JOB TITLE: Design Director
LOCATION: London

Marks is a dynamic brand design & packaging agency that delivers impactful ideas & experiences that build brand momentum.

We are looking for a brand & packaging focused Design Director to join our busy London studio. Working across one of our premium sector accounts, the perfect candidate will have an eye for detail, a passion for problem solving and be able to create insight-driven, innovative, strategic approaches to deliver the highest level of design.

This is a rewarding role for a team player with a positive attitude, working in a friendly and relaxed, yet focused and hard-working environment.

Ideal Candidate
Our Design Directors are approachable, creative and multi-dimensional. Leading from the front and able to work across multiple creative projects. They build brand worlds, understand brand experience and hero our internal design best practices.

Creative, professional and enthusiastic but first and foremost an excellent designer with a passion for creating memorable communications. They should have the desire to influence, inspire and mentor other members of the creative team to achieve the best possible creative output from every brief.

Having previously worked in a similar agency environment, they are truly passionate about design with an excellent understanding of communication and branding. They are conceptually thinking and should also have excellent written and verbal communicators, with the ability to manage clients and projects. Partnering with Client Services, they’ll own the creative client relationships and quality of design across brands and/or accounts. Embodying Marks vision of can-do positivity, agility in approach and belief in the power of co-creation – they ensure we deliver the best against each brief. Reporting directly to the Executive Creative Director they will use strong judgement and analytical skills to drive better design, deliver beyond the client expectation and enable the personal growth of the team.

The perfect candidate must have:
(preferably within premium/luxury/alcohol sectors)
- Packaging experience
- Brand / brand world creation experience
- Proven experience in a similar role is required

Main responsibilities:
• Building strong client relationships, acting as their brand custodian. Using my understanding of strategic, creative and commercial aspect of brands to add provocation and richness.
• Leading by example, guiding and inspiring your team to produce exceptional, insightful work that fully explores, challenges and goes beyond the brief. Knowing the power of sketching.
• Approving work before client submission, maintaining our quality of output.
• Acting as the design consultant to your Client Service partners, aligning briefs to the client and brand needs, adding richness and insight to enable design to go deeper, stronger.
• Maximising our resources, managing your team’s workflow to deliver efficiently, adapting the plan when things change in partnership with Resource Management.
• Growing my team by coaching, setting clear objectives, following the PDR process.
• Ensuring your team follow file, server, naming conventions, business policies and process.

You’ll need these skills:
You have strong knowledge of strategic, creative and commercial aspect of brands and the world they inhabit;
• Be an engaging presenter, debating, defending design work, influencing.
• Stakeholder management skills
• Exceptional print / material knowledge
• Adobe CC, Office, Sketching

You’ll benefit from this experience:
• Relevant, extensive experience within a Brand/Packaging Design agency in Design roles
• Cross-team management, ability to identify and leverage skills across the network
• Agility, read the room and adapt
• A degree in Graphic Design, Product Design, Illustration or related field

JOB TITLE: Senior Strategist
LOCATION: London

Team Contribution:
Design Thinking, Strategy & Innovation enable our clients to better connect with their customers and our agency to better connect with our clients; using gathered insight and targeted research to both resolve real brand problems and craft a compelling voice for Marks within the industry.

The role you’ll play:
I provide leadership to the Design Thinking, Strategy & Innovation Team in London. Working with the VP, Strategy & Development, I provide strategic consultancy and thought leadership at the highest client level – aiding the definition and development of the agency’s strategy toolkit.

In this role, you’ll be accountable for:
• Partner with Client Services and Design Directors to build awareness of Strategy and Innovation services and the point of difference across Marks and sgsco
• Build strong client relationships, add value and richness to their brand and business plans
• Ensuring Strategy deliver on the Marks pricing proposition, securing value
• Ensuring the agency and Strategy thoroughly challenge client briefs to confirm the right questions are being asked and the real challenge is being addressed
• Identify, define and build strategic solutions to client briefs – from internal meetings through to design reviews, client presentations all the way to delivery of final design.
• Innovate processes and tools to keep up with the changing client and agency landscape
• Lead by example, set the standard for research design and moderation, workshops, ideation, product and brand proposition creation – Ensure the Strategy Team work to best practice
• Provide a pipeline of external thought pieces that inspire and build on the Marks proposition
• Create a high-performing Strategy Team, seeking feedback and acting accordingly

You’ll need these skills:
• Deep research methodology knowledge
• Deep understanding of innovation, brand strategy and naming
• Eye for detail, working across diverse data sets, champion of clarity
• Strong knowledge of creative process
• Exceptional presentation, work-shop, moderation and stakeholder skills, ability to hold the room with flair
• MS Office and Keynote

You’ll benefit from this experience:
• 12+ years experience across Brand, Design, Research agencies in Strategy roles
• Experience working with teams and managing projects across multiple locations
• Experience managing and effecting change in a large multi-matrix structure.
• A degree or equivalent, in Marketing, Education, Psychology or related behavioral field

JOB TITLE: Group Account Director
DURATION: Fixed term to cover maternity (12 month contract)
LOCATION: London

Team Contribution:
Client Services are the voice of the client within Marks. They help our clients to shine by identifying and shaping the clients’ business, brand and personal needs into actionable briefs, ensuring we deliver against them on time, on budget and with excellence.

