Director of User Experience (UX)

Job description

### **Your role in our mission** The Director of User Experience (UX) serves as the primary visionary and operational leader for the UX organization. This role is responsible for shaping the overarching design strategy, optimizing DesignOps, integrating emerging technologies like AI, and ensuring seamless cross-functional alignment. Blending high-level organizational leadership with hands-on management, the UX Director ensures that teams deliver desirable, viable, and feasible user experiences that deeply connect with the company’s brand identity and drive Product initiatives forward. ### How you’ll make an impact **Team Leadership & Cross-Team Oversight** - **Empower and Lead:** Directly manage, mentor, and foster the professional growth of UX Managers. Ensure managers clearly understand quarterly objectives, maintain aligned project workflows, and possess the necessary resources to empower their respective teams. - **Organizational Growth:** Lead hiring decisions and organizational design for management-level UX roles. - **Culture & Communication:** Conduct regular 1:1s with direct reports, facilitate quarterly skip-level meetings with individual contributors, and cultivate a healthy, inclusive, and high-performing design culture. **UX Strategy & Vision** - **Strategic Planning:** Own, develop, and execute the long-term strategic plans for the entire UX organization. - **AI Vision & Product Integration:** Establish and champion a clear vision for AI utilization within the product experience. Identify opportunities to leverage AI to enhance user journeys, ensuring these features remain deeply user-centric, ethical, and aligned with product priorities. - **Quality & Brand Alignment:** Ensure all product experiences are highly usable, business-viable, and technically feasible while seamlessly connecting to the company’s core brand identity. - **Opportunity Identification:** Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to translate user needs and business objectives into impactful, prioritized UX projects. Champion initiatives that balance business goals with maximum user benefit. **DesignOps & Process Optimization** - **Operational Excellence:** Maintain accountability for all systems, tools, and processes utilized across the UX organization. Continually optimize workflows to amplify the team's impact at scale. - **AI-Enhanced Workflows:** Spearhead the evaluation, adoption, and integration of AI tools into daily UX processes. Empower teams to use AI to streamline workflows, automate routine tasks, and accelerate research and design output. - **Collaboration Rituals:** Establish and facilitate regular cross-team collaboration exercises, including UX critiques, design reviews, and team retrospectives. - **Workflow Efficiency:** Ensure disparate UX teams are effectively collaborating, maintaining alignment, and working toward unified objectives without operating in silos. **Cross-Functional Alignment & Leadership** - **Strategic Partnership:** Act as the primary UX liaison with leaders across Product, Engineering, Customer Experience (CX), and other key departments. - **Roadblock Resolution:** Regularly sync with cross-functional leaders to identify project dependencies, clear developmental roadblocks, and establish highly collaborative working processes. - **Alignment Workshops:** Design and lead cross-departmental alignment workshops to ensure shared understanding of product vision and UX priorities. **Budgeting & Resource Planning** - **Resource Allocation:** Collaborate with UX Managers and the VP to strategically allocate staffing and tools across various UX teams to meet objectives. - **Financial Stewardship:** Establish and manage the cross-team UX budget, ensuring appropriate funding for team-building, professional development, industry recognition, and travel. ### Skills that will help you thrive - **Experience:** 8-10+ years in UX Design, Product Design, or related fields, with 3-5+ years in a leadership role managing other managers, complemented by a Bachelor’s degree. - **Multidisciplinary Expertise:** Experience directly managing and integrating adjacent design disciplines, specifically UX Research and UX Writing/Content Design. - **Operational Acumen:** Strong background in DesignOps, scaling design teams, and optimizing cross-functional product development processes. - **Technological Literacy:** Forward-thinking approach to emerging tech, with proven experience or strong capability in integrating AI into both design workflows and product features. - **Strategic Influence:** Demonstrated ability to influence executive stakeholders, align design strategy with business goals, and lead collaborative workshops. ### Resources to help you prosper - **A hybrid connection:** We believe in the "best of both worlds" - a hybrid environment (2 days/week in our SF office) that balances high-touch collaboration with the flexibility of remote work. - **Invested in your future:** A competitive salary and a 401(k) with a 5% company match to help you build long-term financial security. - **Holistic well-being:** We provide the resources you need to thrive, from flexible time off and paid parental leave to an annual wellness allowance and comprehensive health coverage. - **Professional & personal growth:** Take advantage of a suite of premium perks, including Udemy access, childcare assistance, pet insurance, and a bevy of additional savings through Beneplace.