An honest, live read on the US design-leadership job market: how many Director, Head and VP roles are open, what they pay, where they are, and who's hiring. Built from Adzuna's job feed, filtered to real design roles, with re-posted duplicates collapsed. Every number says what it counts.
The read
is now a good time to hire or look at the Director, Head and VP level — and what does it really pay?
Market health
the detail behind the read — six indicators from the current snapshot
Pay direction
change in Adzuna's 12-month average advertised salary per keyword, from the first month shown · direction only — these averages sit on a different basis from the posted-pay medians above, so no dollar levels are shown · hover any chart
Design leadership
Brand & creative
Product & UX
Tracks compared
Demand by category
open-role volume by discipline · a fixed basket of the 26 tracked titles (same searches every month) · titles within a group overlap, so read the relative weight and the month-over-month direction — not a unique headcount
Open roles by discipline · now
summed open postings, by discipline
Volume over time
Salary range vs a $200K benchmark
middle 50% (25th–75th percentile) of real advertised salaries per title · dashed line = $200K benchmark · % = share of postings that clear it
$80K$200K$320K
Opportunity map
every title by pay (median) vs demand (open roles, log scale) · upper-right = well-paid and abundant · dashed line = $200K benchmark · hover a point · titles with fewer than 5 salaries are left out
Who's hiring now
companies with the most distinct open roles across the 14 leadership title searches · a role listed in many cities counts once · AGENCY = staffing/agency, not a direct employer
Where the roles are
distinct Director-and-above roles from the last 45 days, by where they're listed · a role listed in several places counts once in each · metros = within 40 miles · click any place to see its roles below
By state
By metro
By title
exact open-role counts per title (titles overlap) · median of advertised salaries, shown only with 5+ · roles = matching distinct roles in the list below
Title · open rolesMedian salarySampleRoles
Top 10 highest-paid postings
live design & creative roles, employer-posted salaries only, ranked by the top of the posted range · Adzuna estimates excluded
Roles
distinct roles from the last 45 days · newest Director-and-above first · filter by level, place or title · est = Adzuna model estimate, otherwise the employer's posted range