The role you’ll play:
You’ll lead vital growth opportunities or multiple existing business relationships at the highest level. You’ll be an established Client Services leader, using my knowledge of brand development and strategic design processes to add richness and value in every conversation and touchpoint.

In this role, you’ll be accountable for:
• Strengthening client relationships at the highest level, understanding their business plans and marketing challenges now and in the future – understanding the role Marks and sgsco can play, identifying and selling our services against our end-to-end capability.
• Acting as a strategic design and brand consultant, drawing upon my considerable design and brand experience to inspire, add insight and best practice to every touchpoint
• Setting the highest standard for yourself and the agency across: quality of brief, clarity of project plans, crafting engaging client presentations and robust project proposals
• Following financial procedure. Own the accuracy of our forecast, sales tracker, accrual data
• Partner with the Client Service Director to establish profitable, realistic business plans, set achievable targets, ensure Marks delivers against its competitive pricing proposition
• Create a high-performing Client Services Team, seeking feedback and acting accordingly

You’ll need these skills: I’ll benefit from this experience:
• Excellent brand development, life-cycle and strategic design process knowledge
• Strong team leadership, coaching mindset and influencing skills
• Strong understanding of design, artwork, print and manufacturing processes
• Commercial drive and focus

You’ll benefit from this experience:
• Relevant years of experience within a Brand or Design/Packaging agency, in Client Service roles
• HR and Financial best practice
• A degree or equivalent, in Marketing, Advertising, Design or related field

Automated Tester |  **Remote working available**
• Up to £33k
• Permanent
________________________________________
Are you wanting to put those excellent coding skills you have to good use? You will work in a modern supportive, valued and agile quality assurance and software development environment. Working closely with feature, quality assurance and application support teams on prioritised business objectives you will join a fast growing and dedicated technology team.

You will be working as part of a team that are testing and ensuring the quality of our software solutions that power an always-on collaborative platform used by a worldwide collective of thousands of talented people to deliver end-to-end marketing solutions from concept through to implementation for all our clients.

A typical day will stand-up with your awesome scrum team, working alongside developers to create and review automated test cases, test plans and test results. You will work with colleagues and users to identify software problems, run tests and identify bugs, support teammates or groups on a problem, run multi-browser checks, plan and prioritise future work, pair with development team to test and debug a sprint deliverable, document your work and create and update training and user documentation.

You’ll have background in test automation at a UI and API level and will have been working within an Agile and Microsoft stack (.NET) environment. You’re used to building and maintaining automated test suites for enterprise applications. With the type of work, you do your adaptable and used to working in an everchanging environment. Your proactive in your own development and have a drive to use the latest technologies. You’ll most likely have a degree/HND in a computer science, engineering discipline; or equivalent software testing experience along with experience working with Selenium, Postman, C#, DevOps CI/CD.

It would great if you have experience with Cloud Technologies (particularly Microsoft Azure), or if you come from a background in graphics technology (particularly within the packaging sector) – but don’t worry if you’re not.

Benefits:
• Up to £33,000 (dependent upon experience)
• 25 days annual leave (+ 8 public days)
• Pension scheme
• Private health insurance
• Employee Assistance Programme

Location: Our IT department is based in Hull, not far from the Deep, with onsite parking and the city centre just a short walk away - we can cater for most of your needs.  We also have a canteen, with X-Boxes, guitars and fresh fruit for your breaks too.   Remote working is available for this role.

Senior Front-End Developer| **Remote Working Available**

From £35,000 to £60,000 per annum DOE plus benefits
Permanent
**Remote Working Available**

Do you have ideas about how things can be done, but you’re part of a big team fighting to make your voice heard? Do you want to want to lead projects, but never get the chance to?

We’re looking for a Senior Front-End Developer to take the lead on the front-end development of MySGS 5, the latest version of our always on, global software. This is a brand-new product and we need you to shape and home the front end.

