Sr Director, UX

About Us
CDK Global is a leading provider of cloud-based software to dealerships and Original Equipment Manufacturers (“OEMs”) across automotive and related industries. The Company’s cloud-based, software as a service (“SaaS”) platform enables dealerships to manage their end-to-end business operations including the acquisition, sale, financing, insuring, repair, and maintenance of vehicles. By automating and streamlining critical workflows, the integrated platform of modern solutions enables dealers to sell and service more vehicles by creating simple and convenient experiences for customers and improves their financial and operational performance.

The Role

We are seeking a dynamic and visionary Sr Director (UX) with a unique combination of product management and UX leadership expertise to lead our UX team and drive the design and optimization of user interfaces across our entire product portfolio. This role requires someone who has evolved from product management into UX leadership, bringing a holistic understanding of both product strategy and user experience design.

The ideal leader will provide exceptional customer experience while unifying the product experience across all CDK's offerings, with a particular focus on integrating AI capabilities to streamline workflows, eliminate unnecessary steps, and provide intelligent insights. This individual will be responsible for shaping the overall UX vision through an enterprise-wide lens, leading a team of UX professionals, and working collaboratively with cross-functional teams to ensure that our software products are user-friendly, AI-enhanced, and meet our clients' evolving needs.

Responsibilities and Essential Functions:

Strategic Leadership & Vision

• UX Strategy with Product Management Perspective: Develop and maintain a comprehensive UX strategy that aligns with the company's overall goals and vision, leveraging product management principles to ensure market-driven design decisions. Continuously refine and adapt the strategy to respond to market trends and user feedback.
• AI Integration Strategy: Lead the integration of AI capabilities across the user experience, focusing on workflow optimization, step elimination, and intelligent insights delivery. Define how AI can enhance user productivity and decision-making within our enterprise product suite.
• Holistic Enterprise View: Take a comprehensive, enterprise-wide approach to UX design, ensuring consistency and synergy across all CDK products while identifying opportunities for AI-driven improvements.

Team Leadership & Development

• Team Leadership: Coach and mentor, a team of UX designers, researchers, and other professionals, cultivating a creative and collaborative work environment while fostering a culture of innovation and excellence. Manage MSP team members and drive accountability to goals and KPIs. Ensure the team is well-prepared to deliver high-quality UX solutions.
• AI-UX Capability Building: Develop team expertise in AI-enhanced UX design, ensuring the team stays current with AI/ML capabilities and their application to user experience optimization.

Research & User-Centered Design

• User Research: Oversee user research initiatives to gain a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences. Use this data to inform product design, development decisions, and overall strategic roadmap, with particular attention to opportunities where AI can address user pain points.
• User-Centered Design with AI Enhancement: Promote user-centered design principles throughout the product development lifecycle, ensuring designs are rooted in user feedback, usability best practices, and data-driven insights. Focus on creating unified experiences that leverage AI to anticipate user needs and streamline interactions.
• Workflow Optimization: Identify and eliminate unnecessary steps in user workflows through intelligent AI integration, creating more efficient and intuitive user experiences.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Product-Engineering Collaboration: Collaborate closely with product managers and engineering teams to translate user requirements into tangible product features and enhancements, leveraging product management background to bridge strategic and tactical execution. Strive for seamless integration of UX and AI capabilities into the development process.
• AI Implementation Partnership: Work with data science and AI/ML teams to identify opportunities for intelligent automation, predictive insights, and enhanced user experiences across the product portfolio.

Measurement & Optimization

• Metrics and Measurement: Establish key performance indicators (KPIs