BDO Wave - Designer-Templafy Lead, Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) at BDO South Africa

Description

• The BDO WAVE Designer - Templafy Lead is accountable for the ownership, governance, adoption and continuous optimisation of BDO UK's Templafy ecosystem. Acting as the Design Capability Lead for Templafy, this role is responsible for defining and maintaining design standards, leading template development and optimisation, and ensuring the platform continues to deliver scalable, high-quality content solutions across the UK business.
• The role leads multiple concurrent design workstreams and high-priority initiatives, partnering with stakeholders across Sales, Marketing, Brand, Content, Bids & Proposals and Go-to-Market teams to deliver effective, user-centric and brand-compliant solutions. As the recognised subject matter expert for Templafy, the role provides strategic guidance, influences stakeholder decision-making and drives the evolution of template-enabled content creation across the business.
• This role combines design leadership, stakeholder management, operational delivery and people leadership. A key focus is driving adoption of Templafy as a core business enablement platform by translating business requirements into intuitive templates, reusable content components and practical guidance that empower colleagues to create high-quality content through self-service solutions.
• In addition to ownership of the Templafy proposition, the role leads and develops a Junior Designer within the BDO WAVE team, ensuring effective workload allocation, coaching, professional development and delivery excellence. The role is also responsible for prioritising design workstreams, providing quality oversight and ensuring the successful delivery of Templafy-related initiatives.
• Working as part of the wider Design Service, you will collaborate closely with colleagues across Design, Brand, Content and Marketing functions to align standards, share best practice and continuously improve the way design services are delivered across the business.
• Whilst visual identity development remains the responsibility of the Brand and Communications Design Manager, this role plays a critical role in ensuring all templates, assets and enablement solutions consistently reflect agreed brand standards, accessibility requirements and user needs. The role acts as the custodian of Templafy design standards, governance and quality assurance, ensuring a consistent and effective user experience across all template-led content creation.

Requirements
Key Outcomes

Success in this role will be demonstrated through:

• Templafy becoming the organisation's primary template and content enablement platform, with strong adoption, positive stakeholder feedback and measurable efficiency gains.
• A high-quality, well-governed template ecosystem that remains accurate, accessible, user-friendly and aligned to brand standards.
• Sales, Marketing and wider business teams being empowered to create content through effective self-service solutions, reducing reliance on bespoke design support while improving speed, consistency and quality.
• Strategic design and enablement initiatives being delivered on time, to a high standard and achieving agreed business objectives.
• Strong stakeholder relationships, reflected through trusted partnerships, proactive consultation and high levels of satisfaction.
• Continuous enhancement of the Templafy roadmap, informed by user insights, business priorities and platform performance data.
• The successful development and progression of the Junior Designer, increasing capability, engagement and contribution to team objectives.
• Consistent application of design governance, quality assurance, accessibility and brand compliance across all templates and design outputs.
• Ongoing evolution of reusable templates, content modules and design systems that enable scale, improve efficiency and protect brand integrity.
• Continuous improvement of design operations, knowledge resources and workflows, resulting in a better user experience and reduced duplication of effort.

Key Responsibilities

Templafy Ownership and Platform Leadership

• Act as the primary business and design lead for the Templafy proposition, driving adoption, governance and continuous evolution of the platform.
• Define, maintain and deliver the strategic roadmap for templates, content modules and self-service design solutions in partnership with business stakeholders.
• Create, update and govern Templafy templates, modules, content libraries and supporting assets.
• Ensure all templates align with established brand standards, accessibility requirements and governance processes.
• Monitor platform usage, adoption trends, stakeholder feedback and performance metrics to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Champion self-service content creation through education, stakeholder engagement, communications and best-practice guidance.
• Collaborate with platform owners, technology teams and external partners to optimise functionality and user experience.
• Drive change adoption initiatives that encourage consistent use of approved templates and content solutions across the business.
• Stay informed of industry trends, emerging technologies and AI-enabled content creation tools to identify opportunities for innovation and efficiency.

Strategic Design Delivery

• Deliver end-to-end design support for strategically important projects across Sales and Marketing.
• Translate complex briefs into effective visual solutions across presentations, documents, toolkits, campaigns and customer-facing materials.
• Balance strategic project delivery alongside ongoing ownership of the Templafy ecosystem.