We don’t have a dedicated Senior Front-End Developer, so we’ll be looking to you to take a lead role; working closely with our UX/UI Designer who takes the lead in styling, while you take the lead from a tech side. You’ll advise us on how to design drop boxes, dev forms, text boxes, creating reusable components to the right style, while helping to increase the front-end experience of our Developers. We have a two-year roadmap in place to add automation, better use of cloud technology, capacity planning for all global users and much more.

What else is possible? As our Senior Front-End Developer, you can help to decide that!

That sounds great, but what are you looking for in me?

We’re looking for someone who has been a Senior for a while, someone who can lead projects and coach and develop others.

Solid experience of C# is essential, as is a good level of JavaScript. We use Blazer here, so if you do too then fantastic, if not then experience of Microsoft Web Technologies is needed.

The Tech stack you’ll be using here is…

Blazor
JavaScript
Bootstrap
.NET Core 3.1
.NET Standard 2.1
Azure AD Authentication Providers
Selenium


Benefits:

At SGSCO you’d be a key part of our global software engineering department joining one of our awesome software development teams, working under instruction from a mentor alongside analysts, testers and developers producing business critical software. We offer a good development path with a mentor to support you on your journey.

• Salary of up to £60,000 (dependent upon experience)
• 25 days annual leave (+ 8 public days)
• Pension scheme
• Private health insurance
• Employee Assistance Programme


Office Location (remote working is available with this role):

We're based in Hull just off the A63, only a 5 minute walk away from the City Centre. We have great access to public transportation links and all city centre amenities. Our offices provide a cool, modern working environment and our canteen comes equipped with X-boxes for break time gaming.


Who are we:

We’re SGSCO is a global collective of companies, expertise, and talent assembled specifically to help brands own every possible moment — in the physical world and in the digital world — when a consumer’s desire can be converted into action. We are not a holding company, we’re the team for the future, helping brands own the moment. With offices in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia, SGSCO boasts a diverse client base consisting of many well-known global brands.

Senior .Net Developer
• £35,000 to £60,000 per annum
• Permanent
• **Remote Working Available**
________________________________________
About the role
You will work in a modern supportive, valued and agile software development environment. Working closely with key stakeholders and third parties on prioritised business objectives you will join our fast growing and dedicated technology team. You will be part of that team that are building and designing software solutions that power an always-on collaborative platform used by a worldwide collective of thousands of talented people to deliver end-to-end marketing solutions from concept through to implementation for all our clients.
A typical day will see you in a stand-up with your awesome scrum team, pair with teammates and lead on a complex technical design task, write some tests, implement your applications, design and architect system requirements, review a pull request, mentor a teammate or group, plan and prioritise future work, work with Business Analysts on a new feature, pair with the QA team to test and debug a sprint deliverable, document your work and collaborate in a whiteboard design session.
About you:
We’d expect you to have an in-depth knowledge of at least one of the .NET languages C# (preferred), SQL and JavaScript. A significant understanding of one or more of the following: ASP.NET/Web Applications, ¬MS Visual Studio, MS SQL Server/SSRS, Azure DevOps (VSTS) or¬ GIT would also be desirable.
What is essential is that you:
• Are dedicated to producing clean, testable and highly maintainable code;
• Can thrive in a collaborative working environment;
• Want to help and support more junior team members, and
• Can communicate effectively at all levels
Ideally as a Senior in our team we are looking for people that have:
• A degree/HND in a computer science, engineering discipline; or
• Equivalent software development and testing experience with a proven ability to manage and deliver software projects following full lifecycle agile methodologies.
It would great if you have experience with Cloud Technologies, particularly Microsoft Azure, or if you come from a background in graphics technology (particularly within the packaging sector) – but don’t worry if you’re not.


Benefits:

At SGSCO you’d be a key part of our global software engineering department joining one of our awesome software development teams, working under instruction from a mentor alongside analysts, testers and developers producing business critical software. We offer a good development path with a mentor to support you on your journey.

• Salary of up to £60,000 (dependent upon experience)
• 25 days annual leave (+ 8 public days)
• Pension scheme
• Private health insurance
• Employee Assistance Programme

Office Location (remote working is available with this role):

We're based in Hull just off the A63, only a 5 minute walk away from the City Centre. We have great access to public transportation links and all city centre amenities. Our offices provide a cool, modern working environment and our canteen comes equipped with X-boxes for break time gaming.


Who are we:

We’re SGSCO is a global collective of companies, expertise, and talent assembled specifically to help brands own every possible moment — in the physical world and in the digital world — when a consumer’s desire can be converted into action. We are not a holding company, we’re the team for the future, helping brands own the moment. With offices in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia, SGSCO boasts a diverse client base consisting of many well-known global brands.

