Head of Design

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United Kingdom.

📋 Description

• Oversee Blackboard’s global User Experience and Design division.

• Take charge of the vision and strategy for user interactions with Blackboard LMS, Blackboard Illuminate, Ally, and institutional effectiveness solutions.

• Lead, develop, and motivate a diverse UXD team across various countries and time zones.

• Collaborate with Product Management and Product Development leadership during product planning, prioritization, and execution.

• Advocate for users through research, feedback sessions, and usability testing.

• Spearhead the responsible integration of generative AI within the design practice.

• Manage design operations, encompassing design systems, tools, workflows, and quality standards.

• Ensure that accessibility and inclusive design principles are applied across all user experiences.

• Foster an agile environment focused on rapid iteration and continuous learning.

• Define roles, responsibilities, and collaborative practices among design, product management, and development teams.

• Present design strategies, research findings, and solutions to executives, clients, and industry audiences.

• Oversee budget management, resource allocation, and prioritization.

• Adapt working hours to accommodate distributed teams.

• Travel up to 20% for team engagements, customer interactions, and company events.

⛳️ Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience.

• Minimum of 15 years in user experience, product design, or a related discipline.

• Extensive experience in leading design teams and individual contributors.

• Proven track record of building and scaling design teams of 10 or more professionals across Product Design, research, documentation, and accessibility.

• Experience managing diverse, geographically distributed teams across multiple countries and time zones.

• Executive-level experience in design strategy linked to measurable user and business outcomes.

• Proficient in generative AI design technologies such as Figma Make, Claude Design, Claude Code, and other LLM-based tools.

• Strong expertise in Figma, prototyping, and design systems.

• Working knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, usability, and accessibility standards.

• Proven ability to engage customers and users through design research, testing, and iterative feedback mechanisms.

• Experience in delivering straightforward, elegant solutions to complex challenges in highly agile settings.

• Strong leadership capabilities and a knack for fostering a collaborative, inclusive, high-performing team culture.

• Willingness to work outside of standard hours when necessary.

• Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation abilities.

• Familiarity with WCAG accessibility standards.

• Proficiency in both written and spoken English.

• Candidates must possess legal authorization to work in the country where the position is located; visa sponsorship or immigration support is not available.

• Preferred: experience in educational technology or enterprise SaaS.

🏝️ Benefits

• Flexible working hours to align with business needs and support distributed teams.

• Commitment to equal employment opportunity and affirmative action as an employer.