User Experience Design Manager

Job Description

UX Design Manager, Digital Advisor

Make investing intuitive through the user experience

Doing the right thing for investors is what we’re all about at Vanguard, and that includes giving them the best possible user experience (UX). In a business like ours, which is built around technology, the quality of online interactions is essential. All the teams work together in highly collaborative agile “labs” – each lab is fully dedicated to one part of the client journey. We follow the “Stacked Agile” model where labs are part of a “Family” with a “Family Leader"; each family includes labs that have similar journeys/products or themes.

Journey Labs are cross-functional teams whose full-time job is to evaluate a specific client journey from the client's viewpoint. Journey labs use this viewpoint to identify and solve client points of pain. The labs also establish and regularly track key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure the labs realize the goals and value they set out to achieve. If a journey lab is not tracking to their established KPIs, the team will evaluate the reasons why and adjust scope and priorities as needed.

Each journey lab consists of a journey owner, scrum master, technical lead, analyst, and user experience strategist, as well as multiple designers and full-stack developers. All functions within the journey labs sit together and work collaboratively to solve client problems.

Product Teams are set up almost identically to Journey Labs. However, instead of owning a client journey, they own a particular channel or capability that cuts across multiple client journeys, such as a mobile or security and authentication. As such, the Journey Owner role is slightly modified into a Product Owner role.

In this role you will expertly lead and direct the interaction design strategy (web, mobile, applications) of the most complex and ambitious large-scale, program-level initiatives. You will partner with internal and external strategy and technology organizations and to lead innovation in the digital experience based on the latest technology and market trends. At the core of this role, your leadership and design decisions will directly impact client outcomes. You will lead and inspire a team by building a learning culture that drives aligned autonomy and mastery of design.

In this role you will:

• Create world-class strategies for a wide range of user, business and marketing goals by leading program-level initiatives meant to transform the client-facing digital experience. Develop strategic, visionary digital plans for major initiatives, communicating them compellingly, and supporting recommendations with substantive arguments.
• Leverage innovative Lean development and Design Thinking methodologies to create a portfolio of digital experiments. Oversee product owners executing on in-flight experiments. Translate successful experiments to full-scale technology rollouts. Manage progress of the program relative to business goals and competitive benchmarks.
• Lead continuous discovery through lean user centered client research
• Serve as client evangelist creating a shared understanding of client pain points
• Champion inclusive design through accessibility and inclusive content design
• Thinks strategically, creatively, and holistically about business programs and plans, identifying opportunities to infuse digital elements into traditional operations. Partners with senior leadership and across organizations to ensure digital is core to the client experience.
• Actively researches and stays abreast of innovations within and outside the industry which could provide opportunities. Build out internal team knowledge and understanding of consumer insights and emerging trends around innovation opportunity areas. Provide ongoing leadership across stakeholder groups as a visible champion for innovation across the organization.
• Create solutions to complex problems expertly by using research and expert skill in conceptualization, interaction design, visual design, user behavior, and Vanguard’s brand.
• Use a variety of qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques to continually improve the user experience. Analyze data and client feedback to make critical design decisions
• Oversee the project team on day-to-day operations of project deliverables, and problem resolution. Coordinate project schedules, assignments, and workflows.
• Develop and leverage the professional network to foster collaboration across the enterprise, to support company-wide initiatives, and to improve the ability of the department in resolving issues.
• Participate in special projects and performs other duties as assigned.

A design experience that delivers

Take a stand for our clients and how they experience Vanguard. CXD promises to create meaningful world-class experiences that exceed client expectations, positioning Vanguard as the trusted financial partner and industry disruptor.

Our Mission:

We create meaningful world-class experiences that exceed client expectations, positioning Vanguard as the trusted financial partner and industry disruptor.

What we do:

We aim to exceed retail user expectations by leveraging client feedback and rapid iteration. We show that the client experience can be a long-term differentiator for Vanguard to maintain its success.

What it takes

• Minimum five years related work experience, two years of User Experience or User Interface experience.
• Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience in a creative or technical field. Graduate degree preferred.
• Financial services industry experience preferred.
• Proven experience solving complex problems and designing world-class experiences for large-scale programs
• Expert communication skills (storytelling, visualization) and the ability to get buy-in on those ideas within a large organization.
• Proven ability to lead a team and program level initiatives to success. Ability to turn failures into successes.
• A working style that is rooted in ownership, passion, teamwork, and collaboration.

Specializations that’ll make an impact

• Strong product conceptualization skills.
• Expert in all areas of user experience design (design, architecture, development, technology, user research).
• Extensive experience in design thinking and lean methodologies.
• A high degree of creativity, empathy, passion, and problem-solving ability.

Special Factors

• Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position

About Vanguard

We are Vanguard. Together, we’re changing the way the world invests.

For us, investing doesn’t just end in value. It starts with values. Because when you invest with courage, when you invest with clarity, and when you invest with care, you can get so much more in return. We invest with purpose – and that’s how we’ve become a global market leader. Here, we grow by doing the right thing for the people we serve. And so can you.

We want to make success accessible to everyone. This is our opportunity. Let’s make it count.

Inclusion Statement

Vanguard’s continued commitment to diversity and inclusion is firmly rooted in our culture. Every decision we make to best serve our clients, crew (internally employees are referred to as crew), and communities is guided by one simple statement: “Do the right thing.”

We believe that a critical aspect of doing the right thing requires building diverse, inclusive, and highly effective teams of individuals who are as unique as the clients they serve. We empower our crew to contribute their distinct strengths to achieving Vanguard’s core purpose through our values.

When all crew members feel valued and included, our ability to collaborate and innovate is amplified, and we are united in delivering on Vanguard's core purpose.

Our core purpose: To take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success.