Director, Product Design

BNY Mellon

$130K — $155K *
Consumer Technology
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 12+ years designing digital products, especially in complex environments
  • Deep understanding of user-centered design and systems thinking
  • Proficient in interaction and UI design with a strong craft
  • Familiarity with design systems and their application
  • Cross-functional collaboration skills to engage diverse teams
  • Ability to quickly learn new domains and navigate ambiguity
  • Experienced in effectively communicating design rationale and insights

Responsibilities

  • Lead complex design projects from discovery to delivery
  • Enhance user experiences through research and journey mapping
  • Design and prototype sophisticated digital interfaces
  • Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders
  • Identify design opportunities that align with business goals
  • Apply the organization's design system for consistency and accessibility
  • Facilitate productive discussions and align teams around user needs

Benefits

  • Access to flexible global resources for personal and professional growth
  • Generous paid leave policies, including paid volunteer time
  • Strong focus on health and personal resilience
  • Support for achieving financial goals
  • Participative culture with an emphasis on excellence
Full Job Description
Job Description

We're seeking a future team member for the role of Director, Product Designer to join our Design Accelerator team. This role will be located in Pittsburgh, PA

The Design Accelerator is one of several specialized teams within the Experience Design Practice, providing flexible, targeted support to help teams address high-priority experience needs, build momentum, and determine the right role for design moving forward. Accelerator designers partner with product, business, engineering, and existing design teams to clarify problems, understand user needs, explore what is feasible, and translate opportunities into actionable experience direction and designs.

We are seeking a highly experienced product designer who can quickly enter complex and ambiguous problem spaces, establish clarity, and move work from discovery through design. This role is suited for a senior individual contributor who combines strong product thinking and design craft with the adaptability to work across different businesses, domains, and stages of product maturity.

The Senior Vice President, Product Designer will collaborate with other designers and researchers across the full engagement lifecycle-from initial problem framing and research through concept development, prototyping, testing, and delivery. Success in this role requires the ability to build trust quickly, contribute effectively within multidisciplinary teams, identify where design can have the greatest impact, and produce work that teams can confidently carry forward after an Accelerator engagement concludes.

The ideal candidate will bring the following expertise:
  • Discovery and Adaptability
    Quickly develop an understanding of unfamiliar domains, business processes, and user needs. Ask thoughtful questions, synthesize complex information, and adapt methods and outputs to help teams identify the right problems and opportunities.
  • AI Fluency and Curiosity
    Bring curiosity and a foundational understanding of how AI can support the design process. Explore and apply AI thoughtfully across activities such as research synthesis, problem framing, concept development, prototyping, and iteration-while maintaining strong human judgment and a clear focus on user needs.
  • User-Centered and Systems Thinking
    Use research, data, and stakeholder insights to understand complex experiences and create end-to-end journey maps and related artifacts spanning users, teams, systems, and operational processes. Use these artifacts to identify friction and opportunities, align stakeholders, and translate complexity into coherent experiences that balance user needs, business priorities, and technical feasibility.
  • Interaction and UI Design
    Demonstrate strong craft in designing sophisticated digital interfaces and workflows. Create clear interaction models, information architecture, and navigation patterns, translating concepts into high-quality designs and prototypes that can be tested, refined, and implemented.
  • Design System Application and Contribution
    Apply the organization's design system to promote consistency, accessibility, and reuse. Recognize when existing patterns can be leveraged or when new patterns may be needed, collaborating with design system partners as appropriate.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration and Communication
    Partner effectively with product, business, engineering, research, and design stakeholders. Facilitate productive conversations, communicate insights and design rationale clearly, and use visual storytelling to align teams around user needs, priorities, trade-offs, and feasible solutions.
  • Ownership, Delivery, and Enablement
    Operate with independence while collaborating closely with the broader team. Proactively identify risks, dependencies, and decisions, and create clear, actionable outputs that enable product and engineering teams to carry the work forward after the Accelerator engagement concludes.

Portfolio Requirements

A portfolio is required and should demonstrate strong product and interaction design, systems thinking, and experience moving work from discovery through execution in complex or ambiguous environments. It should clearly communicate the candidate's process, individual contributions, cross-functional collaboration, and the outcomes of the work.

Experience

Typically, a candidate at this level will have at least 12 years of experience designing digital products, including experience with complex, enterprise, or regulated systems. Prior financial-services expertise is less important than a demonstrated ability to learn new domains quickly, navigate ambiguity, collaborate effectively, and translate complex needs into clear, actionable design solutions.

About the Team

At BNY, our culture speaks for itself, check out the latest BNY news at BNY Newsroom & BNY LinkedIn

Here's a few of our recent awards:
  • America's Most Innovative Companies, Fortune, 2025
  • World's Most Admired Companies, Fortune 2025
  • "Most Just Companies", Just Capital and CNBC, 2025

Our Benefits and Rewards:

BNY offers highly competitive compensation, benefits, and wellbeing programs rooted in a strong culture of excellence and our pay-for-performance philosophy. We provide access to flexible global resources and tools for your life's journey. Focus on your health, foster your personal resilience, and reach your financial goals as a valued member of our team, along with generous paid leaves, including paid volunteer time, that can support you and your family through moments that matter.

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