HCD (Human-centered Design ) Design Director

Join us in shaping the future of Ford Motor Company, as part of a global organization with exceptional colleagues in world-class facilities. As part of Ford Design, you’ll be at the cutting edge of Ford’s most strategically critical work, designing people and society’s needs into the heart of our next generation of products, services, and experiences.

The Experience Design Director leads a multi-disciplinary design team, owning a specific domain and driving its strategic direction. You'll identify customer, business, and technology opportunities, guiding project teams to ideate, visualize, and prototype future experiences.

 

You'll champion a holistic approach to experience design, starting with the customer and rapidly iterating solutions to deliver delightful, technically feasible, and strategically aligned experiences that are viable at scale. You're a strategic leader and natural collaborator, bringing multidisciplinary design teams together to set and achieve a shared vision.

 

You'll apply domain-specific expertise and overall experience design leadership to influence product vision, strategy, roadmaps, and decision-making. You'll partner cross-functionally across Ford, including Design, Marketing, Technology, Program Management, CX, and key business units, aligning on future program planning and objectives. Your focus is on finding creative alignment across all disciplines and ensuring business strategy translates into innovative experiences that delight users. You're exceptionally well-versed in modern product and experience creation, capable of leading a team in the right direction even within complex and ambiguous opportunity spaces.

Portfolio is required upon submission for consideration.

What you'll do…

• Define strategic briefs and lead project execution: Define the problem and opportunity, set learning objectives, collaborate on research, translate insights into prototypes, and define assumptions and plans for testing.
• Lead and inspire a diverse creative team: Oversee the design and development of end-to-end experiences within your domain.
• Be a hands-on leader: Generate ideas, actively participate in ideation and co-creation sessions, and inspire your teams to do the same.
• Embody Ford Design culture: Foster a visionary and innovative design culture within the team, encouraging bold thinking, creativity, and a collaborative environment.
• Represent the HCD Design function: Collaborate across departments, ensuring a human-centered focus throughout.
• Influence product vision and strategy: Apply domain expertise and experience design leadership.
• Communicate strategic recommendations: Clearly articulate the "why" behind the "what" to diverse stakeholders.
• Oversee multiple projects: Maintain high quality, accuracy, and impact. Ensure on-time delivery, effective outcomes, and project team success through clear and measurable goals.
• Identify opportunities for business value: Articulate the rationale for design solutions in the context of business and user needs.
• Continuously evaluate and refine ideas: Collaborate with others to improve ideas for distinctiveness, relevance, and effectiveness.

You'll have…

• Bachelor’s degree in design, Engineering, Science, Psychology, Anthropology, or related field
• 10+ years of design work experience (8 years with a Master’s degree)
• 5+ years of experience applying human-centered design approaches, methods, and tools to solve complex problems
• Deep understanding of the human-centered design process and proven application of knowledge of user experience principles, from research to prototyping to product release
• 4+ years of experience leading multidisciplinary design teams

Even better, you may have…

• Master’s degree in design, Engineering, Science, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Philosophy, or related field
• Experience in the automotive industry 
• Passion for the automotive and mobility industry; fluency in technology and product innovation
• Experience working in or with creative cultures
• Passion for collaborative environments that encourage the sharing of ideas and openness to feedback, learning, and iteration
• Experience working in highly collaborative environments and skill as an open and willing resource to team members in assessing designs
• Experience working in large, corporate environments; ability to navigate complexity and execute under tight timelines
• Experience managing multiple stakeholders across complex projects
• Experience presenting to executive audiences; exceptional communication skills

You may not check every box, or your experience may look a little different from what we've outlined, but if you think you ca