Head of Inclusive Design & Accessibility

Unum; Chattanooga (TN); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Unum is seeking a Director of Inclusive Design & Accessibility to lead a centralized UX design practice and own enterprise accessibility capabilities. The role blends people leadership with governance, education, tooling, and cross-functional influence to embed accessible, user-centered practices across the software development lifecycle.

This campus-based, onsite role requires championing WCAG conformance and partnering with Product, Engineering, Legal, and Compliance to ensure accessibility is

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in UX, design, tech, engineering, or related field.
• 10+ years of progressive UX, digital product, accessibility, or related experience including people leadership.
• Proven talent development, capacity planning, work assignment, and design capability building in a complex org.
• Deep knowledge of WCAG and ability to translate criteria into practical design, content, engineering, and testing.
• Working knowledge of ADA, 508, and related US accessibility requirements with judgment on Legal/Compliance involvement.
• Hands-on familiarity with assistive technologies and evaluation methods.

Responsibilities

• Lead UX design talent and practice across the enterprise.
• Coach and develop UX designers through performance management and career planning.
• Align staffing with product priorities and identify capability gaps.
• Set standards for design quality, inclusive design, and user-centered methods.
• Provide design leadership balancing user needs, business outcomes, usability, and accessibility.
• Foster an inclusive culture focused on learning, accountability, and improvement.
• Embed accessibility across the SDLC from planning to release and monitoring.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Architecture, Quality, DevOps, Risk, Legal, and Compliance.
• Create scalable templates, checklists, and review processes for accessibility.
• Promote early engagement and shift-left practices to reduce defects.
• Define accountability while delivery leads own implementation and testing.
• Establish accessibility standards aligned with commitments and guidelines.
• Serve as senior expert for WCAG conformance, assistive tech, and accessible patterns.
• Curate resources for design review, evaluation, and monitoring.
• Identify risk and prioritize improvements with governance leaders.
• Build learning programs, coaching hours, and champion networks.
• Measure adoption, quality, defect trends, risk, and process effectiveness.

Skills

UX leadership

Accessibility

WCAG knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Unum is seeking a Director of Inclusive Design & Accessibility to lead a centralized UX design practice and own enterprise accessibility capabilities. The role blends people leadership with governance, education, tooling, and cross-functional influence to embed accessible, user-centered practices across the software development lifecycle.

This campus-based, onsite role requires championing WCAG conformance and partnering with Product, Engineering, Legal, and Compliance to ensure accessibility is