Head OF Design

This senior leadership role in New York, NY blends hybrid work with strategic design leadership, focusing on Enterprise Custody Services and human–AI collaboration at BNY Mellon. Responsibilities Help develop a comprehensive persona framework supporting a 100+ application ecosystem. Analyze and re-engineer end-to-end operational workflows across the platform. Introduce and apply user research methodologies within the platform design practice. Ensure a cohesive and consistent platform experience across products. Design experiences that enable effective human–AI collaboration. Mentor and elevate the design team to higher standards. Communicate design strategy and rationale to senior leadership. Requirements 10–12 years of experience in product or experience design with strong depth in service design: mapping end-to-end workflows, creating service blueprints, and designing across channels and touchpoints. Proven use of user research methods (contextual inquiries, usability testing, research synthesis) to ground decisions in evidence. Experience shaping persona frameworks or user segmentation models for complex, multi‑role operational environments. Systems‑level thinking: you see the whole experience, including workflows, workarounds, handoffs, and failure modes, not just the interface. Track record of influencing product and engineering decisions through design evidence, not solely through output. Experience in enterprise, regulated, or high‑stakes operational environments; comfortable with complexity, compliance constraints, and organizational politics. Strong design craft paired with strategic thinking; able to zoom from interaction detail to platform strategy in the same discussion. About this role This hybrid role combines senior individual contributor work with direct influence over a small design team of three designers. You will mentor, set quality standards and strategic direction, and coordinate as a peer with product owners and engineering leadership, without administrative management duties. The role is roughly 80% strategic and research-focused and 20% hands‑on design. Prior domain expertise in financial services is less critical than the ability to learn quickly, ask the right questions, and apply rigorous design thinking to genuinely complex problems. Portfolio A portfolio is required. Demonstrate understanding of complex systems through artifacts such as service blueprints, journey maps, workflow analyses, research synthesis, persona frameworks, and the resulting design interventions. We care more about thinking, process, and impact than visual polish. Base salary is expected to be between $104,000 and $253,000 per year at start, with individualized determination based on experience and market location. Total compensation may include commissions, discretionary bonuses, short- and long‑term incentives, and company-sponsored benefits. #J-18808-Ljbffr