Visual & Brand Designer | Bankrate

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Visual & Brand Designer Company: Bankrate (Red Ventures) Location: Charlotte, NC (Remote or Hybrid, East Coast preference) Job Type: Full-Time Category: Creative & Media / Marketing / Sales Date Posted: October 21, 2025 Experience Level: 5-10 years

🚀 Role Summary

• This role is pivotal in shaping Bankrate's visual identity and brand presence across all internal and external communications, with a strong emphasis on sales enablement and performance-driven creative.
• You will be responsible for crafting executive-ready sales materials, ensuring brand consistency in collateral, and designing high-impact creative for digital media campaigns.
• A key aspect involves building and documenting visual systems, templates, and workflows to empower non-designers and accelerate content creation velocity.
• This position requires a blend of strong design craft, strategic thinking, and a proactive approach to leveraging modern tools, including AI, to enhance efficiency and impact.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is Visual & Brand Designer, the responsibilities heavily lean into Sales Operations enablement and Performance Marketing creative, indicating a strong GTM (Go-To-Market) focus. The emphasis on "templating," "documenting modern tools and workflows," and enabling "non-designers to move faster" points to a need for process-oriented thinking and scalability, common in operations roles. The mention of "performance-minded creative for paid media" and "test & learn loop" highlights a data-informed approach to design.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Sales Enablement & Executive Collateral:
  • Design, refine, and templatize executive-level sales collateral, particularly Google Slides presentations, in close partnership with the Chief Commercial Officer and executive leadership.
  • Develop a robust modular slide/deck system, including master templates, component libraries, and clear usage guidelines, to streamline content creation and ensure brand polish across teams.
  • Produce enterprise mock-ups, diagrams, and concept visuals to effectively articulate value propositions for specific partner pitches.
• Branded Collateral & Identity Extension:
  • Create and maintain brand-consistent assets across all channels, including presentations, one-pagers, internal documentation, digital placements, and event materials, ensuring adherence to the Bankrate identity.
  • Thoughtfully extend the brand identity system (typography, color, grid, motion, iconography, illustration) and meticulously document its usage to enable correct application by others.
• Social Media & Paid Media Creative:
  • Produce performant creative asset sets for platforms like Meta and Google Display Network (GDN), intelligently versioning them across various formats and specifications.
  • Implement a "test & learn" loop by analyzing creative performance with analysts, iterating on art direction, layout, copy framing, and motion to optimize CTR/CVR while safeguarding brand integrity.
  • Leverage AI-assisted workflows (image generation, variations, cut-out/cleanup, prompt libraries, batch exports) to significantly increase throughput and support non-design partners.
• Brand Building & Systemization:
  • Collaborate with Creative leadership and external agencies to develop an adaptable identity system suitable for B2B2C use cases, contributing to design tokens, libraries, and governance frameworks.
  • Create comprehensive brand kits, shareable templates, and practical "how-to" guides to scale excellent design practices throughout the organization.
  • Concept, design, and produce compelling visual assets and integrated campaigns to support new product launches, encompassing ads, social creative, and marketing collateral.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "templatize," "build a modular system," "document usage," and "scale great design across the org" strongly suggests a need for a designer who can think systematically and create scalable design solutions, a mindset highly valued in operations. The responsibility for a "test & learn loop" for creative performance indicates a data-driven approach to design, aligning with performance marketing and revenue-focused operations.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• While no specific degree is mandated, a strong portfolio demonstrating exceptional design skills and understanding of brand systems is paramount. A Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communications, or a related field is often preferred.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in visual design and brand design, with a proven track record of building sales decks, comprehensive brand systems, and performance-oriented assets across diverse digital channels.

Required Skills:

