Dir, Principal Experience Designer

Our team is designing the future of retirement to improve the lives of millions of Americans. TIAA’s Design office’s mission is to build a design-led culture, while strengthening our design capabilities, to create an end-to-end experience vision that unlocks innovation. We bring dignity and access through design excellence to inspire and empower clients to pursue retirement security with TIAA.

The role sets the vision for the design system and works with leadership to develop a roadmap aligned with the needs of the design system for consumers. You will own the creative vision of the design system, drive delivery of high-quality UI components and patterns, and guide the use and integration of AI into workflows and processes. You will partner with engineering, product, brand and marketing teams to support the delivery of high-quality, accessible, and brand-consistent design solutions to our digital experiences, allowing TIAA to achieve its mission of retirement security for its customers.

By innovating one of the world's biggest stages, you will have the chance to shape the future of retirement. If you are motivated by complex, purposeful, and engaging challenges, then we invite you to join us on our mission!

Key Responsibilities and Duties

• Define and lead strategic initiatives from conception to release within the design systems team and wider design community to evolve and grow the design system and design practice.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes, efficiencies and impact within the team and the design system as a whole.
• Evangelize the benefits of the design system to leadership, and cross-functional teams.
• Collaborate with partners to define, maintain, and improve a design system contribution model for the design and engineering organizations. This includes facilitating the sharing of product-specific components and patterns.
• Support the adoption and consumption of the design system through rituals such as Office Hours, communications, and training sessions and events.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to gather requirements and feedback for the design system
• Express yourself as a continuous learner who is self-aware, curious to learn, and seeks feedback from others to continuously grow, always putting improvement over comfort.
• Build trust-based relationships across boundaries and encourage collaboration. Show up authentically and adapt your own style to communicate impactfully.
• Lead as an accountable achiever. Others rely on you to get things done, raising the bar for performance, while taking accountability for your own actions.
• Express yourself as a considerate thinker that sees the big picture while understanding how to drive impact through allocating the right people against the right work that will drive meaningful impact.
• Drive experiences with an outcome focus, actively scanning the end-to-end experience for new approaches, blending different ideas to challenge the teams with creative, yet effective solutions.

Educational Requirements

• University (Degree) Preferred

Work Experience

• 5+ Years Required; 7+ Years Preferred

Physical Requirements

• Physical Requirements: Sedentary Work

Career Level
9IC

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of UX design and / or design management experience

• Proven experience in starting, implementing and governing design systems across a large scale

• Proficiency in Figma, specially designing system features and approaches.

• Understanding of design tokens, including how to architect resilient token architectures

Preferred Qualifications:

• 7+ years of UX design and / or design management experience

• Demonstrated background in enterprise experience design; consumer product design; mobile platform design in an agile delivery model and a track record of shipping high impact outcomes in a fast-moving and changing environment

• Experience with HTML, CSS and JavaScript (our stack includes React and Angular) to be able to have conversations with development partners about implementation details.

• Familiarity with content management systems or static site generators (and markdown) for maintaining documentation sites

• Knowledge of Accessibility guidelines

• Driven by a sense of urgency to promote change and takes smart risks in pursuit of organizational and team goals

• Outstanding attention to detail, organizational and analytical skills

Related SkillsAccountability, Adaptability, Collaboration, Communication, Consultative Communication, Continuous Improvement Mindset, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Innovation, Prototyping, Relationship Management, Test & Learn Mentality, User Experience Design

Anticipated Posting End Date:

2026-08-20Base Pay Range: $140,000/yr - $178,000/yr

Actual base salary may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, time in role, base salary of internal peers, prior performance, business sector, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, the competitive compensation package may include, depending on the role, participation in an incentive program linked to performance (for example, annual discretionary incentive programs, non-annual sales incentive plans, or other non-annual incentive plans).

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Company Overview

Every worker deserves a secure retirement. For more than 100 years, TIAA has delivered it for millions of people. Founded to help educators retire with dignity, today weʼre a market-leading retirement company fueled by world-class asset management. But weʼre not just another legacy financial services firm. Weʼre fighting harder than ever before for our clients and the many Americans who need us.

Our Culture of Impact

At TIAA, we're on a mission to build on our 100+ year legacy of delivering for our clients while evolving to meet tomorrow's challenges. We equip our associates with future-focused skills and AI tools that enable us to advance our mission. Together, we are fighting to ensure a more secure financial future for all and for generations to come. We are guided by our values: Champion Our People, Be Client Obsessed, Lead with Integrity, Own It, and Win As One. They influence every decision we make and how we work together to serve our clients every day. We thrive in a collaborative in-office environment where teams work across organizational boundaries with shared purpose, accelerating innovation and delivering meaningful results. Our workplace brings together TIAA and Nuveen's entrepreneurial spirit, where we work hard and work together to create lasting impact. Here, every associate can grow through meaningful learning experiences and development pathways—because when our people succeed, our impact on clients' lives grows stronger.

Benefits and Total Rewards

The organization is committed to making financial well-being possible for its clients, and is equally committed to the well-being of our associates. That’s why we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards package designed to make a positive difference in the lives of our associates and their loved ones. Our benefits include a superior retirement program and highly competitive health, wellness and work life offerings that can help you achieve and maintain your best possible physical, emotional and financial well-being. To learn more about your benefits, please review our Benefits Summary .

Equal Opportunity

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. TIAA does not discriminate against any candidate or employee on the basis of age, race, color, national origin, sex, religion, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other legally protected status.

Our full EEO & Non-Discrimination statement is on our careers home page , and you can read more about your rights and view government notices here .

Accessibility Support

TIAA offers support for those who need assistance with our online application process to provide an equal employment opportunity to all job seekers, including individuals with disabilities.

If you are a U.S. applicant and desire a reasonable accommodation to complete a job application please use one of the below options to contact our accessibility support team:

Phone: View phone number on us.fitly.work

Email: View email address on us.fitly.work

Drug and Smoking Policy

TIAA maintains a drug-free and smoke/free workplace.

Privacy Notices

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For Applicants of TIAA, Nuveen and Affiliates residing in California, please click here .

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