Design Director

Remote (United States)

Zillow is looking for a Design Director who will lead our talented design systems team, Constellation, alongside engineering leadership. Constellation team continually strives to improve the quality of our customer experiences and to empower individuals and teams to craft high-quality, innovative experiences at scale. Our systems team is responsible for defining, architecting and maintaining our design system across web, native and email platforms and building tools and training that help scale knowledge throughout the organization. We work with teams across the company to up-level their product experiences, ensure consistency for our customers and set the bar for visual design.

This leader will work with the team to drive a vision for the evolution of our current design system and visual language, will evolve and define our governance model, define our team engagement model and work closely with product and design teams to drive the adoption and utilization of our systems. Most importantly, this leader will help up-level the quality of our customer experiences, bring our brand expression to life through product and hold a high bar for craft within the design organization.

In this role you’ll work directly with design systems engineering, design operations, accessibility and content, and will partner with product, design and engineering teams across the company. You’ll lead, nurture, and manage a team of designers who specialize in system, visual and motion design, and have expertise across our core platforms.

You Will Get To:

Create a space where your design team and their partners can do their best work
Recruit, nurture and grow a team of amazing system, visual and motion designers
Mentor and develop current and emerging design managers and leads
Collaborate with leadership, engineering, and design ops to define objectives and key results and a team strategy that ladders up to a vision for design systems at Zillow
Encourage deep partnership with cross-functional teams, set a high bar for design craft and visual design, and define a partnership model that enables our teams to build the best experiences for our customers
Work closely with our brand team to bring our brand to life in product and contribute to creative direction, alongside your creative lead
Be a strong advocate for delivering high-quality, compelling experiences to our customers that are inclusive, accessible, and adhere to platform standards
Lead and prioritize multiple initiatives and projects from concept to completion
Evangelize standard methodologies for visual design and systems design to other designers, engineers, and product managers

This role has been categorized as a Remote position. “Remote” employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice which must be identified to the Company. Employees may live in any of the 50 US States, with limited exceptions. In certain cases, an employee in a remote-designated job may need to live in a specific region or time zone to support customers or clients as part of their role.In California, Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada, New York City and Washington the standard base pay range for this role is $199,400.00 - $318,600.00 Annually. This base pay range is specific to California, Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada, New York City and Washington and may not be applicable to other locations.In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location.Who you are

You are an experienced design systems leader who knows how to make everyone around you better. You are a tireless advocate for the customer and the craft and know how to inspire others to care too. You are a great collaborator and communicator and understand that the path to exceptional customer experiences is through great partnerships with cross-functional teams.

7+ years of demonstrated success leading design teams and 3-5 years of direct people management experience
An exceptional leader who's able to inspire designers and engineers, and lead them to deliver their best work while having fun at the same time
A strong advocate for customers, with a passion for product and design excellence
A specialist at design systems, process, workshop creation and facilitation
Embodies high design craft and has experience leading designers across multiple fields (UX, UI, design systems, visual design, prototyping etc.)
Experience guiding creative direction for visual expression of brand in product — visual language, visual design standards, illustration & motion in product
A skilled coach, mentor and teacher for both early career and senior team members
Outstanding collaborator with engineering, product, user research, content and design
Experience leveraging and applying data and research to inform decisions
Driven to move fast, be decisive and deliver world-class user experiences
Excellent communication skills in a fast-paced environment (verbal, written, and visual) who has the ability to influence and build consensus
Communicate effectively across all levels of the organization — from individual contributors to executive staff
You excel at interacting with many stakeholders and understand how to balance a multitude of inputs (user and business needs) while planning and resourcing work
You have a strong portfolio showcasing a track record of design leadership in shaping complex and well-crafted products through design systems
Please submit a portfolio and resume as part of your application