Head of Design
About The Position
The Head of Design leads Blackboard’s global User Experience and Design (UXD) organization and owns the vision and strategy for user experiences across Blackboard LMS, Blackboard Illuminate, Ally, and institutional effectiveness solutions. The multidisciplinary organization spans design, research, documentation, and accessibility, and works across web and mobile platforms in multiple countries and time zones. This strategic leadership role evolves Blackboard’s design strategy to anticipate changes in teaching and learning and drive measurable customer and business outcomes. As a peer to Product Management and Product Development leaders, the Head of Design ensures design shapes decisions from discovery through delivery and champions design’s value with executives, customers, and the wider design community. The role leads design in an AI-first era, using generative AI tools such as Figma Make, Claude Design, Claude Code, and other LLM-based technologies for exploration, prototyping, and testing, while guiding responsible adoption across the team. The Head of Design leads a geographically distributed team with flexibility and inclusion, adjusting working hours when needed to support business priorities and colleagues across time zones. Travel is up to 20%.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience.
- At least 10 years of experience in user experience, product design, or a related field, including significant experience leading design leaders and individual contributors.
- Proven experience building and scaling design organizations of 10 or more professionals across disciplines such as product design, research, documentation, and accessibility.
- Proven experience leading diverse, geographically distributed teams across multiple countries, regions, and time zones.
- Track record of defining and refining design strategy at an executive level and connecting design to measurable user and business outcomes.
- Hands-on, everyday fluency with generative AI design technologies such as Figma Make, Claude Design, Claude Code, and other LLM-based tools, with a clear point of view on AI’s impact on design practice.
- Deep expertise in modern design tools, including Figma, prototyping, and design systems, plus working knowledge of web standards (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), usability, and accessibility.
- Strong expertise engaging customers and users through design research, testing, and iterative feedback loops.
- Record of delivering simple, elegant solutions to complex problems in highly agile environments.
- Strong leadership skills and ability to create a collaborative, inclusive, high-performing team culture.
- Flexibility to work outside standard hours when needed to collaborate with colleagues, partners, and customers in other time zones.
- Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills, with the ability to make complex design concepts clear to any audience.
- Experience with accessibility standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
- Fluency in written and spoken English.
- Must be legally authorized to work in the country where the role is based at the time of hire and maintain that authorization for the duration of employment; visa sponsorship and immigration support are not provided.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in education technology or enterprise software as a service (SaaS).
Responsibilities
- Refine and evolve the design vision and strategy for Blackboard’s products, aligned with company strategy, product roadmaps, and business outcomes.
- Lead, grow, and inspire a high-performing, diverse UXD organization across multiple countries and time zones, developing leaders at every level.
- Partner with Product Management and Product Development leadership so design is integral to product planning, prioritization, and execution.
- Champion the user throughout the product lifecycle through research, customer feedback sessions, and usability testing.
- Lead the adoption of generative AI across the design practice, using LLM-based technologies in daily work and setting standards for responsible use.
- Own design operations, including design systems, tooling, workflows, and quality standards.
- Ensure accessibility and inclusive design are standard in every experience shipped.
- Build an agile culture that iterates quickly and refines solutions using data, user insight, and cross-functional collaboration.
- Define roles, responsibilities, and ways of working between design, product management, and development teams.
- Present design strategy, research insights, and solutions to executive, customer, and industry audiences.
- Manage budget, resourcing, and priorities to deliver work on time and in alignment with product and organizational goals.
- Flex working hours as needed to support business priorities and a distributed team.
- Travel up to 20% to support teams, customers, and company events.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
