Director, UX Design & Research

Director, UX Design & ResearchThe Director, UX Design & Research leads UX strategy, design, and research across Vuori's ecommerce, omnichannel, and retail store experiences — setting the vision for how customers discover, shop, and engage with the brand across every channel.You'll be the internal voice of the customer, helping the broader organization understand, prioritize, and design around real customer problems. You'll grow both UX design and UX research as disciplines at Vuori — raising the craft and rigor of your team's work and developing their skills as the function scales. You'll partner closely with Product, Engineering, Brand & Creative, and Site Experience to unify the customer experience across channels, and you'll evolve and govern Vuori's design system as it matures, keeping it consistent as more teams, tools, and AI-assisted workflows touch it.This role reports to the Senior Director of Digital Product and Experience and leads a small but growing team of UX/UI designers and UX researchers. This is a hands-on Director role — you'll set the vision and stay close to the work, with real latitude to build the practices, standards, and structure this function needs as Vuori scales.What you'll get to do:Serve as Vuori's internal voice of the customer, championing customer insight and helping the organization understand and prioritize customer problemsSet and unify UX strategy across Vuori's ecommerce, omnichannel, and retail store experiences, ensuring a consistent, connected journey across channelsLead and grow both generative and evaluative research practices — partnering with Consumer Insights, mentoring and developing Vuori's researcher(s), and raising the rigor of insights that inform design and product decisionsBuild, manage, coach, and develop a growing team of UX/UI designers and UX researchers, including regular 1:1s, feedback, and career-growth planningLead UX for major cross-channel initiatives, ensuring connectivity across the broader ecommerce and omnichannel experienceEvolve and govern Vuori's design system, ensuring consistency and adoption as it matures across channels and teamsDefine and evangelize Vuori's evolving ways of working with AI — from design-to-code workflows to how the team incorporates AI tools into everyday practicePresent design rationale, research findings, and strategic recommendations to senior stakeholders, defending decisions with clear logic and evidenceFlex team capacity with outside agency and contractor support — sourcing, scoping, and managing vendor partners, budgets, and timelines as neededEstablish and evangelize UX design and research best practices across the organizationQualificationsWho you are:8+ years of experience in UX/UI design and/or UX research, including 3+ years managing or mentoring designers and/or researchersBachelor's degree in UX Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field, or equivalent years of experience preferredExperience leading both design and research functions, with fluency across generative and evaluative research methodsExperience maintaining or governing a design system in a production environment, with strong documentation, adoption, and consistency practicesProficiency in Figma; familiarity with AI-assisted design tools (e.g., Claude Design) is a plusComfort operating at the intersection of design and code; you understand, or are eager to learn, how components, tokens, and documentation translate into a dev environmentInterest and some fluency in how AI tools are changing design and design-to-code workflowsEcommerce, omnichannel, or retail experience strongly preferredExperience managing outside vendors or agency partners, including scoping, budgeting, and quality controlA track record of coaching and developing design and research talent, and building team capability over timeStrong portfolio or body of work demonstrating both hands-on UX/UI and research craft and systems thinkingDemonstrated ability to present and defend design and research decisions to senior stakeholdersComfortable in a fast-paced, resource-lean, high-autonomy environment; you build process rather than wait for itExcellent written and verbal communication skillsAdditional InformationOur investment in you:At Vuori, we're proud to offer the following to our employees:Health InsuranceSavings and Retirement PlanEmployee Assistance ProgramGenerous Vuori Discount & Industry PerksPaid Time OffWellness & Fitness benefitsThe salary range for this role is $181,000 per year - $220,000 per year. This role is bonus eligible.Vuori is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.