Director, User Experience

If you're passionate about helping a Fortune 100 company drive their strategy forward through innovative product development and advancing strategic partnerships to protect customers (and their pets), then Nationwide is the place for you! At Nationwide®, "on your side" goes beyond just words. Our customers are at the center of everything we do and we're looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care.

The role

As Director of User Experience (UX), you will lead and expand our UX practice by fostering a culture of continuous learning, mentorship, and innovation. You will drive team growth through targeted coaching, structured mentorship, and upskilling initiatives, spearheading emerging design methodologies to keep the team at the industry’s forefront. Your leadership will inspire creative breakthroughs, strengthen cross-functional partnerships, and build a diverse, high-performing team dedicated to delivering exceptional, customer-focused digital experiences aligned with business goals. Additional responsibilities include advancing inclusive design, managing performance excellence, and supporting organizational success as needed.

This role does not qualify for employer-sponsored work authorization. Nationwide does not participate in the Stem OPT Extension program.

Compensation grade H4.

Job Description Summary

Do you have a keen understanding of the value that human-centered design provides in achieving strategic objectives and can you articulate that value to cross-functional teams and business partners? If you’re capable of leading teams through the design process to distill complex problems into clear solutions that exemplify standard methodologies and encourage others, then we want to know more about you!

As a Director in our User Experience (UX) organization, you’ll demonstrate a thorough comprehension of the design process and expertly lead teams through both the ambiguous discovery phase of identifying the right problem to solve and the detailed work of delivering desirable products. You’ll have opportunities to help teams turn complex problems into solutions exemplifying best approaches and inspiring others. We’ll count on you to be adept at articulating and defending design decisions in a way that cross-functional teams and business partners can understand. It’s important in this role for you to share our passion for creating exceptional experiences that have a real impact on people’s lives and futures.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities: 

• Consults and collaborates with stakeholders, product managers, technologists, UX peers and others across the company to provide strategic, creative and technical direction.

• Advocates for empathetic, human-centered design. Helps mitigate risk by pursuing work based on insights and an understanding of our users.

• Problem solves, thinks big, and explores divergent ideas while understanding how to converge and build iteratively towards the best solution.

• Designs and recommends innovative solutions that balance customer needs with business viability and technical feasibility.

• Participates in and facilitates idea-generating sessions evaluating those ideas with regards to technical feasibility, business viability and human desirability.

• Able to think strategically and connect your work to a larger picture. Helps everyone consider the end-to-end experience and connect the dots.

• Mentors and guides the team in their craft and profession to continually uplift the quality of our work.

May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Reporting Relationships: Reports to Director/Associate Vice President/Vice President. Manages a team of five to 10 associates based on organizational structure. May be responsible for matrixed reporting relationships and virtual teams.

Typical Skills and Experiences:  

Education: Undergraduate studies in User Experience, human-computer interaction, psychology, graphic design, information science, communications or related field preferred.

Experience: Typically, eight or more years professionally practicing some aspect of human-centered design.

Knowledge,