Design Enablement and Scalable Content Creation

• Identify recurring content and design requirements and convert them into scalable templates, modules, components and design systems.
• Develop solutions that improve efficiency, consistency, brand compliance and user experience while reducing dependency on bespoke design support.
• Support the evolution of technology-enabled delivery models that improve productivity and content quality.
• Continuously refine templates, content structures and reusable assets in response to stakeholder feedback and business needs.
• Enable colleagues to create high-quality content confidently through practical guidance, support and training resources.

Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration

• Build strong, trusted relationships with stakeholders across Sales, Marketing and the wider business.
• Proactively identify opportunities to improve content effectiveness, template adoption, design efficiency and user experience.
• Facilitate requirements gathering, prioritisation and stakeholder alignment for Templafy developments and strategic design initiatives.
• Act as the central point of coordination between business users, design teams and platform owners.
• Support stakeholders in defining objectives and shaping briefs before design work begins, improving effectiveness and reducing unnecessary rework.
• Provide expert advice and recommendations on design enablement, content governance and scalable content creation approaches.

Team Leadership and Capability Development

• Line manage and support a Junior Designer based in South Africa.
• Provide coaching, mentoring and ongoing development to build capability and confidence.
• Allocate work effectively, balancing business priorities, workloads and development opportunities.
• Conduct regular performance reviews, feedback sessions and development planning.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive and high-performing team culture.
• Support recruitment, onboarding and succession planning activities where required.

Alignment to the Design Service

• Operate as an integrated member of the wider Design Service.
• Work closely with the Sales and Marketing Design team to ensure alignment of standards, processes and priorities.
• Share learning, best practices and reusable assets across the design teams.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of design operations, governance and service delivery models.
• Support consistency in design approaches across internal and external audiences.

Brand Alignment and Quality Assurance

• Act as a custodian of the brand, ensuring all templates, components and design outputs comply with agreed brand standards and accessibility requirements.
• Operate within design guardrails defined by the Brand and Communications Design Manager.
• Build quality assurance checks into delivery and governance processes.

Continuous Improvement and Knowledge Sharing

• Develop and maintain best-practice resources, guidance and reusable assets.
• Capture insights and lessons learned from projects and user feedback.
• Identify opportunities to improve templates, workflows, stakeholder experiences and design operations.

Experience & Capability

Essential

• Minimum 5+ years' experience in design, design operations, template management, content enablement, brand implementation or a related discipline.
• Proven experience in design management, design enablement, content operations, template governance or a related discipline within a complex stakeholder environment.
• Demonstrated success in developing, managing and governing business templates, design systems or self-service content solutions that improve consistency, quality and user adoption.
• Experience leading design workstreams, specialist capabilities or platform-focused design functions within a complex business environment.
• Proven experience establishing and maintaining design standards, governance frameworks and quality assurance processes.
• Experience overseeing multiple concurrent projects and priorities while ensuring high-quality delivery and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Experience working with Templafy or comparable template management and content enablement platforms is highly desirable.
• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud, particularly InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Acrobat.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and document-centric communication, with an understanding of how design influences user experience and content effectiveness.
• Experience translating complex business requirements into scalable, user-friendly design and content solutions.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication and influencing skills, with experience partnering with senior leaders and cross-functional teams.
• Proven ability to influence stakeholder decision-making and provide expert recommendations on design, content enablement and creative solutions.
• Demonstrated experience driving user adoption, behavioural change and platform enablement initiatives.
• Proven people leadership experience, including workload allocation, coaching, mentoring, performance management and developing junior talent.
• Strong understanding of brand governance, accessibility standards and quality assurance principles.
• Experience reviewing and approving design outputs to ensure alignment with quality, accessibility and brand standards.

Advantageous

• Experience working with distributed teams, offshore delivery models and international stakeholders.
• Awareness of emerging AI-enabled content creation, design and productivity tools, with the ability to identify opportunities that drive efficiency while maintaining governance, quality and brand consistency.
• Commercial awareness and experience supporting Sales and Marketing functions.
• Experience supporting bids and proposals, business development, marketing campaigns or customer-facing content programmes within a professional services environment.