Senior Brand Design Manager

Senior Brand Design Manager

Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands (local contract)

Closing date: August 28th 2026

Shape the Future of an Iconic Global Brand Through World-Class Design At HEINEKEN, design is a powerful driver of brand growth, innovation, and consumer connection. As Senior Brand Design Manager, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of one of our iconic Global Brands, ensuring its identity remains distinctive, relevant, and inspiring across every touchpoint and market around the world.

This is a unique opportunity for a visionary design leader who thrives at the intersection of creativity, strategy, and business impact. You will partner with global brand teams, leading design agencies, and cross-functional stakeholders to create world-class brand experiences that influence millions of consumers. From defining future-facing design strategies and innovation platforms to safeguarding brand consistency and elevating creative excellence, you will help shape how our brands are experienced today and how they evolve for tomorrow.

If you are passionate about building iconic brands, championing exceptional design, and turning bold ideas into tangible business results, we'd love to hear from you.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Shape and drive the long-term design vision and strategy for your assigned Global Brand, ensuring it remains distinctive, relevant, and future-fit across markets and consumer touchpoints.

• Lead the development of world-class brand identity systems, packaging design, and brand experiences that strengthen brand equity and support commercial growth.

• Act as the global custodian of the brand's visual identity and architecture, ensuring consistency, quality, and creative excellence across primary packaging, secondary packaging, and key on- and off-trade touchpoints.

• Partner with Global Brand Teams, Innovation, and Design specialists to translate business and consumer insights into compelling creative opportunities and breakthrough design solutions.

• Inspire and champion outstanding creativity, fostering productive collaboration between internal teams and agency partners to deliver best-in-class work.

• Advocate for the strategic value of design across the organization, demonstrating how design strengthens brands, accelerates innovation, and creates meaningful consumer and customer experiences.

• Continuously evolve brand governance and stewardship practices, ensuring global consistency while enabling local relevance and executional excellence.

• Build strong relationships across Regions, Operating Companies, breweries, suppliers, and external partners to drive adoption and successful implementation of brand design initiatives.

• Collaborate closely with the Design Implementation Team to ensure seamless execution of creative developments across markets, safeguarding creative intent while enabling efficient deployment and governance.

• Lead complex, cross-functional design programs involving stakeholders across Brand, Innovation, R&D, Sustainability, Legal, Finance, Procurement, Supply Chain, and external partners.

• Manage external design agencies and creative partners, ensuring high-quality outputs, effective ways of working, and optimal use of design budgets.

• Stay ahead of emerging design, cultural, consumer, and technology trends, translating insights into opportunities that keep our brands culturally relevant and future-facing.

Who you are

• University degree or Master's qualification in Design, Branding, Marketing, Innovation, or a related discipline.

• 10+ years of progressive experience in brand design, design management, or creative leadership roles within FMCG, consumer brands, or leading design consultancies.

• Proven expertise in strategic brand design, visual identity systems, and packaging design, with a portfolio demonstrating impactful and commercially successful work.

• Ability to balance visionary thinking with practical execution, transforming bold ideas into scalable, market-ready solutions.

• Strong understanding of brand strategy, innovation processes, consumer behavior, and the role of design in driving business performance.

• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder projects from concept through implementation on a global scale.

• Outstanding storytelling and presentation skills, with the confidence to influence senior stakeholders and inspire teams and agency partners.

• Fluent in English, both written and spoken.

How You Lead:

• Curious by nature and energized by discovering new possibilities, trends, and emerging consumer needs.

• Courageous in championing ambitious creative ideas and challenging the status quo.

• Inspiring and collaborative, capable of bringing people together around a shared creative vision.

• Commercially aware, understanding how great design contributes to brand growth and business success.

• Highly organized and resilient, able to navigate ambiguity, competing priorities, and fast-paced environments.

• Passionate about creativity, culture, innovation, and design excellence.

• Motivated to develop talent, elevate creative standards, and foster a culture of curiosity and continuous improvement.

What’s in it for you – let’s uncork

• A gross annual salary ranging from €104.820 to €149.736, based on your experience and expertise.

• Performance-driven bonus: a bonus linked to your results, celebrating your achievements and rewarding your contribution to our success.

• Plenty of vacation time: enjoy 20 vacation days per year, plus a flexible budget to add 10 extra days—that’s 6 weeks in total.

• Work-life balance: take advantage of generous parental leave for both parents, with the added flexibility to work from home up to 2 days per week.

• Stress-free commuting: enjoy easy travel with an NS Business Card for public transport, making your daily commute simple and stress-free.

• Sustainability at heart: join a company committed to making a positive impact—HEINEKEN aims to have CO2-neutral locations by 2030

• Grow with us: we offer endless opportunities for you to learn, grow, and explore new career paths, both locally and globally.

Let’s meet Are you excited? Applying is simple: send us your updated CV that demonstrates why you’re a perfect match for this role. Want to really stand out? Include a cover letter to set yourself apart. We look forward to receiving your application.