Design Director

 

Vynyl’s technologists, designers and product strategists are experts at system modernization, new product development, and rescuing projects in distress. We use the best cloud-native and AI-enabled tools, and apply a battle-tested combination of Agile, Lean, and design thinking to collaboratively solve our client’s most pressing challenges - and do it right the first time. We often work in regulated industries, such as healthcare, financial services, government and education. Our work helps detect diseases, identify kids who need special educational support, applies AI to support complex legal settlements, helps people access mental health services, and so much more.

The Role

We’re looking for a Design Director who is equally exceptional at:

• Design thinking — facilitation, discovery, rapid prototyping, and evidence-driven iteration
• Product UX/UI for sophisticated web, mobile, and AI-powered experiences
• Brand systems and visual storytelling (brand identity, collateral, and presentation design)

You’ve shipped products on in-house product teams and led design in a consulting environment. You set a high bar for craft, coach multidisciplinary teams, and love turning ambiguity into clarity. You’ll lead our design practice/team and collaborate daily with product and engineering on client work. You will also work closely with the CEO on our own brand and presentation materials.

What You’ll Do

• Own the design practice. Set vision, standards, and design ops (crit rituals, review gates, accessibility, documentation, and quality bars).
  
  
• Lead product design end-to-end. Orchestrate discovery, IA, flows, high-fidelity UI, interactive prototypes, and usability testing.
  
  
• Drive brand & storytelling. Create and evolve Vynyl and client brand systems; craft executive-ready presentations, narratives, and visuals for pitches, proposals, and launches.
  
  
• Facilitate design thinking. Plan and run workshops (framing, ideation, rapid prototyping, prioritization).
  
  
• Partner across delivery. Work with Product and Engineering on scope, milestones, and release plans; ensure designs are feasible, testable, and instrumented for learning.
  
  
• Advance AI & data UX. Shape human-centered patterns for AI-assisted workflows (explainability, trust, feedback loops), data visualization, and decision support.
  
  
• Scale the team. Recruit, hire, mentor, and grow our in-house creative team, while building and maintaining a strong network of affiliated creatives who can be brought in as needed.
  
  
• Raise the bar with clients. Present exceptional work to executive stakeholders, while building trust and confidence with excellent presentations and demos.
  
  
• Contribute to the business. Help win work via creation of case studies and other pitch materials, and participate in pitches when design is key to the project.
  
  

What You’ll Bring

• 10+ years in digital product design with 3–5+ years leading design teams (people leadership and practice leadership).
  
  
• Dual-track background: hands-on product UX/UI experience and proven brand/visual design excellence (brand, systems, storytelling, presentation).
  
  
• Design thinking expert: workshop facilitation, divergent/convergent methods, hypothesis-driven prototyping, research synthesis, etc.
  
  
• Consulting + product: success shipping within a product org and leading client work at a consultancy/agency.
  
  
• Systems thinker: design systems, component libraries, and governance in tools like Figma (Design/Dev Mode), FigJam, etc.
  
  
• Data & AI fluency: designing data-dense UIs and AI-assisted experiences with attention to reliability, transparency, and user control.
  
  
• Cross-functional leadership: you collaborate deeply with Product, Engineering, and Executives.
  
  
• Excellent communication: crisp narratives, strong presentation skills, and the ability to make complexity legible.
  
  
• Nice-to-haves: regulated-industry experience (healthtech/fintech/gov/ed), service design, motion/interaction micro-animations, illustration, analytics instrumentation.
  
  

Portfolio Requirement (must submit to be considered)

Please include a link to a curated portfolio highlighting:

• 2–3 end-to-end product case studies (problem → process → artifacts → shipped outcome and measurable impact).
  
  
• 1–2 brand/identity examples (system, guidelines, usage across surfaces) and presentation design samples (executive decks, storytelling).
  
  
• Identify your specific role, collaborators, timelines, constraints, and outcomes (with metrics when possible).
  
  

How We Work (and what you can expect)

• Small, senior teams; zero big reveals. Frequent demos, transparent progress, and tight feedback loops.
  
  
• AI & data where it matters. We adopt modern tools thoughtfully and design for trust and measurable value.
  
  
• Mainly remote work: seeking candidates in the greater Los Angeles area to mainly work remotely with some on-site work required, and occasional travel.

Salary Range: $140,000 - $180,000

Benefits for Full-Time Employees

Excellent health, dental, vision, and life insurance
Excellent 401(k) plan with annual employer match of 4%