Director, Product Design

We’re seeking a future team member for the role of Director, Product Designer to join our Design Accelerator team. This role will be located in Pittsburgh, PA

The Design Accelerator is one of several specialized teams within the Experience Design Practice, providing flexible, targeted support to help teams address high-priority experience needs, build momentum, and determine the right role for design moving forward. Accelerator designers partner with product, business, engineering, and existing design teams to clarify problems, understand user needs, explore what is feasible, and translate opportunities into actionable experience direction and designs.

We are seeking a highly experienced product designer who can quickly enter complex and ambiguous problem spaces, establish clarity, and move work from discovery through design. This role is suited for a senior individual contributor who combines strong product thinking and design craft with the adaptability to work across different businesses, domains, and stages of product maturity.

The Senior Vice President, Product Designer will collaborate with other designers and researchers across the full engagement lifecycle—from initial problem framing and research through concept development, prototyping, testing, and delivery. Success in this role requires the ability to build trust quickly, contribute effectively within multidisciplinary teams, identify where design can have the greatest impact, and produce work that teams can confidently carry forward after an Accelerator engagement concludes.

The ideal candidate will bring the following expertise:

• Discovery and Adaptability
  Quickly develop an understanding of unfamiliar domains, business processes, and user needs. Ask thoughtful questions, synthesize complex information, and adapt methods and outputs to help teams identify the right problems and opportunities.
   
• AI Fluency and Curiosity
  Bring curiosity and a foundational understanding of how AI can support the design process. Explore and apply AI thoughtfully across activities such as research synthesis, problem framing, concept development, prototyping, and iteration—while maintaining strong human judgment and a clear focus on user needs.
   
• User-Centered and Systems Thinking
  Use research, data, and stakeholder insights to understand complex experiences and create end-to-end journey maps and related artifacts spanning users, teams, systems, and operational processes. Use these artifacts to identify friction and opportunities, align stakeholders, and translate complexity into coherent experiences that balance user needs, business priorities, and technical feasibility.
   
• Interaction and UI Design
  Demonstrate strong craft in designing sophisticated digital interfaces and workflows. Create clear interaction models, information architecture, and navigation patterns, translating concepts into high-quality designs and prototypes that can be tested, refined, and implemented.
   
• Design System Application and Contribution
  Apply the organization’s design system to promote consistency, accessibility, and reuse. Recognize when existing patterns can be leveraged or when new patterns may be needed, collaborating with design system partners as appropriate.
   
• Cross-Functional Collaboration and Communication
  Partner effectively with product, business, engineering, research, and design stakeholders. Facilitate productive conversations, communicate insights and design rationale clearly, and use visual storytelling to align teams around user needs, priorities, trade-offs, and feasible solutions.
   
• Ownership, Delivery, and Enablement
  Operate with independence while collaborating closely with the broader team. Proactively identify risks, dependencies, and decisions, and create clear, actionable outputs that enable product and engineering teams to carry the work forward after the Accelerator engagement concludes.

Portfolio Requirements

A portfolio is required and should demonstrate strong product and interaction design, systems thinking, and experience moving work from discovery through execution in complex or ambiguous environments. It should clearly communicate the candidate’s process, individual contributions, cross-functional collaboration, and the outcomes of the work.

Experience

Typically, a candidate at this level will have at least 12 years of experience designing digital products, including experience with complex, enterprise, or regulated systems. Prior financial-services expertise is less important than a demonstrated ability to learn new domains quickly, navigate ambiguity, collaborate effectively, and translate complex needs into clear, actionable design solutions.