Design Manager, Client Experience

Manager Of Design

As the Manager of Design at Thrivent, you will be a strategic and compassionate leader responsible for building and nurturing a cross-disciplinary team of UI/UX designers, content specialists, and UX researchers. You will oversee capacity planning and talent management, ensuring optimal team performance while fostering a collaborative environment. Your role involves representing the voice of the user in setting the product strategy and prioritizing product roadmaps, maintaining high design standards, and delivering quality solutions. Additionally, you will prioritize the work of the team, ensuring their efforts align with business goals and project timelines. Effective communication and collaboration with product managers, developers, and stakeholders will be crucial in aligning design initiatives with business objectives and advocating for user-centered design principles throughout the organization.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage a cross-functional design team of product designers, UX researcher and other required design specialists as needed. Be able to effectively manage people and drive multiple related product areas.
• Develop processes and approaches for tackling design problems, using known methods and anticipating challenges. Facilitation to engage cross-functional teams.
• Realize the power of problem-framing, establishing new starting points that lead to quality solutions. Lead the solution of undefined problem spaces, taking a holistic product experience point of view.
• Communicate design rationale effectively using storytelling techniques, building trust with partners and stakeholders. Comfortably communicate at all levels of the organization, demonstrating confidence.
• Free resources to drive change by systematically cutting low-return activities. Use understanding of impact and success metrics to focus and reprioritize efforts.
• Collaborate with cross-functional peers, both downward and across the organization, ensuring alignment and fostering long-term relationships.
• Recruits, develops, and sustains a high-performing team while promoting a culture of shared accountability, operational excellence, and partnership across the organization.
• Supports and/or develops an environment in which Thrivent employees and colleagues are focused on continuous improvement, exceptional employee engagement, and an unwavering commitment to our clients. Shapes and/or supports a culture that represents the Thrivent purpose, promise and values, ensuring that Thrivent's trust and reputation remain strong with its clients.

This Role Will Interact/Collaborate With The Following Teams:

• Cross-functional design team (direct supervision and management)
• Cross-functional product peers (collaboration)
• Cross-functional organizational stakeholders (collaboration, presentations)
• Product, Design, and Engineering Directors (presentations)
• Product, Design, and Engineering VPs (presentations)

Qualifications & Skills:

Required:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in Interaction Design, UI/UX Design, Product Design, UX Research, Software Development or any combination of education and experience which would provide an equivalent background
• 8+ years of experience in a related field, with at least 5 years of experience in user experience, interaction design, product design and research in a product development team required and with at least 3 years with managerial experience.
• Proven experience in navigating and collaborating with different areas of the enterprise, including Engineering, Product and Business owners, to help prioritize work and identify high impact opportunities for the experience
• Ability to motivate, inspire and organize a team of 5-8 designers and researcher to deliver goals outlined for the portfolio of products the manager oversees.
• Manage a team like a business owner making tradeoff and prioritization decisions around how to allocate team members (skill sets and quantity) to meet the goals of the portfolio and products within.
• Excellent communication and persuasion skills, with the ability to build trust and establish long-term relationships.
• Understanding of impact and success metrics for any given product to focus and reprioritize design efforts to ensure the greatest impact possible.
• Ability to collaborate with cross-functional peers and drive change within the organization.
• Experience in talent management; including experience in recruiting, hiring, and professional development.
• Strategic mindset with the ability to develop processes and approaches for tackling design problems.
• Experience working with design systems and agile practices within a product team model.

Preferred:

• Strategic design thinking and the ability to contribute to the overall design strategy of the organization.
• Knowledge and experience working in financial services, ideally wealth management.