Executive Director, Design

USAA • San Antonio, TX

1d • Remote

About The Position

At USAA, our mission is to empower our members to achieve financial security through highly competitive products, exceptional service and trusted advice. We seek to be the #1 choice for the military community and their families. Embrace a fulfilling career at USAA, where our core values – honesty, integrity, loyalty and service – define how we treat each other and our members. Be part of what truly makes us special and impactful. The Opportunity As the Executive Director of Design for the Bank, you will shape the future of digital banking experiences for millions of members. You’ll lead a talented set of multidisciplinary designers—both U.S.-based and near‑shore—through every stage of the design lifecycle, from deep customer understanding and concept development to delivery of intuitive, high‑performing digital products. You will be responsible for elevating the Bank’s design vision, strengthening enterprise design systems, and ensuring the Bank’s unique needs are represented and championed across the broader USAA ecosystem. In this role, you’ll bring rigor, creativity, and strategic clarity to how we work, implementing scalable design workflows within agile teams and ensuring consistency and excellence across all delivery cycles. You’ll mentor and inspire design team, foster a modern digital‑led culture, and drive experiences that create measurable impact in member satisfaction, digital engagement, accessibility, operational efficiency, and business growth. This is a rare opportunity to lead a mission‑driven design team at enterprise scale—while shaping the next generation of Bank digital experiences. This position can work remotely in the continental U.S. with occasional business travel.

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.
• 10 years of progressive related design experience developing digital product and experience strategies, managing major initiatives and delivering compelling design solutions within a complex matrix environment.
• 4 years of direct design team leadership or leading matrixed or cross-functional creative teams and experience in building, managing and/or developing high performing design teams.
• Demonstrated experience in digital product and/or service design, experience design, design research and human center design approaches.
• Experience collaborating with key resources and stakeholders, influencing decisions and managing work to achieve strategic goals.
• Fluency in current design and interaction standards across multiple channels.
• Excellent communication, presentation and organizational skills.

Nice To Haves

• Demonstrated success building and leading global, multi‑region design organizations, integrating U.S. and near‑shore teams into a cohesive, high‑performing operating model.
• Deep experience driving enterprise‑scale design transformation through SAFe and Agile at scale, vendor stewardship, and close partnership with Product, Engineering, and Architecture.
• Proven ability to deliver measurable outcomes through design—reducing operational costs, improving digital self‑service, increasing engagement, and launching AI‑enabled experiences in regulated environments such as financial services.
• Expertise in maturing design practices including service design, design systems, accessibility, human‑centered design, journey mapping, design sprints, and data‑informed storytelling.
• Executive leadership in emerging design capabilities such as AI‑driven experience design, enterprise design governance, and cross‑functional decision‑making boards for accessibility, architecture, and R&D.
• US military experience through military service or a military spouse/domestic partner.

Responsibilities

• Role models USAA’s mission, core values, culture and desired behaviors – including a culture of risk and regulatory awareness and accountability balanced with innovation and member-service orientation.
• Oversees research, creation and development of concepts that aligns employee and members’ needs with business or USAA objectives, while advancing USAA transformation into a design-led organization.
• Leads the design review and approval process and ensures consistent alignment with USAA and industry design standards and guidelines.
• Supports a culture of transparency and healthy challenge via design critique, continuous learning and accountability for high standards of quality.
• Partners with and influences USAA, Technology, and Business Leaders to define, plan, design, and monitor touchpoints within assigned spaces across all digital channels.
• Works in very close collaboration with other Executive Directors of Design to create breadth as well as depth of knowledge across domains.
• Collaborates with other design team to drive transformation by establishing and delivering design concepts and final solutions that enable elegant solutions to business problems through employee and member empathy.
• Identifies new and improved ways to manage the digital creative process, as new platforms and technologies evolve.
• Develops and ensures a consistent application of design and delivery processes.
• Develops talent in the design community to deliver performance and results – including the identification, development and retention of talent with requisite design capabilities.
• Holds self and teams accountable for meeting commitments by setting and clearly communicating expectations and roles and responsibilities relative to design operations and services.
• Owns the relationship management responsibilities for business executives and external design agencies for their area of focus.
• Builds and leads high-performing design teams by attracting and hiring the best talent and providing a nurturing yet challenging environment.
• Ensures risks associated with business activities are effectively identified, measured, monitored, and controlled in accordance with risk and compliance policies and procedures.

Benefits

• At USAA our employees enjoy best-in-class benefits to support their physical, financial, and emotional wellness. These benefits include comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans, 401(k), pension, life insurance, parental benefits, adoption assistance, paid time off program with paid holidays plus 16 paid volunteer hours, and various wellness programs.
• Additionally, our career path planning and continuing education assists employees with their professional goals.
• Cash payment for Executive level roles only, representing a cash payment which is both time and performance based.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive