Sr. Director, Product Design & User Experience

Job Summary / Purpose

The Sr. Director of Product Design & User Experience at Illumia is responsible for building a team that contributes directly to product strategy, customer understanding, and business outcomes. This leader owns product design, user research, design systems, accessibility, and AI experience strategy across the product portfolio.

Who You Will Work With

• Manages a team of Product Designers, UX Researchers, and related design professionals supporting multiple product lines
• Partners regularly with Product Management and Engineering as part of Illumia's SVPG-inspired product operating model
• Works with product trios during discovery to shape customer problems, test solutions, and improve confidence before delivery
• Closely partners with Customer Success, Support, Sales, Implementation, Marketing, and executive leadership to ensure product experiences reflect real customer workflows
• Represents the user experience perspective in executive-level product planning, roadmap discussions, discovery reviews, and portfolio strategy

Key Responsibilities And Duties

• Develops and owns the Product Design and User Experience operating model across Illumia's product organization
• Buys, coaches, and develops a team of Product Designers and UX Researchers embedded with product squads
• Establishes design craft standards, research practices, design review mechanisms, and product discovery rituals
• Ensures Product Designers participate in discovery from the earliest stages as members of the product trio, not as downstream recipients of requirements
• Powers customer research practices, including interviews, workflow observation, usability testing, prototype validation, and synthesis of customer insight
• Pairs with Product Managers to translate customer evidence into opportunity framing, roadmap input, and measurable product outcomes
• Owns Illumia's design system, interaction standards, and reusable patterns to improve consistency, accessibility, and delivery speed across the portfolio
• Defines experience principles for AI-assisted workflows, copilots, conversational interfaces, intelligent recommendations, automation, and human escalation
• Establishes accessibility and inclusive design as product quality expectations, informed by WCAG and the needs of Illumia's user communities
• Uses qualitative and quantitative signals to identify experience gaps that affect adoption, task completion, customer effort, satisfaction, support volume, and retention
• Represents Product Design and User Experience in executive-level planning and cross-functional strategy discussions
• Reports on UX priorities, customer insight themes, design system adoption, research coverage, and experience quality to product and executive leadership

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor's degree required or equivalent relevant experience
• 10+ years in Product Design, UX Design, Experience Design, or related product design leadership roles
• 5+ years leading and developing design teams within B2B SaaS, enterprise software, or complex digital product environments
• Demonstrated experience working in empowered product team environments where Product Management, Design, and Engineering share responsibility for outcomes
• Strong command of product discovery, user research, workflow analysis, prototyping, usability testing, and solution validation
• Experience building or scaling design systems across multiple products, platforms, or product surfaces
• Ability to influence executive stakeholders, product leaders, engineers, and customer-facing teams through evidence, storytelling, and product judgment
• A portfolio or body of work demonstrating systems thinking, customer insight, measurable product impact, and experience strategy, not just screen design
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience presenting to and influencing executive-level stakeholders
• Strong ability to build and lead a team, set expectations, coach talent, and create growth paths for designers and researchers