• Design Software Proficiency:
  • Expert command of Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects).
  • Advanced proficiency in Google Slides.
  • Comfort and familiarity with Canva.
• Brand System Development: Proven ability to develop, extend, and document brand identity systems, including typography, color palettes, iconography, and motion guidelines.
• Sales Enablement Design: Experience creating high-impact, executive-level sales collateral, presentations, and pitch materials.
• Performance Creative: Understanding of designing for digital media channels (e.g., Meta, GDN) with a focus on optimizing for CTR and CVR.
• AI-Assisted Workflows: Familiarity with AI tools for image generation, refinement, and other design tasks, with a strong desire to document prompts and templates for broader organizational use.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Demonstrated experience working effectively with non-designer stakeholders, including executive leadership, sales teams, and marketing analysts.
• Presentation & Communication: Ability to present design concepts clearly and persuasively to executive stakeholders.
• Copywriting Acumen: Competency in writing and refining short-form copy for slides, CTAs, and headlines when necessary.
• Accessibility Standards: Solid understanding of accessibility fundamentals (e.g., contrast ratios, motion sensitivity, alt text) and production requirements for digital channels.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with animation and motion graphics (After Effects).
• Experience in B2B2C marketing environments.
• Familiarity with design tokens and component libraries in Figma.
• Experience creating and managing brand kits and template repositories.
• Understanding of A/B testing principles for creative assets.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit mention of "documenting prompts/templates for non-designers" and "enabling non-designers to move faster" highlights a critical operations-aligned skill: creating scalable, repeatable processes and resources. This goes beyond pure creative output and into operationalizing design. The emphasis on "performance-minded creative" and "test & learn loop" also connects this role to GTM analytics and optimization.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Visual Storytelling & Brand Consistency: Showcase a strong narrative flow within projects, demonstrating how brand identity is consistently applied across various outputs (e.g., sales decks, digital ads, collateral).
• Sales Enablement Examples: Include at least one comprehensive example of a sales deck or executive presentation that demonstrates clear communication of value propositions and a polished, professional aesthetic.
• Brand System Documentation: Present examples of how brand systems have been extended, documented, or templated for wider use, illustrating your ability to create scalable design resources.
• Performance Creative Samples: If possible, include examples of digital creative assets (ads, social posts) that were iterated upon based on performance data, highlighting your data-informed design approach.
• AI Workflow Integration: Briefly describe or showcase how you've integrated AI tools into your workflow to enhance efficiency or explore new creative avenues.

Process Documentation:

• Demonstrate experience in creating clear, concise documentation for design processes, templates, and tool usage. This could include:
  • Workflow diagrams for asset creation or review processes.
  • User guides for design templates or brand guidelines.
  • Prompt libraries or best practices for AI design tools.
  • System architecture for component libraries or design systems.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a role emphasizing scalability and enablement, a portfolio that showcases not just the final creative output but the process behind it is crucial. This includes how the designer systematizes their work, creates reusable assets, documents best practices, and enables others. This is a direct link to operations thinking.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Cash Compensation Range: $65,000 - $95,000 per year
• Geographic Adjustment: The actual salary will be determined based on the candidate's geographic location, qualifications, and experience. Candidates in higher cost-of-living areas may be compensated at the higher end of the range.

Benefits:

• Health & Wellness:
  • Comprehensive Health Insurance Coverage (medical, dental, and vision).
  • Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) for healthcare and dependent care.
  • Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for confidential support.
• Financial Security:
  • Life Insurance.
  • Short and Long-Term Disability Insurance.
  • 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Time Off & Flexibility:
  • Flexible Paid Time Off (PTO):
    • 20 days per calendar year for full-time employees.
    • Increased to 25 days after five years of service.
  • Holiday Pay.
• Professional Development & Support:
  • Paid Parental Bonding Benefit Program.

Working Hours:

• Typically 40 hours per week.
• The role requires the ability to work within Eastern Standard Time (EST) hours, supporting hybrid or remote work arrangements.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is specific. The "Note actual salary is based on geographic location, qualifications, and experience" is a standard disclaimer but implies that candidates in major East Coast hubs (like New York) might fall at the higher end, whereas Charlotte might be closer to the mid-range. The detailed benefits list is standard for a large organization.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Financial Services Technology / Digital Media / Consumer Finance Marketplace Company Size: Red Ventures is a large, privately held global company. Bankrate, as a part of Red Ventures, benefits from this scale. The specific size of the Bankrate design team is not detailed but is implied to be part of a larger marketing or creative function. Founded: Bankrate was founded in 1976, bringing a long history of credibility. Red Ventures was founded in 2000.

