Digital Experience Design Director

Director Of Digital Experience Design

At Slate, we're building safe, reliable vehicles that people can afford, personalize and love—and doing it here in the USA as part of our commitment to reindustrialization. The spirit of DIY and customization runs throughout every element of a Slate, because people should have control over how their trucks look, feel, and represent them.

Slate Auto is a new American electric vehicle company building something the industry hasn't seen: a purpose-built, affordable EV truck designed for real people. We're in pre-production and moving fast — which means every hire shapes the culture and product we're building. We believe great design isn't a department; it's a competitive advantage.

Our digital experiences — from the moment someone discovers a Slate truck online to the day they configure, purchase, and drive one off the lot — are as important to us as the vehicle itself. We're building the online marketplace, the ownership app, the purchasing flow, and the in-vehicle digital experience from the ground up, and we need a design leader who can help us do it right.

We're looking for a Director of Digital Experience Design to own the design vision and execution across Slate's digital customer and partner facing products: our website and online marketplace, the vehicle configurator and purchasing experience, the Slate ownership/service mobile app, and the in-vehicle digital experience including the instrument cluster.

This is a senior leadership role that sits alongside Product and Software leadership as one of three legs of a stool — responsible together for defining what we build, how we build it, and how it looks, feels, and works for our customers. You'll set design direction, build and scale the team, establish the systems and processes that make great design for our digital experiences repeatable, and bring creative energy that makes Slate owners genuinely love interacting with their truck.

Design Leadership & Vision

• Define and drive the design vision for all customer-facing digital touchpoints: web, mobile, in-vehicle HMI, and future experiences
• Translate Slate's brand and product strategy into cohesive, human-centered design that feels intentional at every interaction
• Ensure design holds a strategic voice at the table — advocating for the customer in roadmap conversations, sprint reviews, and executive discussions
• Set and enforce quality standards across your team's output, from early concepts through production delivery

Team Building & Management

• Lead, coach, and grow a team of UI designers, UX designers, and copywriters focused on digital product experiences
• Hire thoughtfully to fill gaps in the team's capabilities as Slate scales from pre-launch to post-launch and beyond
• Build a team culture of craft, curiosity, and direct feedback — one that takes design seriously without taking itself too seriously
• Develop career paths and growth frameworks for designers at different levels

Design Systems & Process

• Own and evolve Slate's digital design system so that UI components are consistent, accessible, and reusable across web and native app surfaces
• Scale version-controlled design artifacts, component libraries, and documentation that allow designers and engineers to work from a single source of truth
• Define and continuously improve the design team's workflow within our agile delivery process: how design fits into sprint cycles, when to prototype vs. ship, and how to validate decisions quickly
• Drive the adoption of shared tooling (Figma, design tokens, handoff processes) and ensure consistency in how design artifacts are created, reviewed, and delivered to engineering
• Scale a lightweight but durable UX research practice — user testing, usability reviews, data-informed iteration — that keeps the team grounded in real customer behavior

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Operate as a true partner with Product and Software leaders — contributing to roadmap prioritization, shaping requirements, and resolving design-engineering tradeoffs together
• Collaborate with brand, marketing, and vehicle design teams to ensure digital experiences feel like a natural extension of the Slate brand — distinct…