Visual Design Lead

Ford • Palo Alto, CA

3d • $150,200 - $283,500 • Hybrid

About The Position

As a leader on Ford's Digital Product Design team, the Visual Design Lead sits within our Design DNA team and is responsible for the visual craft behind how people interface with Ford vehicles through the visual design of the in-vehicle experience, connected devices, and mobile applications. This role shapes the look, feel, and visual consistency of Ford and Lincoln's digital ecosystem at scale, across millions of touchpoints worldwide.
This position is hybrid with a requirement to be in office four or more days per week.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in graphic design, UI/UX design, digital product design, or a related field (or equivalent combination of education and experience)
• Strong, demonstrable visual design skills, with experience building and extending complex digital design languages/systems
• A portfolio showing exceptional command of layout, hierarchy, typography, color theory, and iconography in interactive/digital contexts (portfolio required for consideration)
• 6+ years of dedicated experience in visual UI/UX design for complex digital products and consumer-facing brands
• 6+ years of experience working within highly collaborative creative teams (product-side or consultancy)
• A positive, inspiring presence on a team, paired with the ability to give clear, actionable design feedback

Nice To Haves

• Experience working closely with multi-disciplinary teams of researchers, designers, product managers, and engineers
• Proficiency with modern visual design and prototyping tools (e.g., Figma, Protopie, Adobe Creative Suite, After Effects, Rive, or 3D animation tools)
• Deep passion for brand and digital product design
• Experience designing visual systems across key touchpoints in the customer journey
• Experience developing brand guidelines/standards for user interfaces — color, typography, iconography, imagery, and GUI elements
• Experience bringing digital products or services to market
• Experience mentoring or managing others in the visual design field
• Passion for the automotive and transportation industry
• Strong verbal, written, and visual presentation skills

Responsibilities

• Establish and codify the visual “look and feel” of Ford and Lincoln digital experiences, in-vehicle and beyond
• Define and evolve visual and motion design standards — typography, color systems, iconography, imagery, layout/grid, and GUI components — into a cohesive design language for DPD
• Lead the creation of “exemplar” visual design work that sets the bar for quality and craft across the team
• Guide design teams in up-leveling presentation and prototyping through stronger visual and motion execution
• Use consumer research, competitive benchmarking, and automotive-industry knowledge to inform and evolve the visual design language
• Partner with UX designers to solve problems and deliver high-quality, on-brand experiences
• Work with engineering teams to guide visual execution to the highest standard, with consistency across implementation
• Participate in design reviews, providing clear, constructive visual design feedback
• Manage communication with internal colleagues and stakeholders

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up childcare and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

What This Job Offers

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