Director of Product Design (Alpharetta)

About the Company LexisNexis Risk Solutions is the essential partner in the assessment of risk. Within our Insurance organization, we provide customers with solutions and decision tools that combine public and industry specific content with advanced technology and analytics to assist them in evaluating and predicting risk and enhancing operational efficiency. Our insurance risk solutions help drive better data-driven decisions across the insurance policy lifecycle – all while reducing risk. You can learn more about LexisNexis Risk at the link below. About the Role Here at LNRS Insurance, our business goals and our product experiences are deeply connected. As such, product research and design are fundamental disciplines for translating high level business objectives into impactful product systems and user experiences. This role, Director of Product Design, is responsible for shaping the environment, strategy, and organizational conditions that allow exceptional product design and research to thrive at scale. You will lead and grow a team of product designers and researchers while ensuring they are empowered with the autonomy, trust, and support needed to solve meaningful business and user problems. At the same time, you will establish the standards, accountability, and operational rigor required to consistently deliver high quality work at the pace our business demands. As a design leader, you will serve as both a strategic partner to senior leadership and a steadfast advocate for the customer experience (both at the buyer-level and at the user-level). You will help align organizational priorities, product strategy, and user needs while navigating complex stakeholder relationships within Product and across Technology, Client Engagement, Analytics, and Vertical Market leadership. A successful Director of Product Design on this team demonstrates exceptional relationship management, strong organizational awareness, calm leadership under ambiguity, and a deep understanding of how to create high-performing, highly collaborative design cultures. Beyond ensuring successful outcomes for the products themselves, this role is responsible for protecting the integrity of the design process as framed within the double-diamond model, cultivating team growth, and growing the product design and research functions as trusted, strategic partners across the organization. All Product Designers and Researchers on this team are empowered to think strategically. You will help create and protect the conditions that allow them to do so. You will provide clarity around goals and standards while ensuring teams retain the space and autonomy necessary to determine how best to solve the problems in front of them. Within that space, mentorship, guidance, and accountability will always be present and available. Location: Alpharetta, GA hybridAbout You  Deep experience leading and growing Product Design or UX Research/ Design teams within product-driven organizations Passionate about building environments where designers and researchers can thrive creatively, strategically, and collaboratively Excellent stakeholder management skills with experience influencing senior leadership across product, technology, analytics, and business organizations Ability to balance team autonomy with accountability to quality, consistency, delivery expectations, and business outcomes Believes great design organizations are built on trust, humility, collaboration, and shared ownership Comfortable navigating ambiguity and helping teams create clarity around priorities, opportunities, and decision-making Thorough understanding of the design process as framed through the double diamond process model Effectively distills the current conditions and needs of product teams into research and design outcomes across multiple products or business areas simultaneously Strong coaching and mentorship capabilities with a proven track record of helping designers and researchers grow in both craft and strategic influence Ability to identify organizational friction points (not just design-related friction) and proactively improve processes, communication patterns, and team operations Brings calm, thoughtful leadership during periods of change, growth, and organizational complexity Advocates for customer-centered thinking while maintaining a strong understanding of business goals and operational realities Keeps a steady pulse on how best-in-class product organizations evolve their design and research practices and translates those learnings into scalable improvements for the team Enables AI within their own workflows and drives their design and research teams to continually practice an AI-enabled processes Experienced working within agile product organizations and cross-functional product teams Empower your team think strategically – to have the problem to solve and the autonomy to craft the solution.   Someone who prescribes to the same or similar values as this team’s:  We are not our research; we are not our designs. As designers and researchers, we can critique our work and others’ work independently of the designer who made them. In fact, we help each other grow by constantly reviewing and offering critiques/ ideas. The best work is always pressure tested.  We have deep empathy and not just for our users, but also for the product managers, developers, and other designers on our team. Our ability to positively affect our users derives from the trust and support we provide our team.  Pixel perfect designs are for our users’ benefit not for our own. With that in mind, let’s be comfortable sharing in-progress work. This also pushes us to collaborate, learn, and improve each other as much as we can.   8+ years experience in Product Design, UX Design, or UX Research with multiple years of people leadership experience What You’ll Accomplish You will grow the Product Design team reputation as deeply trusted strategic partners throughout the organization You will create the conditions that enable teams to consistently produce high quality, user-centered work at scale You will help define and evolve standards for design quality, research rigor, collaboration, and operational excellence across the organization You will strengthen relationships between Product Design, Product Management, Technology, Client Engagement, Analytics, and Executive Leadership teams to improve alignment and decision-making You will empower designers and researchers with greater ownership and autonomy while ensuring accountability to business goals and customer outcomes You will improve the visibility, understanding, and impact of the design process throughout the broader organization You will coach and grow a high-performing team members that feels supported, challenged, and excited about the work they are doing You will drive measurable impact through experiences that improve customer value, adoption, and efficiency while centralizing metrics in meaningful ways for product and leadership teams You will help shape the long-term product and experience vision for solutions that are transforming the insurance industry from the ground up You will drive adoption and scale to an evolving design system, ensuring a growing number of products adopt this system over time Your Responsibilities Lead and support a team of 16 Product Designers and Researchers across multiple products and vertical markets Create an environment where teams feel empowered to challenge assumptions, explore opportunities, and advocate for user-centered solutions, and demonstrate strong measurements of validation Establish and maintain clear expectations and standards for quality, collaboration, communication, and delivery across the design organization Protect the space and time needed for generative and evaluative research as well as solution refinement while balancing organizational timelines and priorities Partner closely with senior leadership to align product experience strategy and success metrics with business objectives and organizational goals Build strong, cross-functional relationships that improve trust, communication, and collaboration between teams Help teams navigate ambiguity, competing priorities, and organizational complexity with clarity and confidence Ensure the design process remains visible, actionable, and appropriately integrated throughout the product lifecycle Mentor and coach designers and researchers in both craft development and strategic influence Identify opportunities to improve team operations, organizational processes, and collaboration models to better support scalable product development Help create systems that maintain consistency and quality across experiences while still allowing flexibility for innovation and experimentation Frequently communicate team progress, successes, opportunities, and challenges to stakeholders and leadership partners Advocate for investment in research, design quality, and customer-centered decision-making across the organization Contribute to a positive, constructive environment where everyone feels valued and is excited to build best-in-class work together Believes in shared ownership of the design work and success of the broader organization Role You’ll Play: Collaborate closely with executive leadership, product leaders, engineering leaders, and stakeholders to shape product and experience strategy Help teams connect business objectives, customer needs, and technical feasibility into cohesive product direction Facilitate alignment and effective decision-making across complex stakeholder groups Guide teams through discovery, prioritization, design, and delivery efforts while protecting user-centered thinking throughout the double-diamond process Support and mentor teams through challenging product, organizational, and operational conversations Establish scalable approaches to design critique, research synthesis, knowledge sharing, and team collaboration Help the organizatio