Design & Creative-Lead

This role is for someone who leads by example and is equally comfortable setting creative direction and getting hands-on when required. As a Design & Creative Lead, you are not just managing work; you are shaping quality, safeguarding brand integrity, and ensuring predictable delivery within a team-based model.

You start the day with clarity by aligning with the Allocator, reviewing priorities, and knowing exactly what is in flight. Throughout the day, you stay close to the work: reviewing concepts, unblocking designers, joining critical calls, and ensuring that every deliverable moves forward with a clear owner and purpose.

Please note: CACTUS is a remote-first organisation, 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.

Creative Direction, Quality & Craft 

• Provide clear creative direction across formats including print, digital, UI/UX, presentations, abstract visuals, and video storyboards, with a strong eye for aesthetics, usability, and storytelling
• Guide the team toward stronger ideas through timely reviews, constructive feedback, and hands-on intervention when required
• Ensure every output meets a high bar for design, consistency, and execution. Review work early and often to avoid downstream rework
• Take full accountability for what goes out, as the work represents the organisation, not just the individual

Delivery, Ownership & Accountability 

• Act as the single point of contact for assigned brands and stakeholders, owning outcomes end-to-end across quality, timelines, First-time-right (FTR), Zero-Error-Delivery (ZED), and utilisation
• Assess scope, complexity, and effort accurately. Prioritize work to meet timelines without compromising quality, recognising that strong work delivered late still impacts outcomes
• Ensure one clear owner per deliverable from start to finish, and avoid midstream reshuffles unless unavoidable, with proper handover and clarity

Team Enablement & Allocation 

• Align daily with the Allocator to set priorities and assign work. Maintain visibility across all tasks covering status, owner, ETA, and risks
• Know when to guide and when to step in hands-on. Enable skill development and maintain fair and balanced workload distribution within the team
• Balance workloads proactively to avoid under- or over-utilization. Look across teams to address capacity gaps before considering freelancers, and plan leave coverage to protect continuity

Brand Custodianship & Hands-On Execution 

• Act as the brand's voice and custodian within the team, ensuring consistency across all creative outputs through shared templates, components, file-naming conventions, and version control
• Personally review critical work and step in to unblock, accelerate, or close work when needed. Stay close to execution at all times

#LI-Remote

• Bachelor's degree or diploma in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, Fine Arts, or a related creative discipline, or equivalent professional experience with a strong portfolio demonstrating range across formats and brand work

• 6–9 years of design experience, with 2–3 years in a lead or senior creative role (within a studio, agency, or in-house), and a background in pharma, life sciences, or medical communications is essential

• Proven ability to lead creative output across print, digital, UI/UX, and presentation formats, with hands-on execution capability to personally produce or finish work when required

• Strong creative direction and critique skills; able to identify problems and guide solutions, not just flag issues

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to articulate creative rationale clearly to both designers and non-design stakeholders

• Comfortable managing multiple brands and stakeholders simultaneously in a fast-paced, structured delivery environment

• Proficient in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, After Effects) and Figma; familiar with Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides for presentation design

• Working knowledge of project and workflow management tools such as Asana, Monday.com, or similar. Awareness of AI-assisted design tools including Adobe Firefly or Midjourney, with sound judgment on where and how to apply them responsibly

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 includes a Technical Assessment, 2 rounds of Technical Interview with the Hiring Manager and peers, and the final HR Round. All interactions will be conducted virtually via MS Teams.

AI at Cactus Life Sciences
The life sciences industry is undergoing a fundamental shift in how scientific knowledge is created, communicated, and delivered. We are building our work around it.
AI is embedded meaningfully across everything we do, through proprietary platforms purpose-built for life sciences and generative tools that deliver measurable value to our clients. It is core to how we operate, and an expected way of working for everyone who joins us.
We believe in Human-Anchored AI™: whatever your discipline - science, communications, strategy, or operations, you will work in an environment where AI augments your expertise rather than replaces it.
You will build skills that are in genuine demand and still taking shape across the industry. If you are curious and focused on building capabilities for the world where human intelligence meets artificial intelligence, this is where you belong.

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.

Cactus Life Sciences (cactuslifesciences.com) is a leading medical communication company headquartered in Princeton, NJ, with nine global offices. Its expertise lies in delivering scientific content across the product lifecycle with a focus on science, innovation, and efficiency. The company specializes in providing impactful medical strategy, custom operational models, content development and dissemination, and promotion of patient inclusion for biopharmaceutical organizations. Cactus Life Sciences’ scalable solutions cater to the challenges encountered in product development, guiding brands, and organizations towards their future objectives. With a client-centric approach, the company prioritizes understanding their evolving needs and technology trends to drive its growth. Cactus Life Sciences is a subsidiary of Cactus Communications (cactusglobal.com/), a leading science communication and technology company.