Job Title: 3D Artist
Location: Office located in Hull, with possibility of flexible/remote working available

**Please note that due to current economic restrictions, we will require the successful candidate to perform this role from home until further notice.**


Are you a creative 3D artist with 3D production visualisation experience, that wants to work with some of the biggest brands out there?

We are looking for 3D Artists to join our expanding CGI team in our amazing redeveloped Maltings facility in Hull. The role will be working within a vibrant team, creating beautiful, compelling, realistic high poly packaging & product images for a wide range of applications, for some of the biggest and best loved brands on the planet. You will have exposure to a global production network and will be working in a fabulous environment with a great social scene.

In this role you’ll create photo-realistic high poly CGI of products & packaging to high technical and aesthetic standards on time and to specification. We’re looking for collaborative team-players who will join a team of talented 3D artists producing high volumes of photo realistic imagery. You’ll be a great communicator with excellent organisational skills and attention to details.

Key skills:
- 3D graduate and/or proven experience (by way of online portfolio) in creating high polygon 3D product visuals.
- Previous experience in a production studio environment.
- Highly experienced in the use of Maya, VRay and Adobe Photoshop.

- Modelling skill required:
- Ability to retopologise surfaces with attention to proper edge flow techniques
- Ability to self-review work with limited direction from management.
- Ability to demonstrate a wide range of competence in 3D forms, from mechanical design to organic objects, from photo-real to stylized.
- Knowledge of how a well-modelled object will react to light and reflection
- Knowledge of industry standard UV and texture techniques.

- Lighting skill required:
- Firm grasp on digital lighting techniques
- Ability to create photo-realistic materials/shaders
- Understanding of a CG Lighting production pipeline

- A keen eye for detail and the ability to produce high quality images to fast lead times.
- Self-organised and ability to manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced production environment.
- To adhere to established internal production processes and standards.

It would be advantageous if you also had…

- Photography experience.
- Product design experience.
- Experience of capturing accurate measurements of products using 3D scanning hardware.
- Knowledge of 3Ds Max and Nuke a plus.
- Previous experience in the packaging creation industry a plus.

Benefits:
• Possibility of remote working (details of which have not yet been confirmed/finalised)
• Salary of up to £32,000 dependent upon experience
• 25 days annual leave (+ 8 public days)
• Pension scheme
• Private health insurance



Who are we:

SGSCO is a collective of companies, expertise, and talent assembled specifically to help brands own every possible moment — in the physical world and in the digital world — when a consumer’s desire can be converted into action. We are not a holding company, we’re the team for the future, helping brands own the moment. With offices in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia, SGSCO boasts a diverse client base consisting of many well-known global brands.

Job Title: 2D Asset Artist
Location: Office located in Hull, with possibility of flexible/remote working available

**Please note that due to current economic restrictions, we will require the successful candidate to perform this role from home until further notice.**

Role:
In this role you will provide 2D image expertise to support the delivery of high-quality eCommerce imagery for a variety of high-profile clients.
The role of 2D Artist (CGI) is split into two district areas, pre 3D image and post 3D image creation. In the pre 3D image arena, you will re-engineer and manipulate existing print ready artwork files to complement the production of 3D product imagery. The post 3D realm will require you to retouch final 3D images to create secondary eCommerce images by amplifying the product features for online shopping clarity and ease.
We’re looking for collaborative team-players who will join a team of talented 2D & 3D artists producing high volumes of eCommerce imagery. You’ll be a great communicator with excellent organisational skills and attention to details.

Key Responsibilities:
• 2D image manipulation – packaging artwork and final product image.
• To manage an allocated production workload and report progress/issues to line manager.
• To use internal MIS to record accurate data on personal production timings.
• To ensure all quality control procedures and production standards are adhered to.

Skills and Abilities:
• Substantial experience in the use of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop & Acrobat
• Previous experience in producing packaging artwork in a studio environment.
• A working knowledge of various print processes and how images/files are adapted for a specific process.
• Proficient use of a Mac to manipulate 2D images.
• Basic retouching experience in Adobe Photoshop.
• Ability to work as part of a creative team to share skills/knowledge/solutions.
• Ability to follow production instructions clearly and accurately.
• Self-organised and ability to manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced production environment.
• Ability to effectively problem solve and share solutions.
• To adhere to established internal production processes and standards.

Advantageous:
• 3D Knowledge (Textures Creation).
• Previous experience in a 3D production environment.
• Knowledge of 3D software a plus (Maya/3Ds Max/Nuke)


Benefits:
• Possibility of remote working (details of which have not yet been confirmed/finalised)
• Up to £26,000 (depending on experience)
• 25 days annual leave (+ 8 public days)
• Pension scheme
• Private health insurance
• Employee Assistance Programme