Design Account Strategist

Location:

Phoenix, AZ (Hybrid – in-office 3x/week)

Employment Type:

Full-time

Reports to:

Chief Creative Officer

About the Job
Mirage Media is looking for a Design Account Strategist who can lead the client conversation, shape the strategic direction, and work closely with our Design team to turn business goals into thoughtful, effective creative work. You will serve as the primary Design contact for assigned clients and projects across branding, websites, packaging, photography, video production, and ongoing creative services.

You will collaborate directly with clients to understand their business, audience, brand, goals, functional needs, preferences, and priorities. From there, you will help establish a clear strategic foundation and work with Mirage’s Design team to guide the project from discovery through presentation and delivery.

We are looking for someone with strong visual literacy and a genuine understanding of branding, graphic design, websites, photography, video, and creative production. You should be able to recognize strong creative work, explain why it works, and help clients evaluate it against the agreed-upon strategy—not simply personal preference. You will also lead discovery conversations, creative reviews, milestone presentations, and Design updates during recurring client meetings. Your role is to make the creative process feel clear, collaborative, and strategically grounded from beginning to end.

What You’ll Actually Be Doing

Serve as the primary Design point of contact for assigned clients and projects

Build strong client relationships through thoughtful communication, preparation, responsiveness, and follow-through

Learn each client’s business, brand, audience, competitive landscape, goals, preferences, functional needs, and decision-making process

Lead discovery conversations to understand what the client is trying to accomplish and what the work needs to do

Help establish the strategic foundation for branding, website, packaging, photography, video, and creative-production engagements

Shape project objectives, audience priorities, brand positioning, functional requirements, creative criteria, and definitions of success

Collaborate with Mirage’s Design team throughout discovery, concept development, refinement, production, and delivery

Connect client insights, audience needs, brand strategy, competitive context, references, and production considerations to the creative direction

Participate meaningfully in strategic and creative conversations throughout the engagement

Review concepts and deliverables for strategic alignment, brand consistency, audience relevance, functional fit, and client readiness

Help clients evaluate creative work against the strategy and project goals

Guide client feedback into clear, thoughtful, and actionable direction for the internal team

Identify conflicting, unclear, or out-of-scope feedback before it creates unnecessary revisions

Lead creative reviews, milestone presentations, approval conversations, and Design updates during recurring client meetings

Present the strategy and rationale behind creative recommendations in clear, accessible language

Keep clients informed about project progress, upcoming milestones, approvals, revision status, timelines, risks, and next steps

Coordinate content, asset, technical, production, and stakeholder requirements throughout the engagement

For ongoing Design accounts, help identify recurring creative needs, brand-system gaps, and future priorities

Coordinate with Mirage’s Marketing and Advertising verticals when clients receive multiple services

You’ll Thrive Here If You

Have 3+ years of experience in creative strategy, design account strategy, brand strategy, production, or a comparable client-facing role, including

at least one year within a branding, creative, design, web, or integrated agency environment

Have strong visual literacy and a working understanding of branding, graphic design, websites, packaging, photography, video, and creative production

Understand how to connect a client’s business goals and audience insights to a clear creative strategy

Can lead a productive discovery conversation and uncover what the client is actually trying to accomplish

Are comfortable presenting creative work and explaining the strategic thinking behind it

Can guide subjective feedback without allowing the conversation to become an unstructured debate about personal preferences

Know how to align multiple client stakeholders, manage competing opinions, and move the project toward a clear decision

Can translate scattered feedback into specific, prioritized, and actionable direction

Communicate clearly, confidently, and professionally

Give thoughtful feedback while remaining collaborative and respectful of the creative team’s expertise

Are highly organized and can manage multiple projects, timelines, conversations, dependencies, and revision cycles

Take ownership, follow through, and care deeply about the quality of the client experience

Have strong judgment, curiosity, and a thoughtful point of view about brands and creative work

Know how to protect both the client relationship and the strategic integrity of the work

Bonus Points if You

Have experience supporting brand identity, website, packaging, photography, video, or integrated campaign engagements

Have worked with multiple creative projects or client accounts at the same time

Understand tools and workflows such as Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, website CMS platforms, digital proofing, or project management systems

Have experience with print production, web accessibility, content migration, shoot planning, or vendor coordination

Understand the typical phases, dependencies, review points, and production considerations involved in brand, web, packaging, and shoot-based projects

Have helped present brand concepts, website designs, creative campaigns, or production recommendations to clients

Can quickly recognize when creative work is strategically aligned, visually strong, and ready to be presented

About Mirage Media
We are the strategic and creative agency brands turn to when they want results that actually look good. We work with founder-led startups and Fortune 500 companies alike, bringing big-agency thinking with boutique-level care. Mirage Media is built across three connected verticals: Marketing, Advertising, and Design. We are taste-driven, performance-obsessed, and committed to making every client feel like they have a true strategic partner invested in their success.

Mirage Media is an equal-opportunity employer. In accordance with anti-discrimination law, it is the purpose of this policy to effectuate these principles and mandates. Mirage Media prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and affords equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Mirage Media conforms to the spirit as well as to the letter of all applicable laws and regulations.

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