered brand experiences are aligned with Atlassian's overarching strategy.
• Partner closely with the Brand Strategy team to drive consistency and clarity across the Atlassian brand system, taking ownership of the maintenance and evolution of usable brand guidelines to empower teams.
• Collaborate with Brand Strategy and Product Design to explore and define future-looking concepts for the Atlassian portfolio, contributing to vision work and influencing product roadmaps through innovative design exploration.
• Design, evolve, and maintain scalable systems, foundational elements, components, and patterns, working independently and in close collaboration with web, product design, and engineering teams to ensure cohesion across all user experiences and design libraries.
• Lead the brand identity development for new product launches and in-product experiences, encompassing comprehensive asset creation and detailed style guide development.
• Partner with research and analytics teams to gather insights, validate design decisions, and iterate on brand expressions based on user feedback, testing, and performance data.
• Support Creative Operations by providing clear assets, tooling, and documentation to internal teams and external partners, actively contributing to the continuous improvement of brand scaling and application processes.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities listed are standard for a Senior Brand Designer. The enhancement here is to emphasize the "operations" aspect of these duties. For instance, "owning, maintaining, and evolving usable guidelines" directly relates to operationalizing a brand system. Similarly, "supporting Creative Operations by enabling internal teams and external partners with clear assets, tooling, and documentation" is a core operational function focused on efficiency and scalability.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong foundation in design principles is expected, likely acquired through formal education in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Experience: 5+ years of professional design experience in brand, creative, and/or product design, with a proven track record in managing complex brand systems and digital products.

Required Skills:

• A strong portfolio demonstrating expertise in complex brand systems and/or digital product design, showcasing a strategic and impactful approach.
• Deep understanding of design fundamentals including typography, layout, and color theory, with the ability to apply these principles, processes, and strategy to solve real-world business challenges.
• Proven experience contributing to vision- and strategy-level brand work through concept development and exploratory design initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience working with and contributing to the evolution of design systems, understanding their implementation across diverse teams and platforms.
• High proficiency in Figma, including advanced features like tokens, variables, prototyping, and animation capabilities.
• Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite (e.g., Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) and Keynote for presentations and asset creation.
• Proven experience collaborating effectively in agile, cross-functional environments with product managers, engineers, marketers, and other designers.
• Strong communication and storytelling skills, with the confidence to present work, articulate design decisions, and influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Comfort with soliciting, receiving, and applying feedback, fostering a collaborative and iterative design process.
• Ability to balance the needs of multiple audiences and clearly articulate design tradeoffs and their implications.
• Ability to manage project scope, timelines, and stakeholder alignment with a high degree of autonomy and proactive problem-solving.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience creating and maintaining shared design tooling that enables consistency across design teams, such as Figma libraries, digital asset management (DAM) systems, or template-based solutions like Canva.
• Experience creating clear documentation, processes, and tooling for diverse audiences, ensuring ease of access and understanding.
• Familiarity with research methodologies and analytics to gather insights, validate design decisions, and iterate based on data.
• Experience in visual identity development for new products and in-product experiences.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "On Day One, You'll Bring" section from the original description has been re-categorized and expanded into "Required Skills" and "Preferred Skills" for better clarity. Emphasis has been placed on the operational aspects of design systems, tooling, and documentation, aligning with the role's potential impact on process efficiency and scalability.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A robust portfolio showcasing at least 5 years of professional design experience, with a significant emphasis on complex brand systems and/or digital products.
• Demonstrate the ability to create and evolve scalable design systems, including components, patterns, and foundational elements, with examples of their application across multiple touchpoints.
• Provide case studies that illustrate your process for brand identity development for new products or features, including asset creation and style guide development.
• Showcase experience in exploring future-looking concepts and contributing to vision-level brand work, highlighting your strategic design thinking and ability to influence roadmaps.
• Include examples of how you have partnered with research and analytics to inform design decisions and iterate based on user feedback and data.

