Sr. Director, UX

Hellman & Friedman$244K — $357K *
Consumer Technology
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 15+ years in UX Design, UX Research, Content Strategy, or a combination; 6+ years in leadership roles across multi-disciplinary experience teams.
  • Proven track record in driving UX and content strategy at an executive level within a direct-to-consumer (DTC) company.
  • Experience with organizational design, including hiring and operating models for multi-team environments.
  • Strong research discipline with experience scoping studies around open business questions.
  • C-suite-level influence with fluency in business language and strategic thinking.
  • Hands-on proficiency with AI design and research tools; capability to lead team adoption.

Responsibilities

  • Own the multi-year UX vision for digital and physical products, driving design, research, and content as key business outcomes.
  • Establish and maintain a scalable design system across various platforms including mobile apps and hardware interfaces.
  • Integrate content strategy into the UX process to ensure consistency and purpose across all touchpoints.
  • Oversee the integration of UX into the product development cycle to maintain design integrity during handoffs to Engineering.
  • Lead recruitment and development of high-caliber team members while fostering a high-performance culture.
  • Directly engage in producing high-stakes work to set an example for the team.
  • Transition the research function to focus on decision-making, ensuring studies are aligned with critical business questions.

Benefits

  • Mission-driven culture with a focus on safety and inclusivity.
  • Comprehensive total rewards package supporting employee wellness and security.
  • Provision of a free SimpliSafe system and professional monitoring for employees' homes.
  • Opportunities for professional development through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).
Full Job Description
Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Director of UX Design, Research & Content Strategy to own experience strategy across our full product portfolio: app, web, hardware interfaces, and the end-to-end customer lifecycle. This is a key leadership role with a hands-on expectation: you will set organizational direction, build and develop the team, and engage directly on the work that matters most. You will sit on CPO's leadership team for product planning and investment decisions, and you are expected to drive UX, research, and content as a unified business function. You will inherit a team of 12 (designers, researchers, and content strategists) and a function with real capability and momentum. The opportunity is to elevate what exists, not build from zero. SimpliSafe's UX, research, and content capabilities have grown substantially; this role is the next chapter: moving the function from craft-focused to outcome-accountable, from reactive to proactive, and from team-level to enterprise-level influence.
Key Responsibilities

Strategy, Execution & Organizational Leadership
  • Own the multi-year UX vision across SimpliSafe's digital and physical products; define how design, research, and content strategy are structured, staffed, and measured as business outcomes (activation, retention, plan upgrade conversion), driving Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
  • Establish a scalable design system and experience language across App (iOS/Android), web, and hardware interfaces.
  • Own content strategy as a first-class discipline: ensure that the words, labels, flows, and in-product messaging across the SimpliSafe experience are purposeful and consistent.
  • Set and enforce how UX integrates into the product development process from discovery through post-launch; ensure design and content intent survive the handoff to Engineering.
  • Recruit, develop, and retain high-caliber designers, researchers, and content strategists; build managers who operate with autonomy, freeing you to lead at the organizational and strategic level. Continuously raise the bar: elevate the team's output, hold individuals to business outcomes, and build a culture where good work is distinguished from great work.
  • You will need to personally produce work on the highest-stakes problems where the team needs a standard set by example.

Research as a Business Decision Tool
  • Mature the research function from execution-focused to decision-driving: establish the standard that every study is scoped around an open business question, and build the team's capability to hold that bar. Build a culture that treats research as a tool for answering open questions, not for validating assumptions or generating stakeholder comfort.
  • Translate business questions into precise research questions before any study is scoped. Drive the discipline of asking: what decision hangs on this answer, and what would we do differently depending on what we learn?

AI-Augmented Design & Research
  • Lead adoption of AI tools across design and research workflows to raise quality, compress cycle times, and free the team for higher-judgment work. You must be a practicing user of these tools yourself.
  • Set standards for where AI augmentation is appropriate (generative ideation, design iteration, qual synthesis at scale) and where human judgment is non-negotiable (strategic framing, cross-functional influence).
  • Partner with Engineering and Product Management to ensure that where AI enters customer-facing products, the UX standards for transparency, trust, and error recovery are defined by this function.

Cross-Functional Influence
  • Operate as a peer to VP/Director-level leaders across Product, Engineering, Industrial Design, Marketing, and CX. Lead UX in executive reviews and investment decisions; frame experience trade-offs in business terms.
  • Partner with Industrial Design to maintain hardware/software continuity as a coherent end-to-end experience.
What We're Looking For

Required

We don't expect candidates to have led in every dimension of this role. We're looking for depth in most areas and the intellectual drive to grow into the rest.
  • 15+ years in UX Design, UX Research, Content Strategy, or a combination; at least 6 years leading multi-disciplinary experience organizations (design + research + content), including org design, hiring, and operating model ownership.
  • Demonstrated track record of UX and content strategy at the executive level in a consumer-facing DTC company, with measurable contribution to business outcomes (conversion, activation, retention, revenue).
  • Proven working depth across design, research, and content strategy disciplines; you must have sufficient depth to raise the quality bar, accelerate the team's growth, and produce directly on the highest-stakes work.
  • Demonstrated research discipline: experience building or running a research function where studies are scoped around open business questions. Able to say no to research that lacks decision context.
  • C-suite-level influence through business fluency and clear thinking.
  • Hands-on fluency with AI design and research tools: personal usage, a formed point of view on where they add value, and demonstrated experience driving team adoption.

Preferred
  • Experience in hardware plus software environments (IoT, connected home, consumer electronics). Strong candidates with exceptional depth in digital DTC and limited hardware background are encouraged to apply.

What Values You'll Share
  • Customer Obsessed - Building deep empathy for our customers, putting them at the core of our work, and developing strong, long-term relationships with them.
  • Aim High - Always challenging ourselves and others to raise the bar.
  • No Ego - Maintaining a "no job too small" attitude, and an open, inclusive and humble style.
  • One Team - Taking a highly collaborative approach to achieving success.
  • Lift As We Climb - Investing in developing others and helping others around us succeed.
  • Lean & Nimble - Working with agility and efficiency to experiment in an often ambiguous environment.

What We Offer
  • A mission- and values-driven culture and a safe, inclusive environment where you can build, grow and thrive
  • A comprehensive total rewards package that supports your wellness and provides security for SimpliSafers and their families (For more information on our total rewards please click here)
  • Free SimpliSafe system and professional monitoring for your home.
  • Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that bring people together, give opportunities to network, mentor and develop, and advocate for change.

The target annual base pay range for this role is $244,000 to $357,000.

This target annual base pay range represents our good-faith estimate of what we expect to pay for this role. We use a market-based compensation approach to set our target annual base pay ranges and make adjustments annually. We carefully tailor individual compensation packages, including base pay, taking into consideration employees' job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and other relevant business factors.

Beyond base pay, we offer a Total Rewards package that may include participation in our annual bonus program, equity, and other forms of compensation, in addition to a full range of medical, retirement, and lifestyle benefits. More details can be found here.

We're committed to fair and equitable pay practices, as well as pay transparency. We regularly review our programs to ensure they remain competitive and aligned with our values.

About Hellman & Friedman

Goodman Manufacturing is an American company operating as an independent subsidiary of Daikin Group, the world's largest manufacturer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning products and systems. The company, founded in 1975 and based in Waller, Texas, manufactures residential heating and cooling systems. Goodman is located just outside Houston,Texas, in the $417 million Daikin Texas Technology Park.
Learn more about Hellman & Friedman

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