Design Lead

CACTUS is a remote-first organization and we embrace an accelerate from anywhere culture. You may be required to travel to our Mumbai office based on business requirements or for company/team events.

About us:

Digital Media Solutions (DMS) works with scientists, universities, organizations, societies, and publishers across more than 150 accounts from around the world. At DMS, we work with different stakeholders of the scientific landscape to visualize and disseminate their work. Through our content writing and design services, we convert complex scientific ideas into engaging content and visuals tailored to different audiences. Our marketing team creates tailored promotion and distribution strategies to help researchers and organizations create a media presence.

Our accounts are clustered around 3 key geographies:

• Eastern markets:researchers, institutions, organizations, and journals from Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, etc.

• Western markets:researchers, academic journals, publishers, and societies dotted across Europe and North America.

• India market:researchers, government agencies, organization, think tanks, and institutions across India.

Team structure:

Under each key market, we have a multi-functional team comprising content creators, designers and animators, and marketing specialists:

• Content vertical: Comprises writers & content reviewers that distill technical raw material such as manuscripts, interviews, etc. into different types of content- e.g. press releases, social media posts, lay summaries, video and infographic storyboards, etc.

• Design vertical:Comprises designers and animators that create audio-visual products (infographics, illustrations, graphical abstracts, video summaries, etc.) based on the content writers storyboard and inputs.

• Marketing vertical: Comprises news, digital, and social media marketing specialists that disseminate the content created on news platforms, to journalists, and on social media.

Your role

As a Design Lead (Audio/Video), DMS, you will need to create and oversee diverse audio/video projects (2D/3D animated videos, brand videos, reels, stock-based videos, podcasts, etc.) end-to-end to serve our customer base comprising scientists, universities, hospitals, organizations, etc. You will play an active role in brainstorming to meet the client brief, coming up with innovative design concepts, planning projects and timelines, and executing them with high quality standards.

Design& delivery:

• Provide compelling visual solutions to meet the client brief.

• Help create scientific/technicalillustrations needed for the videos.

• Collaborate with the scientific content team and oversee studio freelancers to deliver high-quality video graphics & videos.

• Oversee the project and its progress end-to-end.

• Analyze client feedback to refine designs and implement iterative improvements during the production cycle.

• Research and integrate emerging design trends, tools, and techniques to enhance the quality and creativity of deliverables.

• Develop guidelines and best practices for video and graphics production to maintain consistency and quality across projects.

• Manage client communications for design-specific requirements, ensuring clarity on project scope and expectations.

Resource management &engagement:

• Helping train and onboard new resources.

• Reviewing your peers and freelancers output and ensure that it meets client expectations.

• Optimizing training modules to reflect changes in services and increasing training impact.

• Query resolution for in-house designers and freelancers.

• Organizing learning & feedback sessions for in-house designers and freelancers.

Qualitymanagement:

• Assessing client complaints to identify rootcauses and nextsteps.

• Share feedback with relevant stakeholders in light of complaints or errors in deliverables.

• Oversee regular feedback tostakeholders.

• Solutioning for recurring quality trends and implementing next-steps.

• Seeking content-related feedback from other teams such as content and marketing to improve design-related processes and drive quality.

Essential skills:

• Design skills: Ability to create innovative graphics and illustrations on scientific and research-based concepts for medical, scientific, and marketing collaterals and deliver high-quality, error-free collateral.

• Customer focus: Strong customer focus and ability to think from a customer's perspective when working on deliverables,identifying solutions, or implementing quality measures. Going above and beyond when required to provide the right solution for the customer.

• Language& communication skills:Good written and verbal English language skills and ability to communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders and clients.

• Organization & problem-solving skills:Ability to meet tight deadlines, multitask, andplan and execute independently.

• Openness to learning and can-do outlook: An open mind to exploring change, being agile, and challenging the status quo.

• The applicant should have 3 years of experience in graphic animation, video creation, and delivering various forms of audio-visual projects, including 2D animation.3D animation is a significant bonus.

• Experience in working in science communication or handling scientific topics is a bonus, with an added preference for candidates familiar with creating visuals for research-based or academic contexts.

• A Bachelor's/Master's degree in Design, Animation, Multimedia, or related fields is highly desirable. A diploma or certification in Design or Animation is an added advantage.

• Advanced skills in Adobe Design Suite (Illustrator and Photoshop), After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Blender(Bonus) are required. Strong knowledge of 3D graphics, animation workflows, and Blender software is a significant bonus.

• The ability to adapt processes to incorporate client requests, even when they extend beyond standard scopes of service, is critical. Analytical skills to assess new job requirements and develop case studies or solutions are highly valued.

• Strong foundational knowledge of design principles, including color theory, typography, composition, and client management, is essential.

Before applying, please ensure you meet the role requirements listed above and have legal authorization to work in the country where this role is advertised. Our selection process typically involves an initial screening by a recruiter, a technical assessment, and two to three interview rounds.

Equal Opportunity

Our hiring practices reflect our commitment to providing equal opportunities and creating an environment where everyone can thrive, develop, and succeed. We celebrate the uniqueness of our team members and prohibit discrimination of any kind, based on race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, or any other protected characteristic.

Accelerating from Anywhere

As a remote-first organization, these are essential attributes we look for in all our candidates.

• Taking ownership of your work with minimal supervision, showing strong ability to organize, prioritize and deliver results independently.
• Documenting work that brings everyone on the same page.
• Maturity to choose between synchronous and asynchronous collaboration.
• Effectively collaborating with colleagues across different time zones by setting dedicated hours for collaboration and keeping team members updated through your MS Teams status.

Established in 2002, Cactus Communications () is a leading technology company that specializes in expert services and AI-driven products which improve how research gets funded, published, communicated, and discovered. Its flagship brand Editage offers a comprehensive suite of researcher solutions, including expert services and cutting-edge AI products like Mind the Graph, Paperpal, and R Discovery. With offices in Princeton, London, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, and Mumbai and a global workforce of over 3,000 experts, CACTUS is a pioneer in workplace best practices and has been consistently recognized as a great place to work.