Process Documentation:

• Evidence of creating and maintaining usable brand guidelines and design system documentation that effectively enable other teams (e.g., marketing, product design, engineering) to apply the brand consistently and confidently.
• Examples of developing and sharing tooling, such as Figma libraries or digital asset management systems, that improve efficiency and consistency in design application across a large organization.
• Demonstrate your process for collaborating with cross-functional teams (brand strategy, product design, engineering) to ensure cohesive brand expression across all touchpoints.
• Showcase how you gather insights from research and analytics to validate design decisions and iterate on brand applications, reflecting a data-driven approach to process improvement.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section is crucial for a role with operational implications. The portfolio requirements are framed to demonstrate not just design skill but also the ability to operationalize design principles, create scalable systems, and ensure consistency through documentation and tooling. This directly addresses the "how" of applying brand strategy at scale, a key operational challenge.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: While not specified, for a Senior Brand Designer role with 5+ years of experience in Sydney, Australia, a competitive salary range would typically be between AUD $130,000 to AUD $180,000 annually. This estimate is based on industry benchmarks for senior design roles in major Australian tech hubs, considering the cost of living and the high demand for specialized design talent.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive health and wellbeing resources designed to support employees' physical and mental health.
• Paid volunteer days, encouraging community engagement and social responsibility.
• Flexible work arrangements, including remote and hybrid options, to support work-life balance and personal priorities.
• Opportunities for professional development and skill enhancement, including access to learning resources and potential for conference participation.
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) and other equity-based compensation, fostering a sense of ownership and long-term investment in the company's success.
• Retirement savings plan contributions (e.g., Superannuation in Australia).

Working Hours: Full-time, typically 40 hours per week, with flexibility offered to support work-life balance, aligning with Atlassian's commitment to employee autonomy and well-being.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is an estimation. Based on the provided information, Atlassian is a large, established tech company, and Sydney is a major metropolitan area. Therefore, the estimated range reflects a senior-level position within this context. The benefits listed are inferred from typical offerings at large tech companies and specifically mention "health and wellbeing resources" and "paid volunteer days" from the original job description.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Software & Technology (specifically, collaboration and productivity software for teams). Atlassian operates in a highly competitive market, emphasizing innovation, customer-centricity, and empowering teams. This context means brand consistency and a strong, recognizable identity are critical for market differentiation and customer trust.

Company Size: Large. Atlassian is a global enterprise with thousands of employees, indicating a structured environment with established processes, opportunities for specialization, and a significant impact potential for roles within the organization.

Founded: 2002. With a history spanning over two decades, Atlassian has a mature organizational structure and a well-defined brand presence, but also a culture that encourages continuous evolution and adaptation to new market trends and technologies.

Team Structure:

• The Brand Design Group is part of the larger Creative Studio within the Atlassian marketing department. This role reports into brand design leadership.
• The team comprises designers who collaborate daily with brand strategists, product designers, marketers, and external creative partners.
• This structure emphasizes cross-functional collaboration and a shared responsibility for bringing brand foundations to life and ensuring their consistent application.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Design: The role involves partnering with research and analytics to gather insights, validate design decisions, and iterate based on user feedback and performance data, indicating a strong emphasis on evidence-based approaches.
• Systemic Thinking: A core responsibility is designing and evolving scalable systems, foundations, components, and patterns, reflecting a methodology focused on creating reusable, maintainable, and consistent design assets.
• Collaborative Execution: The team operates in agile, cross-functional environments, emphasizing iterative development, continuous feedback, and shared ownership of successful outcomes.

Company Website: https://www.atlassian.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: The company context is derived from the provided LinkedIn data and general knowledge of Atlassian. The "Methodology" section infers operational approaches based on the responsibilities described, such as data-driven decision-making and systemic design, which are key to operations.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned as a "Senior" level, indicating significant experience and a capacity for independent work, strategic input, and mentorship. In an operations context, this means the individual is expected to not only execute but also to define and improve processes, contribute to strategic planning for brand application, and potentially lead initiatives within the brand system domain.

Reporting Structure: The role reports into brand design leadership within the Creative Studio, which is part of the marketing department. This structure suggests exposure to both creative strategy and broader marketing objectives, with opportunities to influence higher-level brand direction.

