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Job Details

VP & Design Director

Who We Are

WillowTree is an award-winning digital product agency driven by innovation and grounded in strategy and user-centered design. We create long-term partnerships with the world’s leading brands to design and build digital flagship products crucial to their core business. We are one of the largest independent digital firms in the US. Some of our clients include HBO, National Geographic, Anheuser-Busch, and PepsiCo.

The Opportunity

The VP & Design Director is a highly-autonomous executive role with endless opportunities to impact our teams, clients, and company through your leadership and creative vision. You’ll inspire and coach designers and delivery teams to create world-class products across projects while fostering engagement and inclusion. You’ll maintain strong existing relationships with our partners and work with strategic consultants throughout the sales process to acquire and grow future partnerships. 

*This is not a remote position and requires up to ~25% travel.

What You'll Do

  • You’ll provide creative leadership, collaboration and roadmap development for multiple Fortune 500 clients
  • You’ll lead a WillowTree “Branch” (a product delivery group of ~100 people) in partnership with VP of Program Management and VP of Engineering and Architecture
  • You’ll manage and mentor 10 or more designers within your Branch to ensure their professional development and career growth
  • You’ll grow and scale our design team through hiring and networking
  • You’ll work closely with the design team to provide creative direction on client work from exploratory conceptualization, design workshops, visuals, brand, UX, and prototypes, through execution
  • You’ll coach project leadership (Project Managers, Senior Engineers, and Senior Designers) on aligning creative and design goals with established business outcomes 
  • You’ll create a positive and optimistic atmosphere that encourages our teams to be inspired and open to receive and provide feedback 
  • You’ll motivate your teams to pursue solutions during challenges and obstacles
  • During complexity, you are able to simplify ideas and drive the team towards strategic design execution
  • You’ll partner with business development to write creative briefs, develop proposals, provide estimations, and prepare pitches

What You've Done

  • You have 5+ years in a creative leadership role (with at least 2 in an agency environment working with clients) 
  • As a design team leader, coach, or mentor, you’ve learned the value of humility and self-awareness 
  • You have a strong portfolio of inspired, creative work across digital platforms. You’ve designed and led teams to create beautiful digital products with strong UX and usability 
  • You've led digital design engagements for Fortune 500 clients
  • You've collaborated with a multi-disciplinary product team (e.g. engineering, research, project management) from ideation to launch
  • You can effectively present creative briefs to our teams and clients’ executive stakeholders through storytelling
  • You're able to prioritize and balance business outcomes and engineering constraints with UX, brand, and visual design

Why WillowTree?

We offer a place to be yourself.

Our differences, both visible and invisible, benefit our teams, our communities, and the products we craft. That’s why WillowTree strives to build a team with diverse backgrounds, skills, and perspectives. You’ll work hard here; however, we’ll balance that with a culture that supports your growth and cares about your well-being. We’re committed to creating an environment of inclusion — a place where every Tree can thrive.

We want you to reach your fullest potential and part of your professional development at WillowTree will include dedicated time to innovate on passion projects and an annual stipend to fund your professional pursuits. 

WillowTree celebrates our differences and provides equal employment opportunities to all team members and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.