Freelance Associate Creative Director, Experience Design (Pharma)

Job Overview

The Associate Creative Director, Experience Design partners with the Group Creative Director to define and deliver impactful digital experiences across the customer journey. This role leads the strategic and creative development of user-centered solutions that connect audience needs with business objectives, overseeing experience design across websites, platforms, applications, digital tools, and integrated omnichannel ecosystems.

The ACD, Experience Design serves as both a design leader and hands-on practitioner, guiding multidisciplinary teams through discovery, strategy, information architecture, interaction design, prototyping, and experience optimization. They bring a deep understanding of user behavior, accessibility, emerging technologies, and digital best practices, translating complex business and scientific challenges into intuitive and meaningful experiences. Experience working in B2B, healthcare, life sciences, or other complex industries is highly valued.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the development of experience strategies that align user needs, client goals, and business outcomes
• Define and champion experience vision across digital products, platforms, and customer touchpoints
• Guide teams through user-centered design methodologies, including research, journey mapping, service design, and experience architecture
• Partner with creative, strategy, account, and technology teams to create connected, end-to-end experiences
• Advocate for accessibility, usability, and inclusive design principles throughout the design process
• Oversee the creation of user flows, site maps, information architecture, wireframes, prototypes, and experience frameworks
• Ensure experience solutions are grounded in user insights, analytics, and behavioral data
• Evaluate and improve existing digital experiences through testing, optimization, and performance analysis
• Establish and maintain design standards, patterns, and best practices across client engagements
• Balance user needs, technical constraints, business objectives, and regulatory requirements when developing solutions
• Present experience strategies, design rationale, and recommendations to clients and internal stakeholders with confidence and clarity
• Facilitate workshops, discovery sessions, stakeholder interviews, and collaborative design exercises
• Mentor and develop UX designers and experience strategists, fostering growth and design excellence
• Provide constructive feedback and creative direction that elevates the quality of work across teams
• Build trust with clients as a strategic partner and thought leader in digital experience
• Partner closely with project management and development teams to ensure experience integrity throughout implementation
• Own experience workstreams, timelines, and quality standards across multiple concurrent projects
• Collaborate with visual design, content, strategy, and technology disciplines to create cohesive solutions
• Stay current on emerging technologies, AI-enabled experiences, digital innovation, and industry trends

Qualifications & Skills

• 8–10 years of experience in UX, product design, experience design, service design, or digital strategy within an agency, consultancy, or in-house environment
• Proven experience leading complex digital experience initiatives from discovery through delivery
• Strong portfolio demonstrating experience strategy, UX design, information architecture, journey mapping, and digital product thinking
• Expertise in designing websites, platforms, applications, and omnichannel customer experiences
• Experience facilitating research, workshops, stakeholder alignment, and collaborative design activities
• Strong understanding of accessibility standards, usability principles, and user-centered design methodologies
• Ability to translate complex business, scientific, or technical information into intuitive user experiences
• Experience working alongside developers and understanding technical implementation considerations
• Proficiency in Figma and modern experience design tools
• Strong presentation, communication, and storytelling skills
• Experience in healthcare, life sciences, biotech, or regulated industries is a plus
  
  Reports To: Group Creative Director

At CG Life, we recognize that attracting the best talent is key to our strategy and success as a company. As a result, we aim for flexibility in structuring competitive compensation offers to ensure we are able to attract the best candidates. As required by law in this state, the estimated hourly rate range for this position is $120-$130/hr and represents our good faith estimate as to what our ideal candidates are likely to expect. We tailor our offers within the range based on organizational needs, internal equity, market data, geographic zone, and the selected candidate’s experience, education, industry knowledge, location, technical and communication skills, and other factors that may prove relevant during the selection process. At CG Life, it is not common for individuals to be hired at the higher end of the range, and compensation decisions depend on a variety of factors. This position is eligible to participate in a discretionary bonus program, subject to the rules governing the plan. CG Life offers a variety of benefits, including health benefits, 401K retirement with a generous company match and immediate vesting, and flexible time off.  

A Note to Candidates:

It has come to our attention that some candidates are being contacted by individuals falsely claiming to represent CG Life. Please note that all official communications from CG Life will come from an email address ending in @cglife.com. If you are contacted by anyone using a different domain, please consider it fraudulent. CG Life will never ask candidates to pay fees or share financial information at any stage of the hiring process

This job posting is intended for direct applicants only; please, no outside recruiters.