Executive Design Director, Innovation Experience Design

Lenovo•Morrisville, NC

About The Position

Lenovo is seeking an Executive Design Director, Innovation Experience Design to lead a multidisciplinary team of designers, technologists, researchers, and prototyping experts in envisioning and delivering next-generation experiences across Lenovo’s hardware and software ecosystem. This executive leadership role defines and drives innovation strategy and ensures a cohesive, differentiated Lenovo experience across customer touchpoints. The role calls for bold vision and practical execution, inspiring teams to create breakthrough products and bring ideas to life through storytelling, rapid prototyping, and cross-functional collaboration. The director leads experience-design strategy and long-term innovation planning, develops a world-class multidisciplinary design organization, and guides exploratory concepts from development and validation through production. The role is focused on integrated physical and digital experiences, including devices with screens, screenless interactions, AI-driven experiences, and next-generation form factors. It partners with engineering, product management, research and development, and business leaders, while championing human-centered design and using user insights and testing to guide decisions.

Requirements

15+ years of experience in product, experience, or innovation design.
5+ years of executive or senior leadership experience managing multidisciplinary design organizations.
Proven experience leading both physical product and digital experience design teams.
Strong ability to collaborate with engineering and technical teams.
Comfort discussing technical constraints, opportunities, and trade-offs.
Experience working with emerging technologies and innovation-focused product development environments.
Exceptional storytelling, presentation, and communication skills.
Proven ability to influence executive stakeholders and secure alignment around visionary concepts.
Expertise in communicating complex ideas through prototypes, narratives, and strategic presentations.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading global design teams in a large-scale technology organization.
Familiarity with AI-driven product experiences and emerging human-computer interaction paradigms.
Track record of developing intellectual property, patents, or industry-recognized innovations.
Recognition through design awards, publications, or industry speaking engagements.
Demonstrated success bringing highly innovative hardware and software products to market.
A strong portfolio showcasing disruptive, category-defining products and experiences.
Experience in consumer electronics, AI-powered products, spatial computing, wearables, smart mobility, emerging device categories, or next-generation form factors.
Deep understanding of user experience design, user research, service design, hardware design, human factors and ergonomics, interaction design, prototyping and validation, and customer journey mapping.

Responsibilities

Define and lead the experience-design vision for future integrated hardware and software products.
Establish a long-term innovation roadmap aligned with Lenovo’s product strategy and business objectives.
Ensure Lenovo experiences are differentiated in look, feel, and functionality across devices and platforms.
Lead, mentor, and inspire multidisciplinary teams of hardware designers, software UX/UI designers, design technologists, prototype designers, and user researchers.
Foster a culture of experimentation, creativity, collaboration, and innovation.
Lead exploratory design initiatives focused on breakthrough concepts and emerging technologies.
Guide teams through concept development, rapid prototyping, validation, and storytelling.
Deliver innovative experiences that establish new market categories and redefine customer expectations.
Ensure seamless interaction between hardware, software, inputs, and multimodal outputs.
Design cohesive experiences spanning devices with screens, screenless interactions, AI-driven experiences, and next-generation form factors.
Champion intuitive and natural user interactions across customer touchpoints.
Partner with engineering, product management, research and development, and business leaders.
Influence technical direction and product strategy while balancing innovation, feasibility, and user needs.
Drive organizational alignment to bring breakthrough concepts into production.
Champion human-centered design principles throughout the product development lifecycle.
Ensure advanced technologies are intuitive, accessible, and delightful for customers.
Use user insights, research, and testing to guide decision-making and innovation.