Experience Lead

Location: Bloomington, IL; Dunwoody, GA; Richardson, TX; Tempe, AZ
Hybrid Work arrangement: A "Hybrid" position means selected candidates will be assigned to a facility and will spend some time working both in office and from their home.

Applicants for this position are required to be eligible to lawfully work in the U.S. immediately; employer will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work authorization (e.g. H-1B visa) for this opportunity.

About the Role

Are you passionate about shaping the future of customer and employee experiences at State Farm? Do you enjoy turning complex and ambiguous opportunities into clear, validated product direction? Are you curious about how emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and agentic experiences, can improve how people work and interact with State Farm?

The Innovation Experience Design team is seeking an Experience Lead to shape new products, services, capabilities, and ways of working across the Innovation lifecycle. In this role, you will lead Experience Design engagements from Intake and Discovery through proof of concept, Pilot, and Transition. Your strongest ownership will occur early in the lifecycle, where you will help teams define the right problem, identify and validate critical assumptions, understand customer and employee needs, and establish a clear experience strategy before significant investment is made.

You will partner with Group Product Managers, Product Owners, business partners, Enterprise Research, Technology, and Experience Design practitioners to connect user needs, business outcomes, and technical possibilities. As initiatives move into experimentation and delivery, you will continue to provide strategic and creative direction so the work remains grounded in validated insights, the intended experience, and measurable outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead Experience Design across multiple innovation initiatives, providing strategic continuity from Intake and Discovery through proof of concept, Pilot, and Transition
• Partner with Product, Technology, Enterprise Research, business partners, and Experience Design practitioners to clarify opportunities, define problems, align on intended value, and identify the assumptions and evidence needed to move forward
• Lead Discovery by combining research, data, facilitation, service design, concept development, and prototyping to evaluate customer desirability, business viability, technical feasibility, and strategic alignment
• Translate insights into clear experience strategies, priority use cases, hypotheses, success measures, decision-ready artifacts, and recommendations for experimentation
• Provide strategic and creative direction as practitioners move concepts into detailed design, testing, and delivery, ensuring the validated problem, experience intent, and intended outcomes remain connected to execution
• Evaluate research and experiment results, communicate recommendations to teams and leaders, and help determine whether initiatives should advance, change direction, require further validation, pause, or exit
• Champion customer-centered and evidence-based decision making while advancing Experience Design standards, tools, accessibility, design systems, and practitioner development across the Innovation portfolio

Requirements

• Seven or more years of applicable experience in Experience Design, Product Design, UX Strategy, Service Design, Design Research, or a related discipline
• Demonstrated experience leading ambiguous Discovery efforts and shaping new products, services, or capabilities from problem definition through validated experience strategy
• Strong knowledge of human-centered design, product discovery, service design, research, prototyping, Design Thinking, and iterative experimentation
• Experience synthesizing research, analytics, business context, and technical information into hypotheses, experience strategies, success measures, and actionable recommendations
• Strong facilitation, storytelling, and stakeholder leadership skills, with the ability to influence decisions across Product, Technology, Research, Design, business partners, governance groups, and senior leaders
• Ability to provide strategic and creative direction while enabling practitioners to maintain ownership of detailed design and execution across multiple concurrent initiatives
• Proficiency in Figma, FigJam, prototyping, and presentation tools, with working knowledge of accessibility, content strategy, interaction design, information architecture, service design, visual design, and established design systems
• A portfolio demonstrating strategic thinking, problem framing, research synthesis, concept development, stakeholder influence, experimentation, and measurable customer or business outcomes

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in innovation, incubation, emerging technology, new product development, or enterprise experimentation
• Current or previous Experience Lead experience, or senior Product Experience Designer experience with demonstrated readiness to lead complex engagements
• Practical experience applying artificial intelligence across product, design, research, or operational workflows to improve quality, efficiency, learning, decision making, or customer and employee experiences
• Experience designing, building, configuring, or evaluating artificial intelligence agents and agentic workflows, including capabilities, instructions, data requirements, testing, evaluation criteria, and human oversight
• Familiarity with Visual Studio Code, OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, or comparable development and agentic coding tools, including their use for prototyping, research synthesis, artifact creation, and workflow automation
• Experience partnering with Product and Technology on artificial intelligence functionality, integrations, responsible use, and both no-code and coded proof-of-concept activities
• Experience operating within a large and complex enterprise, with State Farm Product Design or Experience Design experience preferred

This role may support multiple innovation initiatives across different stages of the lifecycle. A portfolio review will be required for candidates who advance to the interview phase. The portfolio should demonstrate the candidate’s individual contribution, strategic point of view, problem framing, research and synthesis, concept development, facilitation, stakeholder influence, experimentation approach, and connection to measurable customer or business outcomes.

Pay

Compensation is based on a standard 38:45-hour work week. Potential starting salary range: $135,000 - $155,000. Starting salary will be based on skills, background, and experience. High end of the range limited to applicants with significant relevant experience and living in high cost of labor locations like CA/NY/NJ/etc. Potential yearly incentive pay up to 10% of base salary.

Benefits

• Get Paid! Eligible for an annual raise and bonus.
• Stay Well! Robust health and wellbeing programs. State Farm pays most of your healthcare premium, with multiple healthcare plan options including a high-deductible plan. All medical plans provide 100% coverage for in-network preventative care. Access to vision, dental, telemedicine, 24/7 mental health professionals, and more.
• Develop and Grow! Educational benefits including industry-leading training programs, tuition assistance, employee resource groups, and mentoring.
• Plan Ahead! Benefits like fertility/IVF/adoption assistance, college coaching, national discount programs, interactive monthly financial workshops, free financial coaching, and financing through State Farm Federal Credit Union.
• Take a Little “You” Time! Generous time off policies including up to 20 days annually plus parental leave, paid holidays, celebration day, life leave (40 hours/year), bereavement leave, and community service/education support days.
• Give Back! Matching Gift Program, Good Neighbor Grant Program, and Employee Assistance Fund.
• Finish Strong! Retirement planning with free financial advisors and a 401(k) plan with company contributions of up to 7% of your salary.