Operations Impact: The Senior Brand Designer's impact is substantial, influencing how Atlassian's brand is perceived and applied across all touchpoints. This includes ensuring brand consistency, which is critical for customer trust, market differentiation, and efficient marketing spend. By owning and evolving the brand system, the role directly contributes to the scalability and effectiveness of marketing and product design efforts.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership in Brand Systems: Potential to become a recognized expert and leader in Atlassian's brand system, guiding its evolution and influencing its adoption across the company.
• Strategic Brand Development: Opportunities to contribute to high-level brand strategy and vision work, shaping the future direction of Atlassian's brand expression.
• Cross-Functional Expertise: Deepen expertise by collaborating across diverse teams (marketing, product design, engineering), enhancing understanding of different functional areas and building a broad skill set valuable for future leadership roles.
• Mentorship: As a senior member, there will be opportunities to mentor junior designers, developing leadership and coaching skills.
• Specialization: Potential to specialize further in areas like design system architecture, brand strategy integration, or creative operations efficiency.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section focuses on the career trajectory and growth within an operations-aligned framework. The "Operations Impact" and "Growth Opportunities" are framed to highlight how a Senior Brand Designer contributes to operational efficiency and how their career can progress within a large, structured organization like Atlassian, emphasizing leadership and strategic influence.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Atlassian offers a flexible work model, allowing employees to choose between working in an office, from home, or a hybrid combination. This suggests a modern, trust-based work environment that prioritizes employee autonomy and well-being.

Office Location(s): While the primary listing is for Sydney, Australia, Atlassian hires globally where they have a legal entity. This implies that while the team may be distributed, there are likely physical office spaces in Sydney that offer collaborative environments for those who choose to work from there.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Hubs: When working from an office, the environment is designed to foster collaboration, likely featuring open-plan spaces, meeting rooms equipped for hybrid work, and areas for informal brainstorming.
• Technology-Enabled Workspace: Access to industry-standard design tools (Figma, Adobe Creative Suite) and collaboration platforms is a given, ensuring designers have the necessary resources to perform their roles effectively, whether remote or in-office.
• Cross-Functional Interaction: The workspace encourages interaction with diverse teams—brand strategists, product designers, marketers, and engineers—facilitating seamless communication and project execution.

Work Schedule: The role is full-time, with a standard 40-hour work week. However, Atlassian's commitment to flexibility means that the specific daily schedule can often be adapted to individual needs, provided that collaboration with teams in different time zones and project deadlines are met. This flexibility is crucial for roles that require deep work and iterative processes, allowing for focused periods of design and development.

📝 Enhancement Note: The work environment description is tailored to reflect Atlassian's stated flexible work policy. The emphasis is on how this environment supports the operational aspects of design, such as collaboration across time zones and the need for focused work periods.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter will likely conduct an initial call to assess your overall fit, experience, and interest in the role and Atlassian. Be prepared to briefly discuss your background and key achievements.
• Portfolio Review & Design Challenge: Expect a session where you present your portfolio. This is often followed by a design challenge (either take-home or a live exercise) that assesses your problem-solving skills, design thinking, and ability to apply brand principles to a specific scenario relevant to Atlassian.
• Team/Hiring Manager Interviews: Interviews with the hiring manager and potential team members (other designers, brand strategists, product leads) to evaluate your technical skills, collaborative approach, and cultural fit. Prepare to discuss your experience with design systems, brand consistency, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Final Round/Leadership Interview: A final interview, potentially with senior leadership, to discuss your strategic thinking, leadership potential, and alignment with Atlassian's values and long-term vision.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate Strategically: Select 3-5 of your strongest projects that best demonstrate your experience with complex brand systems, digital products, and strategic brand development. Prioritize projects that align with Atlassian's products and market.
• Showcase Process: For each project, clearly articulate the problem, your role, the process you followed (including research, ideation, iteration), your design decisions, and the measurable outcomes or impact. Emphasize how you applied design principles and strategy.
• Highlight Systems Thinking: Include examples of your work with design systems, showing how you contributed to or leveraged them for consistency and scalability. Demonstrate your understanding of component-based design and style guide development.
• Quantify Impact: Wherever possible, use data and metrics to demonstrate the success of your designs. This could include improvements in user engagement, conversion rates, brand recognition, or efficiency gains from design systems.
• Tailor Your Narrative: Be ready to explain why your experience is relevant to Atlassian and this specific role. Connect your past work to the responsibilities and requirements outlined in the job description.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand Atlassian: Research Atlassian's products, target audience, brand identity, and current marketing campaigns. Familiarize yourself with their existing design systems and brand guidelines.
• Focus on Core Skills: Prepare for challenges that test your understanding of brand consistency, user-centered design, and system thinking. Practice articulating your design rationale clearly and concisely.
• Simulate Real-World Scenarios: If given a take-home challenge, approach it as you would a real project, managing your time effectively and focusing on delivering a well-reasoned and polished solution.
• Articulate Tradeoffs: Be prepared to discuss the tradeoffs involved in your design decisions, demonstrating an understanding of business needs, technical constraints, and user experience.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section provides actionable advice for candidates applying to roles with similar interview processes. The focus is on how to best present design work in a way that highlights operational strengths like process management, system thinking, and measurable impact, which are critical for senior-level positions.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: High proficiency is essential, including advanced features such as design tokens, variables, smart animate, and collaborative prototyping. This is the primary tool for design creation and system management.
• Adobe Creative Suite: Expertise in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign for asset creation, image manipulation, and print collateral design.
• Keynote: For creating compelling presentations and articulating design strategies and decisions to stakeholders.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Familiarity with analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Amplitude) to understand user behavior and measure the impact of brand initiatives.
• Experience interpreting data from A/B tests, user research, and performance metrics to inform design iterations.

