Senior Manager, Product Design (Hybrid)

About this job 

The Sr Manager, Product Design leads a team of Product Designers in providing innovative end-to-end experiences for CarMax. Building on their knowledge of the customer, our brand and our omnichannel ecosystem, the Sr Manager translates business strategies into digital-first experiences that are measurable and scalable. In partnership with Product, Strategy and Engineering, the Sr Manager establishes a vision for future experiences that drives growth while holding teams accountable to experience cohesion and quality. 

What you will do – Essential Responsibilities 

• Develop a team of talented Product Designers to deliver on the vision and standards and to be strong collaborators, facilitators and communicators 

• Communicate a clear experience vision to stakeholders that simplifies complexity, generates excitement and leads from human-centeredness 

• Inform and champion the vision and standards for CarMax experience design and its practices 

• In partnership with Product and Engineering leadership, establish priorities and objectives for a Product Program that guide teams on their path to realizing our Product Vision for Retail or Supply experiences 

• In partnership with Strategy and Product teams, champion and hold teams accountable to understanding consumer needs, opportunities and pain points to continually inform an iterative design and discovery process 

• Manage the team’s creation of visual artifacts to articulate, inform and validate ideas (prototypes, wireframes, sketches, journey maps, personas, etc.) building on our design system practices 

• Inform and help to evolve the CarMax Design System 

• Stay current on all the tools, principles and practices in experience design and development, and advocate for continuous improvement. 

• Lead and facilitate meetings and brainstorming sessions that are organized and productive 

• Create clear role expectations and leverage industry standards to move UX practices forward 

• Develop associates to reach their full potential – understand their goals and needs, partner in their development, provide advice, feedback, training and advocacy 

• Manage resourcing for product roadmap that aligns with business needs and associate growth goals 

Qualifications and Requirements 

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

• 8+ years' experience within the field of user experience and UX design/development 

• 2+ years leading user experience teams 

• BA/BS degree  

• Portfolio or work samples showcasing experience design, creativity, and depth of thought coupled with fluency in best practices for UX Design, Visual Design and Front End Development 

• Passion for technology and design, and the drive to stay on top of industry trends and best practices 

• Persuasive communicator – able to explain complex or intangible concepts to stakeholders at all levels 

• Good listener – weighs input from multiple perspectives when forming opinions and recommendations 

• Collaborative and team-oriented work approach 

• Solid understanding of user-centered design processes and ability to balance customer needs with business goals in developing solutions 

• Experience facilitating brainstorming and product discovery sessions and getting consensus among a large, diverse group of stakeholders 

• Experience leveraging user research 

• Strong UX Design principles and deliverables, including rapid prototyping, site maps, information architecture, user personas, wireframes, flows, etc. 

• Ability to convert ideas quickly into design artifacts 

• Strong Visual Design principles and deliverables 

• Ability to perform interface design critiques and supply objective feedback to designers  

• Strong critical thinking and analysis skills  

• Able to manage, train and mentor others in UX design methodologies and best practices 

• Experience designing solutions for web, mobile, and tablet applications 

• Experience with Agile development processes 

• Responsive/adaptive design experience a plus 

• E-commerce experience a plus