Design Leadership Jobs in Tennessee (NOW HIRING)

As the Senior Manager, Experience Design, the successful candidate will lead, coach, and scale a high-performing organization of Experience Design Managers and their respective design teams. Reporting directly to the Director of Experience Design, this key strategic leader will bridge the gap between high-level experience strategy and tactical execution, driving a unified design vision across multiple digital platforms, product lines, or capability areas.

This role is foundational to ensuring continuity and collaboration all experience design teams. The chosen candidate will partner closely with the Director of Experience Design to set the strategic direction and operational tone for the broader leadership team. By establishing robust collaboration loops across design, product, engineering, and business stakeholders, they will eliminate silos and champion a world-class customer experience. This position demands a seasoned leader with a strong track record of scaling design organizations, mentoring people leaders, driving design excellence, and advocating for user-centered design methodologies globally.

Essential Duties:

• Design Leadership and Strategic Vision: Lead the implementation of a unified, end-to-end design strategy across multiple teams and product lines, ensuring consistency, coherence, and continuity across all digital touchpoints. Drive the strategic activation of end-to-end experience design and radical simplicity at scale, ensuring a unified user experience that aligns with enterprise business goals. Drive design excellence through hands-on contributions on select, high impact initiatives. Partner with the Director to establish design-led organizational goals, team KPIs, and long-term experience roadmaps.
• People Leadership and Team Development: Directly manage, mentor, and coach Design Managers, helping them build high-performing squads, uplevel their tactical design oversight, and cultivate their leadership capabilities. Define organizational staffing models, drive recruiting strategies for design talent, and champion an inclusive, high-performing, and psychologically safe design culture. Play an active role in setting the tone for the Director's leadership team through strategic collaboration and shared accountability.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration and Governance: Establish and mature feedback loops and collaborative processes across design, product management, and engineering leaders (at the "manager of managers" and director levels). Ensure the organization's design system is robustly adopted, maintained, and evolved to support scalability, and that design teams are empowered to leverage it effectively. Break down operational silos to ensure cross-team alignment on complex, multi-touchpoint user journeys.
• Stakeholder Communication and Presentation: Act as a key advocate and representative for the experience design team with executive stakeholders, product partners, and business units. Use compelling storytelling and data-backed insights to articulate the strategic and commercial value of design, influence product roadmaps, and secure alignment on critical experience initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience scaling design teams during a major corporate digital transformation or within a global matrixed environment.
• Advanced degrees/certifications in design, business, or leadership.
• Passion for integrating modern design technologies (AI-augmented workflows, advanced prototyping).

Logistical Requirements:

• Willingness to travel 10-20% domestically and internationally.
• Ability to work flexible hours to maintain 3-4 hours of overlapping communication with global teams (specifically EU/Central European Time).

Minimum Education

• Bachelor's degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Interaction Design, Experience Design, Graphic Design, Business, or a related field. (In lieu of a degree, ten (10) years of relative experience may offset education requirements).

Minimum Experience

• 8+ years of experience in product design, experience design, or UX/UI design in complex, enterprise-scale environments, with at least 3+ years of experience directly managing design teams or design leaders (Design Managers).

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Proven track record of managing other design leaders (people managers) and building high-performing, collaborative design organizations.
• Mastery of modern design methodologies (e.g., Double Diamond, Lean UX, Agile Design) and scaling journey management across diverse product lines.
• Deep understanding of design systems, scaling UI patterns, and optimizing design-to-engineering handoffs.
• Exceptional executive communication, storytelling, and negotiation skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong business acumen and capability to align experience design outcomes with business growth, customer retention, and digital transformation goals.
• Strong ability to coach and uplevel team capabilities, fostering a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and radical simplicity.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience of leading and scaling design teams during a major corporate digital transformation or within a complex global matrixed business environment.
• Proven experience in establishing or maturing Design Operations (DesignOps) frameworks, tooling, and resourcing models.
• Advanced degrees or certifications in design-related fields, business administration, or organizational leadership.
• Experience managing global teams with geographically distributed stakeholders (e.g., collaboration across North America and European regions).
• Passion for exploring and integrating modern design technologies, such as AI-augmented workflows, advanced prototyping tools, and data-driven design analytics.

Note

• Travel will be required for this role both domestically and abroad (approximately 10-20%, depending on business need) for key leadership sessions, design workshops, and strategic alignment events. Additionally, collaboration with global teams (including EU/Central European Time) is required, which will necessitate flexible working hours several days a week to maintain at least 3-4 hours of overlapping communication.

Preferred Qualifications:

Pay Transparency:

Pay: Memphis Pay Range: $13,169.66/mo - $23,046.90/mo

Additional Details:

For details on our comprehensive benefits, click here.

Federal Express Corporation is an Equal Opportunity Employer including, Vets/Disability.

Reasonable accommodations are available for qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application process. Applicants who require reasonable accommodations in the application or hiring process should contact recruitmentsupport@fedex.com.

Applicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws:

• Know Your Rights
• Pay Transparency
• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
• Employee Polygraph Protection Act

E-Verify Program Participant: Federal Express Corporation participates in the Department of Homeland Security U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' E-Verify program (For U.S. applicants and employees only). Please click below to learn more about the E-Verify program:

• E-Verify Notice (bilingual)
• Right to Work Notice (English) / (Spanish)

Employment Type: FULL_TIME