Job description

The (Senior) Director of User Experience (UX) & Product Design oversees the user experience, design, and user research strategies for the company. The (Senior) Director drives design thinking through a user-centric approach that aligns business goals with user goals and incorporates qualitative and quantitative research, competitive research, and analytic tools. Their success as a design leader is dependent on tight collaboration with cross-department stakeholders, including leaders in product, tech, SEO, and editorial. The (Senior) Director of UX & Product Design will oversee the design strategy for a wide variety of consumer products on usnews.com, a native mobile app, and our B2B platforms.


Are you up to the challenge?

UX & design strategy: Define and socialize the UX, design, and user research strategies for the company via UX analyses and competitive research. Provide robust direction to the UX Team to guide execution on our user experience and product goals.

User research program: Lead user research across the company by maintaining tools and processes, facilitating testing methods, guiding decision making, and analyzing results.

Align user and business goals: Execute key business objectives with industry-leading user experience solutions. Ensure that design aligns with key goals including revenue programs and registration / customer acquisition.

Proactive Iteration & Impact: Continuously introduce improvements to the user experience and visual language of the website and USN products. Engage in feedback loops with business leaders to understand the impact of UX decisions on key metrics. Map UX improvements to KPIs.

UX team management: Manage UX Team operations through visual roadmaps, priorities and resource allocation. Hire and retain top talent. Provide iterative feedback, create opportunities for design collaboration, and facilitate team communication. Guide UX team members to execute on a holistic design vision for a wide variety of products.

Subject matter expert: Consistently provide departments with specific, actionable recommendations for UX improvements across key metrics. Maintain a well-versed understanding of UX best practices.

Cross-departmental collaboration: Collaborate with other teams, including Product and Tech, to resolve issues regarding UX decisions, process, and priorities.

POSITION REQUIREMENTS

You should definitely have:

7+ years designing and shipping products as part of an in-house, cross-functional team preferably with a major web publisher or e-commerce company; inclusive of a minumum of 3 years of experience managing people

Proficient in industry-standard design tools like Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, or similar.

Expertise in user research techniques, including usability testing, A/B testing, surveys, and interviews.

Knowledge of analytics tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics or similar to track user behavior and measure design impact.

Hands-on experience in designing and developing user interfaces using Material UI components and guidelines

Experience in creating and maintaining design systems, including style guides, component libraries, and pattern libraries.

Strong communicator, ability to clearly communicate design decisions and sell other leaders on the value they provide

Understands how SEO impacts a consumer website and how to incorporate SEO best practices into UX decisions

Portfolio or case studies showcasing experience in executing on key business objectives through user experience



It would be nice if you had:

Thrives in a fast-paced environment