Director, Design– Investment Services Company (ISCO) Digital and Design Team

USAA•Tampa, FL

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

USAA is seeking a Director, Design to join the ISCO Digital and Design Team. This role involves partnering with Digital technical product managers and cross-functional team members for USAA’s investment advisory business to research, design, test, and finalize UI/UX solutions. The Director will manage a group of Designers, maintain their own portfolio of work, and leverage USAA’s Reveille design system to adhere to Digital and Design Governance standards. This role also involves coaching other design team members on USAA design principles, research, and translating member-experience-journeys. The Director will serve as the primary touchpoint between the ISCO design team and the USAA Association, ensuring alignment with Association-level design system changes and processes. This position leads teams responsible for the strategy, ideation, definition, development, and performance of digital and technology products and their experiences. The role oversees complex or strategic initiatives, collaborates with Business and Technology stakeholders, and focuses on operational effectiveness and strategic alignment within a product portfolio. The Director applies expert knowledge in human-centered design to lead high-performing teams through the design lifecycle, orchestrating cross-functional disciplines to deliver unified design visions for complex member and employee experiences in an agile environment. They manage a multi-disciplinary team, ensuring conceptual integrity and quality, and foster a healthy, collaborative environment that supports direct report career growth. The role actively contributes to shaping the strategy and culture of USAA's design organization and ensures key internal metrics are met.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree OR 4 years of related experience (in addition to the minimum years of experience required) may be substituted in lieu of degree. (Total of 12 years of relevant experience without bachelor’s degree)
8 years of relevant on-the-job experience in Product Design, UX Design, Service Design or Design Research role delivering complex design systems for web and native applications.
3 years of direct team lead or management experience.
Expert knowledge and experience in human-centered design to direct high-performing cross-functional teams through all phases of the design lifecycle.
Mastery of product design, user interface and interaction design, visual design, storytelling, and prototyping.
Demonstrated knowledge of data analysis and research techniques.
Outstanding people management abilities; creates and sustains environment to succeed.
Proven leadership and ability to influence at all levels of management.
Demonstrated experience working in a distributive and agile work environment.
Subject matter expertise in facilitation, collaboration, and presenting to cross-functional teams and Senior/Executive leaders.
Expert ability to effectively communicate, both orally and in writing, to executive leadership, driving accountability and sense of urgency.

Nice To Haves

US military experience through military service or a military spouse/domestic partner
Direct hands-on design experience specifically in Investments design experiences.
Comprehensive Investment UX/UI experience.
Prior or current experience leading design teams.
Direct experience with Reveille system (RDS).
Areas of expertise to include UX/UI designing, User engagement and management, Prototyping, testing and research, visual interface, cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

Partner with Digital technical product managers and cross-functional team members for USAA’s investment advisory business to research, design, test, and firm up UI/UX solutions.
Manage a group of Designers while also having his/her own portfolio of work.
Leverage USAA’s Reveille design system to adhere to all the Digital and Design Governance standards.
Coach and guide other design team members in areas of USAA design principles, design research, translating member-experience-journeys into design elements, and Reveille standards.
Serve as the primary touchpoint of ISCO design team with the USAA Association, and responsible for bringing to the ISCO Design team any changes in Design systems or processes happening at the Association level.
Lead teams of Digital or Technology Product Managers responsible for the strategy, ideation, definition, development and performance of digital and technology products and their experiences.
Oversee highly complex or strategic initiatives typically requiring confidentiality and enterprise-level visibility.
Collaborate with Business and Technology stakeholders to lead a team responsible for tackling complex and challenging problems while maintaining situational awareness of the market.
Focus on the operational effectiveness, goals, and performance of the team and their products or product line (or set of product experiences), ensuring strategic alignment within a product portfolio.
Apply expert knowledge and experience in human-centered design to direct high-performing teams through the design lifecycle.
Manage the performance of a multi-disciplinary team of design practitioners and producers, ensuring the conceptual integrity and quality of the work created by their team.
Creates a healthy, collaborative environment and removes barriers to efficiency, effectiveness, and well-being.
Works daily to help direct reports grow in their careers and achieve their goals.
Actively contributes to shaping the strategy and culture of USAA's design organization.
Ensures key internal metrics are met and stay on track through each quarter.
Serves as a strategic partner by understanding business and technical models, processes, challenges, and performance metrics so that design efforts balance achieving end user goals with the goals of design's stakeholders.
Champions the value of design and fosters a culture of empathy within the enterprise by building and maintaining trust-based relationships with executive and partner groups across the company.
Oversees the facilitation of cross-organizational, cross-functional understanding of business problems and is accountable for delivering design solutions that achieve program and project objectives.
Directs a creative review process to ensure coherency with design principles and the design language system through contribution and collaboration with the team.
Actively participates in design leadership meetings and work efforts, helping set the vision for the design organization and helping the organization achieve its development goals.
Provides thought leadership to deconstruct complex problems into clear and achievable solutions that increase the value of member, employee, and business outcomes.
Builds and leads a team dedicated to design through recruiting, developing, retaining, coaching, guiding, performance management and managerial activities.
Cultivates an environment and team culture aligned with the USAA mission and core values that motivates team members to perform to the best of their abilities, take pride in their work, be candid and direct in communication, and continually grow their skills.
Ensures risks associated with business activities are effectively identified, measured, monitored, and controlled in accordance with risk and compliance policies and procedures.