Head of Product Design

Good storytelling starts with great listening. At Audible, that means each role and every project has our audience in mind. Because the same people who design, develop, and deploy our products also happen to use them. To us, that speaks volumes.

ABOUT THIS ROLE
As the Head of Product Design, you will lead a design practice that starts with the customer and builds from there, advocating for customer needs through the strategic planning and product development lifecycle. You and your team will design innovative and intuitive experiences, implement scalable solutions, and ensure a world class end-to-end product experience. You will work with product and engineering leaders to prioritize, build, and enhance all customer journeys and features. You will establish operating processes to drive systematic design improvements to Audible’s products based on customer feedback, needs, and behavior.

In this role, you will report to the Chief Product & Insights Officer. You will Lead our UX Design and Design Systems across all Audible touchpoints (Apps, Web, Amazon Surfaces, Voice, Devices, Car, Global Marketplaces, Creator Tools). You will build relationships and partner with Audible departments outside of design (e.g., Product, Engineering, Content, Marketing, Brand, etc.)

ABOUT THE TEAM
User Experience Design is at the heart of Audible’s goal to be customer obsessed. The UX team works ceaselessly to transform deep customer insights into delightful and innovative product experiences that drive business results and customer satisfaction. We are searching for a passionate and experienced UX leader who can use their design expertise and strong leadership skills to ensure Audible continues to lead through product innovation.

ABOUT YOU
You raise the bar. You ensure design continuity and quality across the service by guiding the UX strategy and evolving the design system. You work with leadership to influence and shape initiatives into compelling product experiences that solve critical strategic business challenges.

You are the voice of the customer. You hold a fundamental belief that understanding customer needs creates the opportunity for product innovation and drives business outcomes. You ensure that the customer’s voice is integrated appropriately into the design process of every project. You are an advocate for the customer across the organization, helpings others to understand our customers more deeply and inspiring them to take action on behalf of the customers' needs.

You are a design champion. You are a respected and trusted design leader across the organization. You ensure that UX is engaged at the most optimal points in the process to elevate impact. You are an advocate for design, innovation, and creating meaningful product experiences. You empower teams, inspire design leaders, and push the boundaries of design across the organization.

You are passionate about designing design teams, growing and empowering the next wave of design leaders, creating structures that enable design teams to be high-performing and impactful. You iterate on hiring, operations, and organizational processes to optimize for peak performance. You model a growth mindset, foster psychological safety, and create connections across the company.

As Head of Product Design, you will...

• Act as an executive stakeholder representing UX to Audible’s senior leadership. Ensure teams you lead collaborate with cross-functional partners from Product, Analytics, Research, Engineering, Customer Service, Marketing, Content, Brand, and QA.
• Work with design teams to ensure the voice of the customer is backed by qualitative and quantitative data from User Experience Research, Insights, and Market Research and is used as the foundation for the design approach and strategy.
• Transform strategic imperatives into well-defined projects that support end-to-end UX design strategy. Shape and clarify the problem space, strategy, and scope for initiatives to ensure teams are able to deliver results that maintain alignment with UX and company wide strategic imperatives.
• Monitor progress, efficiency, velocity, and goals alignment. Engage in executive stakeholder reviews at the program and project level to ensure the design direction is aligned with the customer, and business goals. Mitigate program risk through strategic resourcing, process, and design decisions.
• Drive UX strategy and design system standards enabling product coherence and continuity.
• Ensure a collaborative environment for UX leaders to design, develop, and iterate internal UX processes, toolsets, and methods that enable Audible’s UX practice to become more efficient and influential.
• Work with product and business leadership to build strong trusting relationships that increase transparency, understanding, and awareness of UX, promoting collaboration, partnership, advocacy, and elicit support for the UX practice with external teams.
• Build trust with design teams through clear, constructive, and consistent communication, as well as continued investment in their careers and success.
• Continuously assess the skillsets and goals of individuals, to match them with the skills required for the work, creating the conditions for individual growth.
• Drive the hiring and shaping of UX teams and their skills to enhance the UX practice's capabilities and continue to raise the bar of talent.
• Ensure the distribution and mixture of UX skills in the organization is appropriate to drive results and raise overall quality.
• Foster a team culture that is attractive to a diverse range of high-performing candidates.

Basic Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience as a User Experience Designer, Product Designer, Interaction Designer, or similar role.
• 5+ years of experience leading managers and teams of 30+ designers across multiple projects and digital touchpoints.
• Resume or portfolio of case studies that demonstrates experience creating great user-centered design solutions across digital touchpoints that delivered business results.
• Proven experience with rapid, iterative design and development processes.
• Experience developing a UX strategy that supports business goals and aligns with customer goals.
• Track record of building and mentoring high performing teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven ability to take initiatives and transform them into projects and plans that deliver results.
• Demonstrate a communication skillset appropriate for influencing senior executive-level audiences internal and leading the external to the design team.

ABOUT AUDIBLE
At Audible, we innovate and inspire through the power of voice. We're changing the narrative on storytelling. As a leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, we've redefined the ways people access, discover, and share stories. The stories we tell have the ability to transport and transform everyday moments into meaningful experiences and it's our people who make Audible's service possible. We're listeners, storytellers, and problem-solvers. Our perspectives and experiences power our ideas and come together in our mission to unleash the power of the spoken word. Audible offers a Hub+Home hybrid workplace model that gives employees flexibility between gathering in a common office space (work from hub) and remote work (work from home). Some teams will work mostly at hub, some mostly at home and others hybrid. For more information, please visit adbl.co/hybrid.

Audible is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Audible is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. For individuals with disabilities who would like to request an accommodation, please visit https://www.amazon.jobs/en/disability/us.