Senior Director, Design

Job Description

OVERVIEW

Across our organization, we're building a workplace where collaboration is essential, diverse voices are heard, and inclusion is the key to our success. We are committed to doing the right thing in our journalism and in every role at NPR. This means that integrity, adherence to our ethical standards, and compliance with legal obligations are fundamental responsibilities for every employee at NPR.

The Senior Director of Design champions the practice of human-centered design at NPR. You lead the holistic design and user experience of NPR's ecosystem of digital products and services for our new, existing, and potential audiences, as well as for our colleagues at NPR and throughout public media.

You cultivate an environment of innovation, collaboration, experimentation, creativity and trust. You ensure that design principles and processes are effective, an understanding of NPR's audience is clear and understood, and that all products and services match the integrity of NPR's journalism and mission. You ensure product design, user research, and design operations are integrated and impactful. You are a ceaseless supporter of your team, an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, and proponent of design justice. You help the organization to understand the function and value of Design and how the work benefits NPR's mission. You have a passion for designing products and systems that aim to create a more informed public.

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Lead human-centered design across divisions at NPR, serving as an equal partner with engineering and product leads
• Ensure an intentional and compelling design vision across NPR's digital ecosystem of products and services: including subscription services, support tools, mobile and web apps, a CMS used by hundreds of stations, NPR.org, voice assistants and new devices, a station platform for collaboration and communication, editorial curation tools, etc.
• Recruit, lead, and nurture a diverse team of designers, researchers, strategists, design technologists and other human-centered specialists. Create clear career paths for future success.
• Provide insight, guidance, creative direction, and career mentorship to the team
• Communicate design principles that provide strategic direction and design continuity in the audience experience
• Ensure that design research is a key priority and integrated into all product development efforts.
• Ensure that design operational needs and processes are considered in product development efforts.
• Cultivate and support an inclusive and equitable workplace culture
• Supervise at least [#] direct reports, including preparing their regular performance reviews, and making effective recommendations regarding any hiring, promotion, and discipline for these positions.
• Other Duties as assigned

QUALIFICATIONS

REQUIRED SKILLS
• At least 5-6 years leading a human-centered design team and 8-10 years of digital design experience or equivalent experience.
• Experience embedded and working in a technology organization (with developers and product managers)
• Expertise with Agile product methodology
• Empathetic leader. Outstanding leadership and managerial skills including talent development, coaching, mentoring, objective setting and team motivation.
• Excellent leadership, project management, and people management skills.
• Proven ability to mentor and develop skills in junior designers.
• Work with design leadership to set design vision for NPR.
• Lead the exploration of new initiatives with NPR's leadership and executive teams to ensure a coherent user experience across platforms.
• Ability to tell compelling stories about your team's work and present it confidently to your team, peers, stakeholders, and executives.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication capabilities.

WORK LOCATION:

This is a hybrid permitted role. The employee will be required to be onsite at our Washington, DC office at least 10 days a year. The employee must also reside in an NPR supported location based on the number of onsite days they choose.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gp09n4-18-222-163-31-42 in your application.