Sr. Manager, Experience Design

Reporting directly to the Director of Experience Design, this strategic leadership role bridges high-level experience strategy and tactical execution, driving a unified design vision across multiple digital platforms, product lines, or capability areas.

Responsibilities

• Lead the implementation of a unified, end-to-end design strategy across multiple teams and product lines, ensuring consistency, coherence, and continuity across all digital touchpoints.
• Drive the strategic activation of end-to-end experience design and radical simplicity at scale, aligning user experience with enterprise business goals.
• Drive design excellence through hands-on contributions on select, high-impact initiatives.
• Partner with the Director to establish design-led organizational goals, team KPIs, and long-term experience roadmaps.
• Directly manage, mentor, and coach Design Managers, helping them build high-performing squads, uplevel tactical design oversight, and cultivate leadership capabilities.
• Define organizational staffing models, drive recruiting strategies for design talent, and champion an inclusive, high-performing, and psychologically safe design culture.
• Establish and mature feedback loops and collaborative processes across design, product management, and engineering leaders at the "manager of managers" and director levels.
• Ensure the organization’s design system is robustly adopted, maintained, and evolved to support scalability, empowering design teams to leverage it effectively.
• Break down operational silos to ensure cross-team alignment on complex, multi-touchpoint user journeys.
• Act as a key advocate and representative for the experience design team with executive stakeholders, product partners, and business units.
• Use compelling storytelling and data-backed insights to articulate the strategic and commercial value of design, influence product roadmaps, and secure alignment on critical experience initiatives.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Interaction Design, Experience Design, Graphic Design, Business, or a related field. (In lieu of a degree, ten (10) years of relative experience may offset education requirements).
• 8+ years of experience in product design, experience design, or UX/UI design in complex, enterprise-scale environments, with at least 3+ years of experience directly managing design teams or design leaders (Design Managers).
• Proven track record of managing other design leaders (people managers) and building high-performing, collaborative design organizations.
• Mastery of modern design methodologies (e.g., Double Diamond, Lean UX, Agile Design) and scaling journey management across diverse product lines.
• Deep understanding of design systems, scaling UI patterns, and optimizing design-to-engineering handoffs.
• Exceptional executive communication, storytelling, and negotiation skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong business acumen and capability to align experience design outcomes with business growth, customer retention, and digital transformation goals.
• Strong ability to coach and uplevel team capabilities, fostering a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and radical simplicity.
• Willingness to travel 10-20% domestically and internationally for key leadership sessions, design workshops, and strategic alignment events.
• Ability to work flexible hours to maintain 3-4 hours of overlapping communication with global teams (specifically EU/Central European Time).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience scaling design teams during a major corporate digital transformation or within a global matrixed environment.
• Advanced degrees or certifications in design, business, or leadership.
• Passion for integrating modern design technologies (AI-augmented workflows, advanced prototyping).
• Demonstrated experience leading and scaling design teams during a major corporate digital transformation or within a complex global matrixed business environment.
• Proven experience in establishing or maturing Design Operations (DesignOps) frameworks, tooling, and resourcing models.
• Experience managing global teams with geographically distributed stakeholders (e.g., collaboration across North America and European regions).

Pay

Memphis Pay Range: $13,169.66/mo - $23,046.90/mo