CX Strategy Director

TheLab•New York, NY

2d•$155,000•Hybrid

About The Position

thelab is looking for a strategic leader who can complement creative vision with logic, rigor, and data-driven thinking. As Director of CX Strategy, you'll own the foundation of how we approach customer experience: translating business goals and customer insights into clear direction, managing our product roadmap from a design perspective, and confidently representing our design thinking to clients and stakeholders. You'll build the foundation for how we make design decisions—ensuring they're grounded in research, validated by data, and aligned with business outcomes. You'll be the bridge between our creative vision and the rigor required to execute at scale across ecommerce, B2B platforms, and along customer journey touchpoints. ----- Core Responsibilities Your role is to be the strategic operations partner—the person who ensures design is grounded in reality (customer needs, business metrics), strategically aligned, and outcomes-focused.

Requirements

8+ years in design, product strategy, or UX leadership roles
5+ years of hands-on executional experience with ecommerce and/or B2B digital products
Proven track record managing stakeholder relationships and presenting to senior leadership
Strong research literacy — can read analytics, synthesize user research, and translate findings into strategy
Portfolio or case studies demonstrating strategic thinking (not just beautiful design)
Excellent communication skills: explain design rationale clearly to non-designers and clients
Comfortable with ambiguity — can shape direction without requiring perfect specs upfront
Understanding of design principles and craft — you respect design and understand what excellence looks like, even if you don't execute it

Nice To Haves

Experience with design systems and how to maintain consistency at scale
AI/automation fluency — curious about design-to-code tools and research synthesis with AI
Conversion optimization background
Data analysis skills — can interpret metrics and identify patterns
Workshop facilitation experience

Responsibilities

Strategy & Roadmap — Build design-informed roadmap; ensure design has early input
Research Integration — Synthesize customer insights into design briefs
Client Communication — Run discovery session, lead design strategy, present roadmaps with research-backed rationale
Cross-Functional Leadership — Bridge alignment with design, product, engineering around outcomes
Domain Expertise — Deep ecommerce knowledge; B2B fluency
Partner with the ECD, product leadership, analytics leadership, and design team to build a design-informed product roadmap that balances creative vision with business goals
Engage design as an input to early-stage planning
Document design strategy, rationale, and key decisions for transparency and team alignment
Lead research synthesis workshops to turn raw customer data into actionable design directions
Translate quantitative data (analytics, conversion metrics) and qualitative insights (user interviews, testing) into CX journey maps and use cases
Support clients and designers in understanding the connection between research findings and design decisions
Lead and collaborate with design presentations to clients—articulating why we made decisions, grounded in research and strategy
Lead discovery calls and strategic workshops to uncover true customer needs
Translate client feedback into design direction without losing creative intent
Build client confidence through clear communication and documented rationale
Establish success metrics with clients upfront; report on design impact post-launch
Help align design, product, and engineering around shared outcomes and design direction
Partner with copy and content to ensure messaging supports design decisions
Facilitate design critique sessions focused on strategy and outcomes (not just aesthetics)
Mentor design team on data-driven thinking, research literacy, and client management
Develop deep ecommerce expertise (conversion optimization, funnel clarity, personalization, product discovery)
Help build secondary B2B experiences (user adoption, workflow clarity, enterprise workflows)
Stay current on industry trends, competitive landscape, and design patterns
Advise on best practices and emerging opportunities