Executive Design Director

We are open to remote candidates located within PST or with the ability to have at least a 4-hour overlap with PST hours (up to 12:00 PM PST).

At Metalab, we partner with companies ready to change the world, helping them create products that improve lives, reshape markets, and shift culture.

As an Executive Design Director, you’ll shape the future of design at Metalab. You’ll lead with strategic vision, setting the standard for excellence across the organization and ensuring design remains a driving force in our work, culture, and growth. You’ll coach and elevate other leaders, steward our approach to craft, and guide both clients and internal teams through high-impact, high-visibility engagements.

You are a systems thinker, a strategic partner, and a trusted voice across disciplines. You bring deep expertise in product design, storytelling, and organizational design, and you know how to connect these dots to influence outcomes at scale. As a leader, you’ll build and support inclusive, high-performing teams and ensure Metalab continues to push the boundaries of what great digital product design can be.

What you’ll do:

Lead by Example

• Define and evolve Metalab’s design vision, ensuring alignment across teams and client work.
• Coach senior leaders and project teams, providing clear, actionable feedback and long-term career guidance.
• Model creative excellence in your own work, jumping in hands-on when needed and sharing your thinking openly.
• The ability to approach any client situation confidently sell ideas and design, and possess the execution chops to back it up

Drive Design Strategy & Execution

• Guide strategic direction across projects, ensuring user and business outcomes are met.
• Elevate the craft of UX, visual, brand, systems, and content design across teams.
• Lead conversations with clients and internal stakeholders, translating insights into direction.
• Promote a culture of critique, continuous improvement, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Lead Organizational Impact

• Collaborate with executive leadership to influence company direction and design operations.
• Shape internal systems for hiring, feedback, and growth within the design discipline.
• Represent Metalab in the design community through thought leadership and speaking opportunities.
• Identify opportunities for innovation and quality improvement across all aspects of delivery.

What we’re looking for:

Technical Expertise

• UX Design: You define UX quality standards across the organization, guiding teams through thoughtful, user-centered design rooted in research, strategy, and behavior.
• Visual Design: You assess and shape creative direction to ensure work is polished, differentiated, and relevant. You push teams to explore new visual approaches while maintaining clarity and cohesion.
• Product Strategy: You align design efforts with product roadmaps, business goals, and market positioning, enabling teams to think holistically and deliver meaningful impact.
• Critique & Feedback: You foster a culture of open, constructive critique—internally and with clients—creating environments where thoughtful feedback drives better outcomes.
• Research: You collaborate closely with researchers to prioritize insights, shape design direction, and ensure real user needs inform every decision.
• Content Design: You champion clear, intentional communication. You integrate narrative and voice into product experiences, helping teams see writing as a design tool.

Leadership & Influence

• Selling Design: You help clients understand and embrace the value of design, building buy-in through strong narratives and meaningful business context.
• Vision: You lead product visioning and future-state planning, inspiring teams to explore big-picture opportunities while connecting vision to execution.
• Creative Direction: You define and guide creative direction that’s strategic, original, and compelling, ensuring every decision ties back to user needs and business outcomes.
• Systems Design: You advocate for scalable, usable, and maintainable systems. You guide teams in building thoughtful design foundations that grow with products.
• Brand Strategy: You lead brand discovery and direction, translating foundational insights into distinctive, emotionally resonant design expressions.
• Organizational Leadership: You bring a strategic perspective beyond design, contributing to hiring, business development, operational planning, and organizational change.

Requirements:

• At least 12 years of experience in product or digital design, with at least 2 years leading design teams at a senior director or executive level.
• Must be able to work on a Pacific Time (PST) schedule or have at least a 4-hour overlap with PST hours (up to 12:00 PM PST).
• Proven experience managing, mentoring, and growing design leaders across multiple disciplines.
• A strong portfolio of work showcasing high-impact product design and leadership contributions at scale.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders across varying levels of design maturity.
• Experience working cross-functionally with product, engineering, marketing, and executive teams to shape business strategy.
• A demonstrated commitment to inclusive design practices and building equitable, diverse teams.
• Active engagement in the design community through thought leadership, writing, events, or speaking.

Equal opportunity employer

Research shows that women and other marginalized groups tend to only apply for a job when they meet every single criteria. Does this role sound like it was made for you, yet you don’t check every box? Reach out anyways!  We’re an equal opportunity employer and are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and diverse environment for employees from all walks of life.  We hire based on talent, and we’re proud of our global perspective.