Director, UX & Design

At Valley Bank, we believe in people’s growth potential. We invest in it. We protect it. We focus it. For nearly 100 years, we’ve been the Bank that clients from every industry turn to for our expertise, strategies, and advice–building the kind of trust that can fuel every goal. We are the leading relationship bank built for growth–with over $60 billion in assets, 3,800 experts, and more than 200 consumer branches and commercial banking offices in communities across the US.

At Valley, we’re all driven by an ambition that goes deeper than just having a job. That’s why when you work for us, we make it our goal to help you focus on what drives you–working to turn your passions and strengths into assets you can use to propel your ambitions and build the professional legacy you want. Because when we say we’re a relationship bank built for growth, that’s not just reserved for our clients–that includes all our associates as well.

The Director User Experience & Design will play a defining role in shaping how customers and clients experience the bank across an increasingly complex, multi-channel landscape. This will build and scale a modern, integrated design organization capable of delivering exceptional experiences through service design, interface design, research, and emerging disciplines including conversational and AI-native design..

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Responsibilities Include But Are Not Limited To

• Experience Strategy and Vision

• Define and champion a unified customer experience vision for the Consumer Bank that is coherent across all segments, channels, and touchpoints.
• Develop a multi-year design strategy that balances near-term delivery with longer-horizon capability building.
• Establish experience principles and a design point of view that differentiates Valley’s brand and deepens customer relationships.

• Serve as the senior voice for customer-centered thinking in executive and cross-functional forums.

• Organizational Leadership

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing, multidisciplinary design organization spanning service design, UI design, research, and conversational design.
• Establish the operating model for how design integrates with product management, technology, and business stakeholders across all three segments.
• Foster a culture of craft, curiosity, and continuous learning within the design organization.

• Develop talent and career paths that attract and retain top design professionals in a competitive market.

• Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner closely with Business, Product, Segment and Channel Partners to align experience priorities with business goals.
• Work with technology and engineering leaders to ensure design intent is faithfully implemented and that delivery velocity is supported by strong design operations.

• Collaborate with Risk, Compliance, and Legal to ensure all experiences meet regulatory requirements while still delivering for customers.

• Measurement and Outcomes

• Define and track experience quality metrics (NPS, CSAT, task completion, effort scores) that connect design decisions to business results.
• Establish a research and insight practice that continuously feeds product and strategy decisions with customer evidence.
• Drive accessibility and inclusive design standards across all products and channels.

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Required Skills

• Demonstrated experience leading design across both digital and physical or service-oriented environments (not solely app or web).
• Proven ability to develop and execute experience strategy at an organizational level, not just individual product or feature scope.
• Strong fluency in service design methodology including journey mapping, service blueprinting, and systems thinking.
• Experience building and scaling user research capabilities that inform both tactical and strategic decisions.
• Familiarity with conversational design, voice UX, or AI-assisted interaction design.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and represent design at the leadership table.
• Outstanding communication skills: able to frame design strategy in business terms and connect design decisions to measurable outcomes.

Required Experience

• High School diploma or GED equivalent and a minimum of 12 years of progressive UX and design experience, including significant leadership of multi-disciplinary design teams.

Preferred Experience

• Business, Finance, Technology or related fi…