At National Geographic, we believe in the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to change the world. The Director, UX and Design will play an important role in bringing this vision to life in support of current and future digital initiatives at the Society. We create engaged and impactful relationships with our various stakeholder communities, including Explorers, Educators and Students, and Key Influencers (Foundations, Policy Makers, Donors, etc.) across website, mobile and social channels.
As the leader of a cross-divisional Design unit within the NGS Digital Team, the Director of UX and Design will create elegant, intuitive, and innovative digital design systems and experiences. These experiences will reflect the National Geographic brand across all products and platforms, and directly contribute toward NGS’s mission to change the world. Using the principles of Lean UX, Design Thinking, and Atomic Design, he/she will lead the IA, UX Research, Product and Editorial Design disciplines. In addition to managing a living style guide of an atomic design system, he/she will also provide design vision and oversight to a wide range of projects, including impact success stories, events and exhibition sites, learning management platforms, map-based web and native apps, impact program sites, marketing sites, education sites and more. The Director of UX and Design will work closely with the Brand Creative Director on our Marketing team to define digital-specific UI/UX brand standards and guidelines.
The Director of UX and Design will be a passionate ambassador of user-centered design and a tireless advocate for his/her team. In addition to achieving design specific team goals, he/she will be pivotal in helping the Product and Content teams, and business units themselves, meet their goals by providing discovery level project assessment, UX consultation, ideation, and high-level User Flows. He/she will collaborate closely with product managers, business owners, brand creative directors, on and offshore engineering teams, and his/her own design team to create successful products and experiences for NGS. Their team will cover all skill sets within the UX and Product Design disciplines, including user research, qualitative testing, IA, Lean Agile UI design, and design QA. The result will be to create an endless loop of testing, learning, iterating and optimizing to success.
- Management: Build and Manage a talented Design Team that possesses a wide range of skill sets (see above). Align team members to projects in a way that grows the team’s overall capability while maximizing its efficiency. (20%)
- Discovery Consultation: Provide accurate LOE assessments of work, brainstorm high level IA and UX solutions, and help distill business needs into a MVP user experience (20%)
- User Testing: Provide oversight and guidance to UX researchers to create test hypotheses, plans, and actionable reports. Work with quantitative data researchers to synthesize their data and form hypotheses for design iterations. (15%)
- IA: The Director of UX and Design will work closely with the Product Team to manage IA projects end to end. He/she will drive communications with, and help define requirements from, numerous stakeholder groups. He/she will provide oversight and guidance to UX designer/s and Producers on how to best structure information on our website, external web platforms, and apps. (15%)
- Style Guide: The Director of UX and Design will be ultimately responsible for the advocacy and maintenance of the visual aspect of the living Style Guide. He/she will work closely with developers and the Product Team to enhance and maintain the overall Style Guide. He/she will also work closely and regularly with the Brand Creative Director (Marketing) to ensure that it meets an evolving set of Brand Standards. (15%)
- Collaboration: Listen to and collaborate with business stakeholders to better understand business goals and audiences. Business units include Marketing, Grants, Programs, Development, Events, and Education. Encourage intra and inter team collaboration through personal example and by instituting collaborative processes, such as brainstorming sessions, whiteboarding sessions, stakeholder interviews, design studio sessions. (15%)
Minimum Years and Type of Experience
- 8-10+ years experience in the field of user-centered design; 3+ years experience in managing people and design teams
Knowledge and Skills Required
The diverse business needs of the NGS organization require a wide range of knowledge and skills. The Director of UX and Design will need to be able to see the forest and the trees simultaneously, and he/she will balance consistency with customization, reusability with diversity.
- Must be a passionate, upbeat leader, while still open to diverging points of view
- Must have an online portfolio
- Understanding of Atomic Design or Modular Design principles
- Demonstrable understanding of IA best practices
- Demonstrable understanding of UX design best practices
- Demonstrable understanding of responsive / mobile design
- Effective presentation skills (public speaking and Powerpoint/Keynote)
- Pro-active self-starter with a “can do” approach to problem solving who thrives with hard challenges and approaches problems with a data-driven mindset
- Must be a team-oriented individual, energetic, result & delivery oriented, with a keen interest on quality and the ability to meet deadlines
- Passion for optimizing user experience and maximizing engagement among target audiences
- Effective communication skills, especially with developers
- Prototyping experience using Invision, Axure, or similar tools
- JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
- Omnigraffle (or equivalent), Sketch and Adobe CC
- Writing test plans, A/B testing, Qualitative User Testing
- Lean UX, Agile dev methodology
- Excellent presentation and public speaking skills
- Excellent leadership skills and the ability to motivate both inter and intra team members
- Ability to achieve consensus from disparate viewpoints
- Ability to clearly articulate complex design systems to laypeople
- Experience creating and working with modular or atomic design systems
- Expert experience working in a Lean Agile development methodology
- Extensive experience collaborating with developers and designing for technological “reality.”
- Experience working in any or all of the following industries: media, impact programs, ecommerce, and education
- Experience collaborating with offshore development teams a plus
Supervision
- 2-4 staff members
National Geographic's headquarters is located in the heart of Washington, D.C. In addition to a unique and dynamic work environment, National Geographic offers its employees a comprehensive benefits package, including health and dental benefits, generous vacation and leave time, a 401(k) plan, and flexible work options. National Geographic is an Equal Opportunity Employer