Team Structure:

• Reporting: The Visual & Brand Designer will report to Creative leadership, likely within a larger Marketing or Brand department. They will collaborate closely with the Chief Commercial Officer and executive leadership for sales enablement materials.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: This role is inherently cross-functional, working with Sales, Marketing (Performance Marketing, Brand), Product, and potentially Engineering teams. The emphasis on enabling non-designers suggests a strong internal client-service orientation.
• Operations Integration: The focus on templating, workflow documentation, and AI integration indicates a need for collaboration with operations or process improvement functions to ensure scalability and efficiency.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Design: A key methodology involves a "test & learn" loop for creative performance, using analytics to inform design iterations and drive measurable improvements in CTR and CVR.
• Systemic Approach: Emphasis on building modular systems, component libraries, and comprehensive documentation to ensure consistency, scalability, and efficiency across design outputs.
• AI-Powered Workflows: Proactive adoption and documentation of AI tools to enhance design throughput and support broader organizational needs.

Company Website: https://www.redventures.com/ and https://www.bankrate.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: Red Ventures is known for its data-driven culture and focus on scaling operations through technology and process. Bankrate's long-standing reputation for trust in financial services complements this. The role's emphasis on process, templating, and enabling others aligns well with a growth-oriented, operations-minded company culture.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role can be seen as a Senior Individual Contributor within the Creative/Marketing function, with a strong operational component. It's not a traditional "Operations" role (like RevOps or Sales Ops) but requires an operations mindset for design scalability. Reporting Structure: Reports to Creative Leadership. Collaborates extensively with executive-level stakeholders in Sales and Commercial functions. Operations Impact: The designer's work directly impacts the effectiveness of sales pitches, the perception of Bankrate's brand in B2B2C contexts, and the performance of paid media campaigns. By creating scalable systems and templates, the designer contributes to operational efficiency and revenue generation by empowering sales and marketing teams.

Growth Opportunities:

• Design Leadership: Potential to grow into a Lead Designer or Art Director role, overseeing more complex projects and mentoring junior designers.
• Brand System Expertise: Deepen expertise in building and governing sophisticated brand systems and design tokens, potentially influencing broader Red Ventures brand standards.
• GTM & Performance Marketing Specialization: Develop deeper insights into performance marketing, conversion rate optimization (CRO), and sales enablement strategies through hands-on experience and data analysis.
• Process Improvement & Automation: Lead initiatives to further automate design workflows and improve design operations efficiency across the organization, leveraging AI and templating.
• Cross-Company Exposure: As part of Red Ventures, opportunities may arise to contribute to other brands within the portfolio.

📝 Enhancement Note: The growth path here isn't just about becoming a better designer but about becoming a more strategic and operationally minded one. The ability to build systems, document processes, and influence non-designers is a key differentiator for advancing into roles that bridge creative and operational excellence.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Hybrid or Remote. For hybrid candidates, there's a preference for the East Coast, with central hubs in New York, NY, or the Charlotte, NC area. Office Location(s): Charlotte, NC; New York, NY (and potentially other Red Ventures locations). Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Hubs: Hybrid work likely involves utilizing office spaces designed for collaboration, brainstorming, and team meetings.
• Digital Tooling: Expect a robust digital environment with access to industry-standard design software, collaboration platforms (e.g., Slack, Teams), and project management tools. The emphasis on AI tools suggests a forward-thinking tech stack.
• Cross-Functional Interaction: Frequent interaction with diverse teams (Sales, Marketing, Analytics) will be a core part of the daily work.

Work Schedule:

• Standard full-time hours (approx. 40 hours/week).
• Must be able to work within Eastern Standard Time (EST) hours to align with team and stakeholders. Flexibility likely exists, common in creative and hybrid roles, but core availability during EST business hours is key.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid/remote flexibility, coupled with the EST requirement, is a common setup for roles supporting broad GTM functions. The emphasis on "Easter Standard Time hours" is a critical operational constraint for remote candidates.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A review of your resume and portfolio by a recruiter or hiring manager.
• Portfolio Review & Discussion: A dedicated session to walk through your portfolio. Expect to discuss specific projects, your design process, your role in each project, and the outcomes. Be prepared to elaborate on how you built systems, documented processes, and worked with non-designers.
• Skills-Based Assessment/Challenge: Potentially a design challenge or a case study presentation focused on a specific problem (e.g., designing a sales deck template, creating a performance creative concept). This will assess your problem-solving skills, design thinking, and ability to articulate your rationale.
• Team/Stakeholder Interviews: Meetings with key stakeholders, including Creative Leadership, potentially members of the Sales or Marketing teams, to assess cultural fit, collaboration style, and strategic thinking.
• Executive Interview: A final interview with a senior leader, likely focused on strategic alignment, impact, and overall fit within Bankrate/Red Ventures.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate for Relevance: Select projects that directly showcase your experience in sales enablement, brand systems, performance creative, and AI integration. Prioritize quality over quantity.
• Tell a Story: For each project, clearly articulate the problem, your role, your process (emphasizing systems, documentation, and collaboration), the solution, and the measurable impact or outcome.
• Highlight Process & Scalability: Emphasize how you approached documentation, templating, and enabling others. Show, don't just tell, how your work can scale.
• Demonstrate Data-Informed Design: If possible, show how you used performance data or analytics to inform design decisions.
• Prepare for "How": Be ready to explain how you use Figma, Adobe CC, Google Slides, and AI tools. Discuss your prompt engineering approach if discussing AI.
• Company Alignment: Research Bankrate and Red Ventures' brand, values, and recent initiatives. Tailor your presentation to show how your skills align with their business goals.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Objective: If given a challenge, ensure you fully grasp the brief and its objectives, particularly regarding sales enablement, brand consistency, or performance metrics.
• Structure Your Approach: Outline your thought process before diving into execution. Consider the strategic goals, target audience, and constraints.
• Focus on Scalability: Think about how your solution could be templated or scaled for broader use.
• Articulate Rationale: Be prepared to clearly explain your design choices, referencing brand guidelines, performance best practices, and your process.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "templating," "documenting," and "enabling non-designers" means interviewers will be looking for evidence of process-oriented thinking and scalability in your portfolio and during discussions. Be ready to speak to how you create reusable assets and guide others in their use.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Design Tools:

• Figma: Core tool for UI/UX design, prototyping, and collaborative design system development. Expect extensive use for templating and building component libraries.
• Adobe Creative Cloud:
  • Photoshop: For image editing, manipulation, and compositing.
  • Illustrator: For vector graphics, logos, icons, and illustrations.
  • After Effects: For motion graphics, animations, and dynamic creative assets.
• Google Slides: Primary platform for executive-level sales decks and presentations. Mastery is essential for this role.
• Canva: Familiarity is noted, suggesting it might be used for simpler internal or quick-turnaround assets.

Analytics & Reporting (for Creative Performance):

• While not directly a designer's tool, familiarity with how creative performance is measured and reported (e.g., understanding CTR, CVR, engagement metrics) is crucial for iterating on paid media assets. This implies collaboration with analytics teams who use tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, or internal BI platforms.

CRM & Automation (Indirect Relevance):

• Understanding how creative assets are deployed within marketing automation platforms or CRM systems (e.g., for email campaigns, sales outreach) can be beneficial, though direct manipulation is unlikely.

AI-Assisted Workflows:

• Image Generation Tools: (e.g., Midjourney, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion) for concepting, asset creation, or generating variations.
• AI Editing Tools: Features within Adobe CC or standalone tools for tasks like background removal, upscaling, or style transfer.
• Prompt Engineering: Ability to craft effective prompts for AI tools and document them for others.

📝 Enhancement Note: The specific mention of Google Slides, Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, and AI tools is critical. Candidates should be prepared to discuss their proficiency and specific use cases for each, especially how they integrate AI into their workflow for efficiency and scalability.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values (Inferred for this role):

• Efficiency & Scalability: A strong drive to create repeatable processes, templates, and systems that allow for rapid and consistent output, enabling broader teams.
• Data-Informed Decision Making: Utilizing performance metrics and analytics to guide creative iterations and optimize for business outcomes (CTR, CVR).
• Collaboration & Enablement: A proactive approach to working with non-designers, providing clear guidance, and empowering them to use design assets effectively.
• Brand Stewardship: A commitment to maintaining and thoughtfully evolving brand integrity across all touchpoints, even under pressure for speed.
• Continuous Learning: Eagerness to explore and adopt new tools and workflows, particularly AI, to enhance design capabilities and efficiency.

