Product & UX Design Director — Lead User-Driven

Position: Product & UX Design Director — Lead User-Driven Growth
Location: New York

Headquarters: New York, United States

We are looking for a UX Design Director to join our team. A candidate in this role will lead the creation of customer-centered concepts, prototypes, and front end designs. They will have deep empathy for user needs and behaviors with a solid understanding of how to leverage design research. They understand how to express business model, brand, and growth strategy within the user flows they shape.

For earlier explorations they are proficient at clearing low-fidelity, sketch level concepts for research; for later phases, they are skilled in Figma and high-fidelity design all the way to production; and, they have a passion for details and design systems.

Design Directors at Runyon are highly strategic, detail-oriented, and experienced in product design, from research to UX/UI design to visual design. They share our deep empathy for user needs and have the ability to develop a deep understanding of a partner’s business, generate insights, and translate those into a plan of action. They develop strong relationships and build trust with core decision-makers, both internally and externally.

About Runyon Runyon is a product design and venture studio that helps companies grow. We are a team of customer-centered designers, researchers, and strategists that crafts new products, experiences and ventures. Our approach combines customer needs and behaviors with leading edge business strategy. Our work is sprint- and prototype-driven and we think about how we can craft strategies and products into the market in ways that are meaningful and measured from the start.

Our team has decades of experience working with some of the largest global partners including Disney, The New York Times, American Express, Target and others.

We're prototyping-led. We lead with tangible assumptions in the form of prototypes and test them with real stakeholders to validate and refine our strategy and design. Regardless of discipline, we think and communicate in concepts, and use those to move further, faster.

We're detailed and intentional. We always back up our design decisions with sound reasoning—be it user research, market research, or both. We make things that make sense and that have a clear through line.

We're fast. We work almost exclusively in sprints, and with lean teams. We need folks who like to run.

We're collaborative. We jam as a multidisciplinary team of specialists who collectively contribute to the full spectrum of work across user research, strategy and design to arrive at high quality outcomes.

RESPONSIBILITIES Engage with cross-collaborative internal teams and client partners to understand design success criteria – including business goals, market opportunities, and user needs – across both enterprise-scale and venture incubation projects

Translate insights from qualitative research and strategic design work into user-centered concepts, prototypes, and interaction models that bring clarity to complex systems

Generate concepts for testing and iteration – crafting early hypotheses, low-fidelity sketches, and mid-fidelity prototypes that explore multiple paths forward – then evolve those concepts based on insights from user feedback and validation

Craft strategically sound, functional, and elegant user flows and interactive prototypes that articulate a clear vision and demonstrate impact

Lead the creation of high-impact product moments – designing bold, high-resolution experiences that clearly communicate vision, resonate with users, and compel engagement or investment

Collaborate closely with cross-functional teammates spanning research, strategy, and product to scope, shape, test, and deliver experiences that balance user desirability, business viability, and technical feasibility

Create narratives and visual storytelling artifacts that help communicate the work in an impactful and compelling way to both internal and client stakeholders

Champion the evolution of Product Design at Runyon – exploring, implementing, and sharing cutting-edge tools, systems, and methodologies that strengthen the craft and raise the bar for quality and efficiency

Attract top product design talent by embodying…