Sr. Director, Product Design

As a Sr. Director, Product Design at Discovery Education, you will lead the multi-product vision and strategy for human-centered experience design across our global suite of K–12 digital learning solutions. The person in this role will oversee an organization of UX, UI/visual design, and design operations leaders; scale our design culture and practices; and ensure our design system and processes deliver intuitive, elegant, accessible, and measurable outcomes for students and educators—while driving product engagement, learning impact, and business growth.
You’ll thrive here if you are passionate about improving education through technology, skilled at building and scaling design organizations, and confident operating at the intersection of strategy, systems, and creativity. We’re seeking a leader who inspires teams, influences executives, and translates complex instructional, product, and technical problems into meaningful, scalable design solutions.
In This Role You Will:
Design Vision, Strategy & Innovation
• Define and drive a global product design strategy aligned with Discovery Education’s long term product, instructional, and business objectives.
• Champion a user centered, equitable, and inclusive design philosophy, prioritizing accessibility, universal design, and culturally responsive experiences.
• Lead the evolution and governance of Discovery Education’s design system, ensuring consistency, quality, and scalability across products and platforms.
• Identify opportunities to integrate emerging technologies—including AI—to improve creativity, accelerate workflows, and elevate design quality and efficiency.
Cross-Functional Leadership & Collaboration
• Partner with executive leadership in Product, Engineering, Curriculum, and Research to align design impact to company OKRs and roadmap priorities.
• Collaborate closely with Product Management, Engineering, Curriculum, and Research to define problem spaces, align roadmaps, and ensure feasibility of design solutions within Agile/Lean delivery.
• Integrate qualitative and quantitative insights—partnering with UXR and Analytics—to inform decisions, measure outcomes, and connect design impact to learning and business metrics.
• Facilitate cross functional workshops, design sprints, and collaborative sessions to drive alignment and accelerate innovation.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to executive stakeholders through clear storytelling, communication of design intent, and thoughtful discussion of tradeoffs.
Team Leadership, Culture & Organizational Development
• Lead, mentor, and inspire a high performing design organization while cultivating curiosity, psychological safety, inclusivity, and continuous improvement.
• Build succession plans and leadership capacity across the design function; coach design leaders through structured feedback and development conversations.
• Develop and implement career pathways, growth frameworks, and skill development plans to support advancement and strengthen design capabilities.
• Establish team rituals—including critiques, research readouts, and quality reviews—to promote craftsmanship and consistency across distributed teams.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition to attract top-tier design talent and maintain an inclusive pipeline.
Operational Excellence & Execution
• Operationalize design processes, tooling, and governance that enable clarity, speed, and measurable quality improvements across a multi product ecosystem.
• Oversee resource management, capacity planning, prioritization, and alignment across portfolios, ensuring visibility into dependencies and platform constraints.
• Establish and maintain documentation, workflow standards, and design governance—including intake processes, decision logs, component usage guidelines, and accessibility reviews.
• Partner with Product and Data teams to evaluate feature performance, inform iterative improvements, and drive continuous learning.
Core Competencies for Success:
• Strategic Systems Thinking – Navigates complex instructional, product, and technical considerations while balancing long term vision with scalable execution.
• Builds High Performing Organizations – Proven experience recruiting, coaching, and developing leaders and cultivating healthy, inclusive teams.
• Expertise in UX, UI, Accessibility & Design Systems – Deep mastery of digital platform design, accessibility standards, and scalable system frameworks.
• Communicates & Influences Effectively – Exceptional written, verbal, and visual communication skills, including storytelling for executive audiences.
• Facilitates Collaboration & Innovation – Skilled at leading workshops, sprints, and cross functional alignment in complex problem spaces.
• Agile/Lean Product Practices – Strong command of