Product Design Director - HR Design

Product Design Director - HR Design

At Capital One, we’re building a leading information-based technology company. Still founder-led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fairbank, Capital One is on a mission to help our customers succeed by bringing ingenuity, simplicity, and humanity to banking. We measure our efforts by the success our customers enjoy and the advocacy they exhibit. We’re succeeding because they’re succeeding.     

Guided by our shared values, we thrive in an environment where collaboration and openness are valued. We believe that innovation is powered by perspective and that teamwork and respect for each other lead to superior results. We elevate each other and obsess about doing the right thing. Our associates serve with humility and a deep respect for their responsibility in helping our customers achieve their goals and realize their dreams. Together, we’re on a quest to change banking for good.

We’re currently seeking a Product Design Director to join our enterprise design team focused on creating transformational associate experiences. 

As a Director on the HR design team, you’ll lead a talented, cross-disciplinary team of designers and collaborate deeply with our research teams and Product and Tech leadership. You’ll be responsible for leading high-impact, highly complex projects and defining and driving design strategy that informs the higher-level vision of the organization and aligns to business objectives.

This specific remit requires a leader who is energized by foundational building, experimentation with emerging AI enabled ways of working, and has a genuine passion for transforming internal enterprise tools into world class experiences. 

In this role you will:

• Navigate Nascent Domains: Take the lead on defining the design strategy for high-priority, emerging challenges where the “target state” isn’t yet known. You will be responsible for working with partners to move initiatives from abstract concepts to concrete roadmaps.
• Lead High-Complexity Product Design: Leverage emerging AI tools to drive the design of sophisticated internal platforms—specifically focusing on associate growth and performance experiences—built on consistent, repeatable, and scalable design foundations rather than one-off solutions.
• Standardize Complexity: You deeply understand the value of design systems in reducing technical debt and designer “swirl.” You will oversee the creation of patterns that allow for high-integrity, repeatable experiences across a diverse portfolio of internal platforms.
• Lead Through Making: We are looking for a “player-coach” who remains hands-on. You will lead your team not just through management, but by prototyping, visualizing complex workflows, and learning through the act of building and testing real experiences.

We require not just a people leader who can tactically execute work, but rather, a strategic design leader. In this Director role, you will be expected to deliver on the following critical areas:

**Product Design Expertise:** Leverage established expertise and leadership in product design to elevate the quality and maturity of the design practice at Capital One. Leveraging a variety of skills across interaction, visual and service design; in collaboration with cross-functional partners, help to oversee and optimize the use of appropriate tools, platforms, frameworks and design systems and enable your team to develop artifacts that may include vision stories, journey maps, blueprints, high-fidelity designs and prototypes

**Leadership:** Create conditions for a positive and inclusive team environment and set a vision for an inclusive, collaborative culture that makes your team feel valued and heard

**Human-Centered:** Champion voices of both customers and partners, modeling the mindset that business and customer outcomes are not distinct but complementary, ultimately resulting in experiences that exceed baseline customer needs and expectations

**Business-Focused:** Demonstrate expert knowledge of products, processes, our customers, competitors and industry market trends, applying relevant insights to shape how Design should engage and solve business challenges

**Problem-Solving:** Share insights around technical advances and data capabilities that could influence outcomes, while helping larger teams navigate technical limitations and boundaries in service of bold technological solutions, data destinations a…