As Brand Director in Group Brand & Marketing, you own Saab’s brand end to end: the brand platform and positioning, the visual identity and design system, and how all of it is expressed across markets, Business Areas, physical environments and product-near touchpoints. This is a senior role in the team.
You are a brand strategist who understands brand as a system rather than a set of assets, and you get the best creative work made by briefing and directing partners well rather than producing it yourself. We are building a world-class brand and marketing team for the whole group, with a new brand platform rolling out across the organisation, and you own that rollout end to end. At Saab’s scale that is as much a delivery challenge as a brand one, so you are a strong programe leader as well as a senior brand voice.
You will work closely with Business Areas, Business Units, markets, property, product and engineering functions, HR and external partners, and the rest of the Brand & Marketing team. The role requires travel.
Your roll
- Own Saab’s brand platform, positioning and narrative, and their continued development as the business evolves.
- Own Saab’s visual identity and design system globally, the design standard across every touchpoint, and the infrastructure behind it – guidelines, templates and toolkits, and the brand content and standards held in the brand portal/DAM.
- Own how the identity is applied to spatial and physical environments: exhibitions, offices, showrooms, wayfinding, workwear and promo items.
- Own brand review for the identity system and its application, including co-branding, partnerships, acquisitions and divestments.
- Support the expansion of narratives and application of the brand platform across the organisation together with the brand lead.
- On marketing campaigns you will work closely with the marketing lead as a partner to the creative work rather than its approver.
- Lead the brand platform rollout as a programme, holding scope, phasing, budget, quality and risk across a multi-year roadmap.
- Commission, brief and direct external brand and design agencies and production partners.
- Explore the use AI and automation to scale brand enablement and governance across the group.
- Build understanding of brand and marketing across Saab at every level, from leadership teams to engineers, sales and coms teams, and make the case for what a strong brand does for the business in language that lands.
- Build brand capability across the matrix, and represent brand in Group and Business Area leadership forums.
Your profile
- A relevant university degree or equivalent qualifications within brand, marketing, design or communication.
- Senior brand leadership at group level in a large international organisation, or as a senior strategic lead in a brand consultancy. You have carried the brand agenda with an executive audience, not only delivered projects into it.
- Genuine range across brand strategy and brand identity. You can develop a positioning and narratives, and own the identity system that expresses them. This role holds both.
- You have owned brand platforms and identity systems at scale, from strategy through rollout and into governance, including application to spatial and physical environments.
- Strong programme and project leadership in a complex, international and matrixed organisation: multi-year rollouts, budget, phasing and dependencies.
- Proven experience both of leading teams and of directing external agencies and production partners. Both are requirements in this role.
- The judgement to know when the system must hold and when it should flex, and to be a colleague to campaign creative rather than a gatekeeper of it.
- Excellent communication skills in English.
- A military background, or experience from the tech or defence sector, is an advantage.
This position requires that you pass a security vetting based on the current regulations around/of security protection. For positions requiring security clearance additional obligations on citizenship may apply.
What you will be part of
Explore a wealth of possibilities. Take on challenges, create smart inventions, and grow beyond. This is a place for curious minds, brave pioneers, and everyone in between. Together, we achieve the extraordinary, each bringing our unique perspectives. Your part matters.
Saab is a leading defence and security company with an enduring mission, to help nations keep their people and society safe. Empowered by its 26,100 talented people, Saab constantly pushes the boundaries of technology to create a safer and more sustainable world.
Saab designs, manufactures and maintains advanced systems in aeronautics, weapons, command and control, sensors and underwater systems. Saab is headquartered in Sweden. It has major operations all over the world and is part of the domestic defence capability of several nations. Read more about us here