Director, UX Design & Research

Vuori, Inc; Carlsbad (CA); On-site; USD 181,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Savings and Retirement Plan

Employee Assistance Program

Paid Time Off

Wellness & Fitness benefits

Job summary

Vuori, Inc. seeks a Director of UX Design & Research to lead strategy, design, and research across ecommerce, omnichannel, and retail experiences. You will champion customer insights, unify UX directions, and scale a growing team while shaping design systems and AI-enabled workflows.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Digital Product and Experience, you will collaborate with Product, Engineering, Brand & Creative, and Site Experience to deliver a cohesive customer journey across channels.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in UX/UI design and/or UX research, including 3+ years managing or mentoring designers and/or researchers
• Bachelor's degree in UX Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field, or equivalent years of experience preferred
• Experience leading both design and research functions, with fluency across generative and evaluative research methods
• Experience maintainingor governing a design system in a production environment, with strong documentation, adoption, and consistency practices
• Proficiencyin Figma; familiarity with AI-assisted design tools (e.g., Claude Design) is a plus
• Comfortoperatingat the intersection of design and code; you understand, or are eager to learn, how components, tokens, and documentation translate into a dev environment
• Interest and some fluency in how AI tools are changing design and design-to-code workflows
• Ecommerce, omnichannel, or retail experience strongly preferred
• Experience managing outside vendors or agency partners, including scoping, budgeting, and quality control
• A track recordof coaching and developing design and research talent, and building team capability over time
• Strong portfolio or body of workdemonstratingboth hands-on UX/UI and research craft and systems thinking
• Demonstrated ability to present and defend design and research decisions to senior stakeholders
• Comfortable in a fast-paced, resource-lean, high-autonomy environment; you build process rather than wait for it
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Responsibilities

• Serve as Vuori's internal voice of the customer, championing customer insight and helping the organization understand and prioritize customer problems
• Set and unify UX strategy across Vuori's ecommerce, omnichannel, and retail store experiences, ensuring a consistent, connected journey across channels
• Lead and grow both generative and evaluative research practices — partnering with Consumer Insights,mentoringand developing Vuori's researcher(s), and raising the rigor of insights that inform design and product decisions
• Build, manage, coach, and develop a growing team of UX/UI designers and UX researchers, including regular 1:1s, feedback, and career-growth planning
• Lead UX for major cross-channel initiatives, ensuring connectivity across the broader ecommerce and omnichannel experience
• Evolve and govern Vuori's design system, ensuring consistency and adoption as it matures across channels and teams
• Define and evangelize Vuori's evolving ways of working with AI — from design-to-code workflows to how the team incorporates AI tools into everyday practice
• Present design rationale, research findings, and strategic recommendations to senior stakeholders, defending decisions with clear logic and evidence
• Flex team capacity with outside agency and contractor support —sourcing, scoping, and managing vendor partners, budgets, and timelines as needed
• Establish and evangelize UX design and research best practices across the organization

Skills

UX/UI design

UX research

Team leadership

Design systems

Figma

AI-assisted design tools

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in UX Design or related field

Tools

Figma

Claude Design

Design systems tooling

Job description

• Compensation: USD 181000 - USD 220000 - yearly

Company Description

Vuori is re-defining what athletic apparel looks like: built to move and sweat in but designed with a casual aesthetic to transition into everyday life. We draw inspiration from an active coastal California lifestyle; an integration of fitness, creative expression and life. Our high energy fast paced retail environment is reflected in the clothes we make. We aim to inspire others to take on all aspects of their lives with clarity, enthusiasm and purpose…while having a lot of fun along the way. We are proud to be an outlet for opportunity and for personal growth and success.

Job Description

The 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'llbe the internal voice of the customer, helping the broader organization understand, prioritize, anddesign aroundreal customer problems.You'llgrow 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'llset the vision and stay close to the work, with real latitude to build the practices, standards, and structure this function needs as Vuori scales.

Whatyou'llget to do:

• Serve as Vuori's internal voice of the customer, championing customer insight and helping the organization understand and prioritize customer problems
• Set and unify UX strategy across Vuori's ecommerce, omnichannel, and retail store experiences, ensuring a consistent, connected journey across channels
• Lead and grow both generative and evaluative research practices — partnering with Consumer Insights,mentoringand developing Vuori's researcher(s), and raising the rigor of insights that inform design and product decisions
• Build, manage, coach, and develop a growing team of UX/UI designers and UX researchers, including regular 1:1s, feedback, and career-growth planning
• Lead UX for major cross-channel initiatives, ensuring connectivity across the broader ecommerce and omnichannel experience
• Evolve and govern Vuori's design system, ensuring consistency and adoption as it matures across channels and teams
• Define and evangelize Vuori's evolving ways of working with AI — from design-to-code workflows to how the team incorporates AI tools into everyday practice
• Present design rationale, research findings, and strategic recommendations to senior stakeholders, defending decisions with clear logic and evidence
• Flex team capacity with outside agency and contractor support —sourcing, scoping, and managing vendor partners, budgets, and timelines as needed
• Establish and evangelize UX design and research best practices across the organization

Qualifications

Who you are:

• 8+ years of experience in UX/UI design and/or UX research, including 3+ years managing or mentoring designers and/or researchers
• Bachelor's degree in UX Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field, or equivalentyears of experience preferred
• Experience leading both design and research functions, with fluency across generative and evaluative research methods
• Experiencemaintainingor governing a design system in a production environment, with strong documentation, adoption, and consistency practices
• Proficiencyin Figma; familiarity with AI-assisted design tools (e.g., Claude Design) is a plus
• Comfortoperatingat the intersection of design and code; you understand, or are eager to learn, how components, tokens, and documentation translate into a dev environment
• Interest and some fluency in how AI tools are changing design and design-to-code workflows
• Ecommerce, omnichannel, or retail experience strongly preferred
• Experience managing outside vendors or agency partners, including scoping, budgeting, and quality control
• A track recordof coaching and developing design and research talent, and building team capability over time
• Strong portfolio or body of workdemonstratingboth hands-on UX/UI and research craft and systems thinking
• Demonstrated ability to present and defend design and research decisions to senior stakeholders
• Comfortable in a fast-paced, resource-lean, high-autonomy environment; you build process rather than wait for it
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Additional Information

Our investment in you:

At Vuori, we’re proud to offer the following to our employees:

• Health Insurance
• Savings and Retirement Plan
• Employee Assistance Program
• Paid Time Off
• Wellness & Fitness benefits

The 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.