Associate Director of User Experience, Cruise

We believe that we are better together, and at Tripadvisor we welcome you for who you are. Our workplace is for everyone, as is our people powered platform. At Tripadvisor, we want you to bring your unique identities, abilities, and experiences, so we can collectively revolutionize travel and together find the good out there.

Tripadvisor’s global cruise business includes Cruise Critic, the world’s largest cruise reviews and information site, offering a comprehensive resource for cruise travelers which covers audiences from first-time cruisers to avid cruise enthusiasts. Cruise Critic features more than 350,000 cruise reviews and hosts the world's largest online cruise community.

What you’ll do:

Are you excited about designing experiences that are changing the way people travel? Do you love doing work that is inspiring, innovative, and intuitive? Are you ready to help craft experiences that will define the future of the cruise travel journey? As Tripadvisor Director of User Experience, Cruise, you’ll be responsible for creating delightful, useful, and usable digital solutions that help every traveler plan and make memorable cruise experiences. You will lead and grow an in-house team of UX design and research talent, as well as partner with external design agencies to conceptualize and deliver a world-class user experience and brand aesthetic. 

As a member of the team, you’ll play an important role doing the following:

• Lead the full UX design cycle from discovery and definition to production and testing. 
• Guide your team, and contribute when necessary, to 
  • Conduct research including observational studies, customer interviews, usability testing, and other forms of requirements discovery.
  • Produce user requirements, storyboards, wireframes, scenarios, flowcharts, design prototypes, and design specifications.
  • Design and specify user interfaces and information architecture using participatory and iterative design techniques.
• Effectively communicate UX vision, strategy, research findings, conceptual ideas, detailed design, and design rationale both verbally and visually.
• Collaborate with product and technology peers to develop the user experience strategy and operating model that will help us deliver user and business objectives.
• Partner with marketing and editorial peers to define how visual branding and content come together in a modern and differentiated user experience that fulfills our brand promise.
• Manage relationships with agency partners to ensure productive collaboration, high-quality outputs, and smooth project delivery.
• Lead collaborative and productive virtual and in-person workshops and design-thinking sessions.
• Attract and assemble top design and research talent and coach your team to do their best work and achieve ambitious goals.
• Provide design mentorship and development opportunities and cultivate an environment where creativity, innovation, and ideation can flourish.
• Demonstrate thought leadership and help raise the whole organization’s design sense and operations through process improvement, best practices, and UI/UX standards.

What we are looking for: 

• 10+ years of professional experience with demonstrated expertise in the full spectrum of UX domains, including user research, visual design, interaction design, information architecture, and UX writing.
• 4+ years of experience leading, hiring, and mentoring high-performing UX teams.
• Experience creating world-class digital experiences that generate meaningful outcomes for users and the business. High-growth, scaled, consumer-facing experience in travel, media, retail, or marketplaces are a big bonus.
• Willingness to lead by doing; equally skilled at directing the work of others and making individual contributions when required.
• A track record of great collaboration with product, marketing, and engineering peers and teams.
• Strong communication and storytelling skills with ability to explain/defend design decisions to all levels of the organization.
• Visionary thinker with a passion for creativity and expression.
• Advocate for user and customer needs backed by quantitative and qualitative data and research.
• Expert knowledge of design, research, and facilitation tools such as Figma, Usertesting.com, and Miro.
• A strong portfolio that demonstrates a high bar for aesthetics and visual design, tangible impact to user experience, and connection of your efforts towards user and business outcomes.

Applicants MUST submit portfolio with multiple examples of digital/web design with application (link to online portfolio preferred)

The salary range for this role is $175,000 to $250,000. This is the lowest to highest sal