Senior Director of Design
About The Position
At Vanta, the Senior Director of Design, Governance & Compliance leads design for the company’s largest product pillar. The role sets the direction for moving compliance work from manual workflows toward agents that work alongside customers. Governance & Compliance encompasses frameworks, controls, policies, audits, and organizational structures used by companies ranging from startups pursuing their first SOC 2 to global enterprises managing hundreds of controls. The team aims to make this complexity feel simple for customers at every scale. The Senior Director leads senior, staff, and principal designers, with senior managers and directors reporting to them. They report to the Head of Design and partner as a peer with product and engineering leadership for the pillar. Vanta already has agents across its product, supports customers building and deploying custom agents, and uses an AI design harness for prototyping and production work. The role will extend these practices across Governance & Compliance. The successful candidate brings experience shipping agentic or AI-forward products and designing for non-deterministic outputs, alongside deep enterprise B2B SaaS experience. They combine strategic leadership with hands-on design and technical collaboration, grow leaders and senior individual contributors, and maintain a high bar for design quality. Candidates must be authorized to work in the U.S. without current or future employer sponsorship, protect Vanta and customer data, and use AI thoughtfully in day-to-day work. A portfolio demonstrating simplified complex products and shipped AI-forward experiences is required for the interview.
Requirements
- Experience shipping agentic or AI-forward products and a point of view on how design changes with non-deterministic outputs.
- Hands-on use of AI in the design process, including prototyping and building in a harness or in code.
- Deep enterprise B2B SaaS experience, including custom configurations, multi-organization workflows, and large deployments.
- Ability to make complex products feel simple.
- Systems-thinking experience designing object models and patterns that work across many product surfaces.
- Comfort working closely with engineers in a technical, domain-heavy space such as GRC.
- Experience leading teams of 12 or more, including design directors, design managers, and staff individual contributors.
- Ability to move between strategic leadership and detailed design work.
- Portfolio showing how complex products have been simplified and AI-forward experiences shipped; required for interview.
- Authorization to work in the U.S. without current or future employer sponsorship.
- Responsible handling of Vanta and customer data.
- Sound judgment and a commitment to maintaining a high quality bar for AI-assisted work.
Responsibilities
- Lead the agentic direction for Governance & Compliance, building on existing agents and defining how people and agents work together across the product pillar.
- Own design quality across the pillar by setting standards, driving consistency from concept through launch, and contributing directly to details when needed.
- Guide cross-cutting design decisions involving scoping, segmentation, organizational units, permissions, and multi-entity audits so the system works consistently across surfaces.
- Expand the design harness and help designers prototype and ship faster while maintaining high craft.
- Lead, develop, and hire design leaders and senior individual contributors, building a high-trust team as the pillar grows.
- Partner as a peer with product and engineering leadership, co-owning outcomes and quality.
- Protect Vanta and customer data in team operations and delivery.
- Use AI in day-to-day work to amplify skills and outcomes, build fluency through experimentation, and apply sound judgment to maintain quality.
Benefits
- Industry-competitive salary and equity
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, with 100% of employee-only benefit premiums covered for most medical plans
- 16 weeks of paid parental leave for all new parents
- Health and wellness stipend
- Remote workspace, internet, and cellphone stipend
- Commuter benefits for team members who report to the San Francisco and New York City offices
- Family planning benefits
- Matching 401(k) contribution with immediate vesting
- Flexible PTO policy and 80 hours of sick time
- 11 company-paid holidays
- Virtual team-building activities, lunch and learns, and other company-wide events
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