CRM & Automation:

• While not a direct CRM role, understanding how brand assets and guidelines are managed and distributed within marketing automation platforms or digital asset management (DAM) systems is beneficial.
• Experience with DAM systems (e.g., Bynder, Canto) for organizing, storing, and distributing brand assets at scale.

Design System Tools:

• Experience with tools and methodologies for creating, managing, and evolving design systems, including component libraries, style guides, and documentation platforms.
• Familiarity with version control concepts as they apply to design assets and systems.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section details the expected technical proficiency. The emphasis on Figma, Adobe Suite, and presentation tools is standard. The inclusion of analytics and DAM systems highlights the operational aspects of managing brand assets and measuring their effectiveness, which is critical for a senior role.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Customer Focus: A commitment to understanding and serving the needs of Atlassian's diverse customer base through user-centered design and brand expression.
• Collaboration & Transparency: A strong emphasis on working together across teams, sharing knowledge openly, and fostering a supportive environment where feedback is valued and acted upon.
• Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Encouraging exploration of new ideas, embracing new technologies, and consistently seeking ways to enhance brand effectiveness and design processes.
• Ownership & Accountability: Taking responsibility for projects, driving them to completion, and ensuring the quality and consistency of brand applications across all touchpoints.
• Inclusivity: A dedication to creating a workplace and products that reflect the diversity of the global community, ensuring all perspectives are considered.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: The team actively collaborates with brand strategists, product designers, marketers, and engineers, ensuring brand consistency is integrated into all stages of product development and marketing campaigns.
• Iterative Feedback Loops: A culture of regular design reviews and feedback sessions, both within the design team and with cross-functional partners, to refine work and ensure alignment.
• Knowledge Sharing: Encouraging the sharing of best practices, design system updates, and insights across teams to foster a collective understanding and consistent application of the brand.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section outlines the cultural values and collaboration styles relevant to the role. The values are inferred from Atlassian's public statements and the nature of a Senior Brand Designer role within a large tech company, with an emphasis on how these values translate into operational practices like cross-functional integration and continuous improvement.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Maintaining Brand Consistency at Scale: The primary challenge is ensuring the Atlassian brand is applied consistently and effectively across a vast and growing product portfolio and marketing ecosystem, with numerous teams contributing.
• Balancing Brand Vision with Product Needs: Navigating the complexities of aligning a cohesive brand vision with the specific requirements and user experiences of diverse products, often requiring nuanced application of brand guidelines.
• Evolving Design Systems: Keeping pace with rapid technological advancements and evolving user expectations, requiring continuous updates and enhancements to the brand system and its underlying components.
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Effectively communicating brand strategy and system requirements to diverse stakeholders (engineering, marketing, product) who may have different priorities and levels of design understanding.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Advanced Design System Mastery: Deepen expertise in design system architecture, governance, and implementation, potentially leading to specialized roles in this area.
• Strategic Brand Leadership: Opportunities to contribute to higher-level brand strategy, campaign development, and portfolio visioning.
• Mentorship and Team Development: Develop leadership skills by mentoring junior designers and contributing to the growth of the Brand Design Group.
• Industry Exposure: Potential to attend industry conferences, workshops, and training sessions to stay abreast of the latest trends in brand design, UX, and creative operations.
