McCann Manchester Limited is hiring: UX Director in City of Syracuse

Overview

FutureBrand • Syracuse, New York, United States

ID 5754

Job Description

Who we are

We’re FutureBrand, the flagship branding agency within the multi-award-winning global advertising agency network McCann Worldgroup.

FutureBrand in Syracuse is the heart of our human-centered design thinking practice, home to 75+ strategy, experience, and design experts with the heritage, spirit, and capabilities to deliver world-class design solutions for a remarkably diverse range of clients.

Led by the same deeply experienced leadership team who came up together in the legendary ChaseDesign, our Syracuse and Cincinnati offices create human-centered design experiences for end users of products, shoppers at retail, consumers in a wide range of physical and digital experiences, and B2B customers in innovation center and collaborative selling experiences. The goal of our entire team is the same: to make what should be for all of them, and the brands who serve them.

We’re a culture of collaborative design thinkers who are also talented makers, translating brand strategy into brand experiences that truly work for a living. Our team of business leaders, strategists, designers, activation specialists, and project managers all work together to create growth-driving solutions for clients across a remarkably wide range of industries and business sectors. We\'re a tight-knit team united by our shared values and the same human-centered design thinking methodology we have pioneered.

With unique, purpose-built facilities and capabilities to serve our Product & Shopper practice, Syracuse houses our in-house research team, full model lab, and flexible retail and prototype lab space for hosting working teams and clients for in-progress projects and live research for on-site testing of physical and digital design concepts.

What the role is

As Director of UX, you will be instrumental in defining and delivering intuitive user-focused experiences across websites, apps, and emerging platforms and collaborating with our designers to bring them to life. You will join a talented team of designers, strategists, researchers, and design thinkers, bringing together insights, creativity, and craft to transform business challenges into human-centered solutions. Your role will also be central in elevating our UX practice internally, mentoring talent across teams, fostering best practices, and ensuring collaboration across our Experience team (which includes strategy, research, and digital teams) as well as our design, business leadership, project management, operations, and leadership teams.

We are looking for a UX practitioner and leader with curiosity, empathy, and a passion for solving complex problems with elegant solutions. Someone who thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment, and who can confidently represent their UX perspective with clients, colleagues, and executive stakeholders.

As a Director of UX, you will:

• Shape the vision and execution of UX across digital touchpoints, ensuring that the brand experiences we design are intuitive, inclusive, and brand-aligned.
• Define, organize, and further expand our UX capabilities, including research, interaction design, prototyping, and usability testing, that elevate client deliverables.
• Partner with strategy, research, design, business leadership, and project management teams to integrate UX thinking into the full project lifecycle.
• Mentor, coach, and grow UX thinking across our organization, fostering craft excellence and career development.
• Support business development by contributing UX thought leadership in pitches, presentations, and client conversations.
• Represent the UX perspective with confidence and clarity in client workshops, stakeholder reviews, and executive-level discussions.
• Serve as a thought leader in UX, bringing forward emerging trends, tools, and best practices that influence both client solutions and internal methods.

As a member of our Experience team, you will focus on digital projects with the expectation you will:

• Immerse yourself in client industries and business challenges to frame opportunities for digital brand expression.
• Translate user needs and research insights into clear frameworks, wireframes, flows, and interaction models.
• Collaborate with our Design team and leadership to ensure creative concepts are both strategically aligned and experientially sound.
• Conduct and interpret user testing and research to validate design decisions and evolve solutions.
• Craft and communicate compelling UX narratives, ensuring alignment between strategy, design, and technology.
• Partner with project management to define scopes, timelines, and deliverables for UX activities.
• Drive collaboration across disciplines, ensuring seamless hand-offs and a unified client experience.

What it requires:

• Bachelor’s Degree required; Human–Computer Interaction, Design, Digital Media, Psychology, or a related field required.
• 5–7 years of progressive UX design experience, consulting, research, or other relevant work experience. While we’re not explicitly seeking a UX Designer with UI creative design expertise, it’s certainly a bonus we would enjoy learning about should you have those capabilities.
• Familiarity with digital brand ecosystems, e-commerce platforms, and emerging interfaces (voice, AI-powered, or connected experiences).
• Proven track record of leading UX efforts across large-scale digital projects, ideally within an agency or consultancy environment.
• Experience guiding multi-disciplinary teams and collaborating with strategists, researchers, designers, and technology functions.
• Demonstrated ability to present UX work to senior clients and stakeholders, influencing decision-making at an executive level.
• Proficiency with industry-standard UX tools (e.g., Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, LucidChart, etc.) and collaboration tools (Miro, Figjam, Mural, etc.)
• Awareness of accessibility standards and inclusive design practices.
• Strong portfolio of work that highlights strategic thinking, design craft, and measurable business impact.

Additional Requirements:

• We currently have a hybrid working policy with a mix of days remote and in-office
• Travel required is limited, but as needed and required by our work.

EEO

We believe that ideas get better when they are inherently diverse and shared in highly inclusive ways and we want to hear from those who think differently from us. We truly believe in the strength of diversity and the richness it can bring. By bringing different people together great things happen.

ChaseDesign, LLC (a FutureBrand company) is an equal opportunity employer (EEO). We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, genetic information, or any characteristic protected by federal law. We will not ask about incarceration history at any point in the application process.

If you have a disability, we want everyone to feel at ease when going through our recruitment process. We are working to make our website and processes more accessible, if you encounter any issues and would like this information in an alternative format, or if you need further support with your application, please contact us at careers@futurebrand.com for any adjustments you may need to perform at your best

FutureBrand is a brand-led business transformation company. We believe that brand is behaviour. For too long, brand has been thought of as intangible when in fact, it is a highly pragmatic business tool that ensures products, services, environments, and employees show up in the world in ways that are consistent with their organisation’s purpose and ambition. We exist to make brand tangible for our clients by connecting brand to experience and design creativity that in turn connects to marketing and business outcomes. This ensures that our work stands out and endures over time.