Collaboration Style:

• Partnership-Oriented: Works closely with stakeholders across Sales, Marketing, and Creative leadership, acting as a trusted advisor and executor.
• Empowering: Focuses on creating resources and documentation that empower others to leverage design effectively.
• Feedback-Driven: Open to feedback on creative performance and design direction, iterating based on data and stakeholder input.
• Transparent: Clearly communicates design rationale, process, and limitations, especially when working with non-design partners.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values highlighted here are crucial for success in a role that bridges creative execution with operational efficiency and GTM strategy support. Candidates should articulate how they embody these values in their past work.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Balancing Speed and Quality: Meeting the demands for rapid creative output for sales and performance marketing while maintaining high brand standards and design excellence.
• Enabling Non-Designers: Effectively creating systems and documentation that empower individuals with varying design skills to produce polished, on-brand materials.
• Integrating AI Ethically & Effectively: Successfully adopting AI tools while ensuring brand integrity, managing potential quality variations, and documenting best practices for organizational use.
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Navigating priorities and feedback from diverse stakeholders (Sales, Marketing, Executive Leadership) to deliver cohesive creative solutions.
• Measuring Creative Impact: Clearly demonstrating the ROI and impact of design work on sales enablement and marketing performance metrics.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Advanced Design System Development: Opportunity to contribute to and govern sophisticated design systems and component libraries.
• Performance Marketing & CRO: Deepen understanding of conversion rate optimization, A/B testing methodologies, and the direct impact of creative on business KPIs.
• AI in Design: Become a subject matter expert within the organization on leveraging AI for creative workflows and efficiency.
• B2B2C Marketing Strategies: Gain insights into effective marketing and sales strategies for complex financial services products.
• Leadership & Mentorship: Potential to mentor junior designers or lead specific design initiatives.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are common in roles that sit at the intersection of creative, marketing, and operations. Highlighting how one has overcome similar challenges in their portfolio or interviews will be beneficial.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• Design Systems & Scalability: "Describe a time you built or significantly contributed to a design system or templating process. What were the key components, how did you document it, and what was the impact on efficiency for non-designers?"
• Performance Creative Iteration: "Walk me through a project where you designed creative assets for paid media. How did you collaborate with analysts, what KPIs did you focus on, and how did you iterate based on performance data?"
• AI Integration: "How have you incorporated AI tools into your design workflow? Can you provide an example of how you used AI for a specific task, and how you might document prompts or templates for others to use?"
• Sales Enablement: "How do you approach designing an executive-level sales deck? What are the key considerations for clarity, impact, and brand consistency, especially when working with senior leadership?"

Company & Culture Questions:

• Bankrate/Red Ventures Alignment: "What excites you about Bankrate's mission and Red Ventures' approach to business? How do you see your design philosophy aligning with our data-driven and efficiency-focused culture?"
• Collaboration Style: "Describe your ideal working relationship with a sales or marketing team. How do you ensure effective communication and collaboration when working with non-designers?"
• Handling Feedback: "How do you handle constructive criticism or conflicting feedback on your designs, particularly from executive stakeholders?"

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure for Impact: Start with 1-2 strong projects that best showcase the required skills (sales decks, brand systems, performance creative).
• Focus on Process, Not Just Pixels: For each project, clearly articulate the problem, your specific role, your process (emphasizing system building, documentation, AI use, collaboration), the solution, and the measurable outcome.
• Quantify Impact: Use metrics wherever possible (e.g., "templated system reduced deck creation time by X%", "iterated creative led to Y% increase in CTR").
• Explain Your Tools: Be ready to briefly explain your proficiency and specific use cases for Figma, Adobe CC, Google Slides, and any AI tools used.
• Tailor to the Role: Explicitly connect your portfolio pieces to the responsibilities and requirements outlined in the job description.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process will likely heavily scrutinize the candidate's ability to think operationally about design – how they create scalable assets, document their work, and enable others. Be prepared to discuss process and efficiency as much as aesthetics.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Visual & Brand Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on the Red Ventures careers site.
• Resume Optimization: Tailor your resume to highlight your 5+ years of experience in visual and brand design, specifically mentioning sales collateral, brand systems, performance creative, and any experience with AI workflows or templating. Use keywords from the job description.
• Portfolio Curation: Select and refine your online portfolio to prominently feature projects demonstrating your expertise in Google Slides, Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, and ideally, examples of scalable design systems or sales enablement materials. Ensure clear case studies that explain your process and impact.
• Prepare for the "Why" and "How": Be ready to articulate why you made specific design choices and how you approached challenges related to efficiency, documentation, and collaboration during your portfolio review and interviews.
• Research Bankrate & Red Ventures: Understand their business, target audience, brand voice, and recent marketing efforts. This will help you tailor your responses and demonstrate genuine interest.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

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