Design Director, Human Centered Design (Chief Designer – Experience)

The Chief Designer - Experience leads a multi-disciplinary design team, owning a specific brand domain and driving its strategic design direction. You'll identify customer, business, and technology opportunities, guiding project teams to ideate, visualize, and prototype future experiences.

You'll champion a holistic approach to experience design, starting with the customer and rapidly iterating solutions to deliver desirable, technically feasible, and strategically aligned experiences that are viable at scale; orchestrating seamlessly across physical and digital enablers to deliver one cohesive experience. You're a strategic leader and natural collaborator, bringing multidisciplinary design teams together to set and achieve a shared vision.

You'll apply brand domain-specific expertise and overall experience design leadership to influence product vision, strategy, roadmaps, and decision-making. You'll partner cross-functionally across Ford, including Design, Marketing, Technology, Program Management, CX, and key business units, aligning on future program planning and objectives. Your focus is on finding creative alignment across all disciplines and ensuring business strategy translates into innovative experiences that delight users. You're exceptionally well-versed in modern product and experience creation, capable of leading a team in the right direction even within complex and ambiguous opportunity spaces.

You'll have:

- Bachelor’s degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, or a closely related human-centered field; or equivalent practical experience in experience design leadership.
- 10+ years of work experience (8 years with a Master’s degree).
- 5+ years of experience applying human-centered design methods, designing across physical and digital touchpoints, with the ability to align hardware, software, and service elements into a single, cohesive customer experience.
- Deep understanding of the human-centered design process and proven application of knowledge of user experience principles, from research to prototyping to product release.
- 4+ years of experience leading multidisciplinary design teams.

Even better, you may have:

- Master’s degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, or a closely related human-centered field.
- Passion for the automotive and mobility industry; fluency in technology and product innovation
- Experience working in or with creative cultures
- Passion for collaborative environments that encourage the sharing of ideas and openness to feedback, learning, and iteration
- Experience working in highly collaborative environments and skill as an open and willing resource to team members in assessing designs
- Experience working in large, corporate environments; ability to navigate complexity and execute under tight timelines
- Experience managing multiple stakeholders across complex projects
- Experience presenting to executive audiences; exceptional communication skills

You may not check every box, or your experience may look a little different from what we've outlined, but if you think you can bring value to Ford Motor Company, we encourage you to apply!

As an established global company, we offer the benefit of choice. You can choose what your Ford future will look like: will your story span the globe, or keep you close to home? Will your career be a deep dive into what you love, or a series of new teams and new skills? Will you be a leader, a changemaker, a technical expert, a culture builder…or all of the above? No matter what you choose, we offer a work life that works for you, including:
• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.
This position is leadership level 5 and ranges from $141,700-$268,300.
Final determination of salary grade will be based on candidate's skills and experience, and base salary will be set within the applicable range according to job scope, responsibility and competitive market value.

For more information on salary and benefits, click here: https://fordcareers.co/LL5

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

Candidates for positions with Ford Motor Company must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status or protected veteran status. In the United States, if you need a reasonable accommodation for the online application process due to a disability, please call 1-888-336-0660.

This position is hybrid with a requirement to be onsite four or more days per week. #LI-Hybrid

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