• Cross-Disciplinary Skill Building: Gain exposure and build skills in areas like product marketing, user research, and engineering collaboration through integrated project work.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section addresses potential challenges and growth paths, framed within an operations context. The challenges highlight operational complexities (scalability, consistency, alignment), while growth opportunities focus on developing leadership and specialized skills relevant to advancing within a large organization.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you had to evolve a brand system to accommodate new product lines or a significant brand refresh. What was your process, and what were the key outcomes?" (Assesses strategic thinking, system evolution, and impact assessment.)
• "How do you ensure brand consistency across a complex digital ecosystem with multiple contributing teams? Walk us through your approach to documentation, tooling, and collaboration." (Evaluates operationalization of brand, process management, and cross-functional enablement.)
• "Imagine you need to introduce a new brand element or guideline to a team of engineers and product managers who are under tight deadlines. How would you approach this to gain buy-in and ensure successful adoption?" (Tests communication, stakeholder management, and change management skills.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Atlassian's brand and its mission to 'unleash the potential of every team'?" (Assesses cultural alignment and genuine interest in the company's purpose.)
• "How do you approach collaboration within a hybrid or remote work environment, especially when working with teams in different time zones?" (Evaluates adaptability to Atlassian's work model and collaborative effectiveness.)
• "Describe a situation where you had to balance competing priorities or stakeholder needs within a design project. How did you navigate this, and what was the resolution?" (Probes problem-solving, decision-making, and ability to manage complex situations.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure for Impact: Organize your portfolio presentation logically, perhaps by project type or by demonstrating progression through your career. For each project, clearly state the objective, your role, the problem, your process, the solution, and the results/impact.
• Highlight Operational Contributions: When discussing projects, emphasize aspects related to scalability, efficiency, consistency, and enablement. For instance, detail how you developed reusable components, created clear documentation, or supported other teams in brand application.
• Showcase Figma Proficiency: Be ready to demonstrate specific Figma techniques or features you used, especially those related to design systems, prototyping, or collaboration.
• Articulate Strategic Thinking: Connect your design decisions back to business goals and user needs. Explain the "why" behind your choices, demonstrating a strategic understanding beyond just aesthetics.
• Prepare for Q&A: Anticipate questions about your process, decision-making, collaboration style, and how you handle feedback. Have specific examples ready to illustrate your points.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation advice is tailored to a senior role with operational implications. The questions and strategies focus on assessing not only design craft but also strategic thinking, process management, and the ability to influence and enable others, which are key for a Senior Brand Designer contributing to operational efficiency.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior Brand Designer position:

• Submit your application through the Atlassian careers portal.
• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 3-5 of your most impactful projects that showcase complex brand systems, digital product design, and strategic brand development. Ensure your portfolio clearly demonstrates your process, problem-solving skills, and measurable outcomes, with a particular emphasis on how you've managed brand consistency and scalability.
• Tailor Your Resume: Highlight your 5+ years of relevant experience, proficiency in Figma and Adobe Creative Suite, and any experience with design systems, brand strategy, and cross-functional collaboration. Use keywords from the job description to optimize for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).
• Prepare Your Presentation: Rehearse your portfolio walkthrough, focusing on clearly articulating your role, process, and the impact of your work. Prepare specific examples that showcase your ability to operationalize brand guidelines and support other teams.
• Research Atlassian: Deeply understand Atlassian's mission, products, brand identity, and company culture. Familiarize yourself with their current marketing efforts and design principles to tailor your application and interview responses effectively.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and industry-standard assumptions. While every effort has been made to provide a comprehensive overview, candidates should always refer to the official job posting and conduct their own research. Specific details regarding compensation, benefits, and interview processes should be confirmed directly with the hiring organization.