VP, Product Design

VP, Product Design

Join Hearst Newspapers as the Vice President of Product Design and lead the design organization in a fast‑moving publishing environment that includes 28 daily editions and 52 weeklies across the United States.

The Product Development team delivers best‑in‑class product experiences that balance editorial, business, and audience needs. The team includes engineers, Dev Ops, QA, product managers, strategists, designers, and product operations specialists. It is organized into cross‑functional pods that support end users, internal users, and revenue growth, working closely with Content and Revenue teams.

We’re looking for a transformational design executive to redefine product design at Hearst Newspapers. This bold leader will set a vision, raise standards, and move fast to deliver innovation. The ideal candidate has deep expertise in UX and product strategy, a track record of launching products from zero‑to‑one, and an active presence in the global design community. They will bring outside perspective, thought leadership, and energy to push our teams beyond incremental improvement, shape the design culture, establish Hearst as a design thought leader, and partner closely with product and engineering executives to create products that are useful, usable, distinctive, and loved by diverse audiences.

• Set a clear, ambitious design vision that elevates the role of design as a driver of product and business strategy.
• Build, coach, and inspire a small team of designers and researchers while raising organizational design maturity and demanding excellence.
• Own UX strategy end‑to‑end: from framing the right problems to designing user journeys, prototypes, and product opportunities.
• Lead rapid experimentation and deliver early, tangible wins that demonstrate the impact of design on business outcomes.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Content, and Revenue leaders to co‑create new ventures, align on priorities, and bring products to market quickly.
• Facilitate workshops and design sprints that surface bold ideas and help stakeholders rally around customer needs.
• Oversee qualitative and quantitative research; translate insights into actionable opportunities and measure design’s impact.
• Drive the development of scalable, atomic/component‑based design systems that empower teams and accelerate delivery across platforms.
• Maintain a visible presence in the design industry—publishing, speaking, and engaging with peers to bring fresh thinking into Hearst.
• Represent Hearst Newspapers as a leader in design innovation at relevant communities and events.
• Champion the voice of the user and the value of design across the organization, using storytelling and facilitation to influence executives and teams.

• 10+ years in product design with at least 3 years in a senior leadership role transforming design practices.