Design Director jobs in Durham, NC

Who We Are

WillowTree, a TELUS International Company, partners with the world’s leading brands to help them tackle their thorniest challenges - be it launching new digital products, delivering personalized marketing at scale, or harnessing the power of data and AI to transform their business. These mission-critical initiatives aren’t solved by a single discipline. Great digital is a team game - it requires seamlessly combining strategy, engineering, design, data science, marketing, and more. Other firms have bolted on these capabilities - as digital natives, we’ve built them into our teams from Day 1. The result? Top and bottom lines that grow, alongside our client’s capabilities. Check out how we have impacted our clients' digital portfolios over the years.

In January 2023, WillowTree was acquired by TELUS International (Symbol: TIXT).  The combined company brings an unparalleled ability to deliver seamless, trusted, digitally-enabled experiences across any channel a customer might choose - be it mobile apps, websites, voice skills, chatbots, email, service agents, or associates.

Location and Flexibility

The Design Director role will be an integral part of WillowTree's hiring success. To help retain our deep culture of collaboration both among ourselves and our stakeholders, this role will maintain an in-office presence in a hybrid capacity (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays) at either our Boston, MA, Charlottesville, VA, Columbus, OH, or Durham, NC office.

The Opportunity

As a Design Director at WillowTree, you’ll mentor, inspire, and grow individual product teams across our product consulting business of 100 designers, researchers, and strategists. This is a unique opportunity to lead and directly influence creative direction without becoming removed from the design work itself. This role requires some travel to clients and other offices.

Responsibilities

• You’ll take early ideas and set the tone for projects by designing seamless experiences
• Provide meaningful guidance on everything from client communication to the pixel-perfect details
• Help designers push out of their comfort zone to create the best work of their careers
• Use your strategic thought process to get clients excited about WillowTree’s capabilities
• Collaborate and build relationships with cross-disciplinary teams such as engineering, content, and project management to orchestrate a smooth experience for our clients and teams
• Define conceptual and visual direction for well-known brands
• Validating your design decisions through first-hand research, user feedback, quantitative insights, and evolving best practices
• Build relationships with clients and navigate your team through challenges that may interfere with executing the best product possible
• Present and articulate design decisions to clients throughout all phases of the process
• 80% your time will be spent working with your project team on mission-critical projects with Fortune 500 clients
• 20% of your time will be spent managing individual contributors
• You’ll manage ~3–5 direct reports

Qualifications

• 10 years in the design industry
• You have been a long-term mentor or manager to other designers
• You’re comfortable delivering growth feedback to teammates
• You’ve shipped products that impact thousands (or more) users — and most recently you’ve been leading design teams
• Solid understanding of the product development process, from problem definition to implementation
• You have strong opinions about visual and user experience design while remaining flexible to new or differing perspectives
• A portfolio that demonstrates an understanding of user and business needs, creative approaches to problem-solving, and a mastery of visual design
• You’re still able to roll up your sleeves and push pixels when needed
• Experience presenting complex ideas to clients and team members in a compelling and energetic way
• You love working with clients, and they love working with you. You're empathetic to their needs and can bring solutions if problems arise
• You think “Yes!” as you read our core values and design goals and are committed to maintaining and positively influencing our design culture
• You’re a tech enthusiast. You love living in a world where tech and design meet

Why WillowTree?

We offer a place to be yourself.

Our differences, both visible and invisible, benefit our teams, our communities, and the products we craft. That’s why WillowTree strives to build a team with diverse backgrounds, skills, and perspectives. You’ll work hard here; however, we’ll balance that with a culture that supports your growth and cares about your well-being. We’re committed to creating an environment of inclusion — a place where every Tree can thrive.

We want you to reach your fullest potential and part of your professional development at WillowTree will include dedicated time to innovate on passion projects and an annual stipend to fund your professional pursuits.

WillowTree upholds our core values in every aspect of our work. We promote safe and inclusive work environments and maintain a drug-free workplace. We celebrate our differences and provide equal employment opportunities to all team members and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Diverse teams build better products. We acknowledge that the tech industry especially lacks opportunity for those who are of non-traditional backgrounds and in underrepresented groups. In order to create the best products for everyone, we know that it's important for our team to reflect the diversity of our users, and we are committed to being the change we want to see.