Senior Director, Experience Design & Research

Walgreens; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 175,000 - 284,000; Full time

Job summary

Walgreens seeks a Senior Director of Experience Design & Research based in Deerfield, IL, to transform the UX organization into a strategic, outcome‑driven function. You'll lead cross‑functional teams spanning product experience design, research, content, service design, and AI‑enabled experiences.

You'll partner with Product, Engineering, Digital, Pharmacy, Retail and executive leadership to ensure customer evidence guides early decisions, shaping products and enterprise initiatives across

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree and at least 8 years of UX service design experience or High School/GED with 11+ years in UX service design
• At least 5 years directing and managing a UX design team
• Experience presenting ideas to executive management and external stakeholders
• Expertise in standard UX software such as Sketch, OmniGraffle, Axure, InVision, UXPin, Balsamiq, Framer
• Experience with usability testing and A/B testing
• Experience contributing to financial decisions and cross‑functional leadership

Responsibilities

• Defines the strategy around the customer experience and translates business goals into a holistic plan
• Provides leadership to build a world class user experience team and defines standards, guidelines, and processes
• Acts as owner of the customer experience and advocates for the end user
• Leads analysis and research around the customer experience and applies results to reduce pain points
• Works with business leads, strategists, and product managers to enhance customer experience and value delivery
• Sets budgets and performance requirements for the area of responsibility
• Leads cross‑functional collaboration and external stakeholder engagement

Skills

UX leadership

Interpersonal communication

Executive communication

Usability testing

Education

Bachelor’s Degree

Master’s degree preferred

Tools

Sketch

OmniGraffle

Axure

InVision

UXPin

Balsamiq

Framer

Job description

Senior Director, Experience Design & Research

Address: 102 WILMOT RD,DEERFIELD,IL,60015-05104-01102-2

Job Summary

Based in Deerfield, Illinois, the Senior Director will lead the evolution of Walgreens’ UX organization from a production-focused design function into a strategic business capability that helps shape what Walgreens builds and drives measurable customer, patient, and business outcomes.

This leader will set the vision for a multidisciplinary experience organization spanning Product Experience Design, Research Strategy, Content Strategy, Service Design, and AI-enabled experience practices. Working closely with Product, Engineering, Digital, Pharmacy, Retail, and executive leadership, the Senior Director will ensure that customer evidence and experience strategy influence decisions early—not simply after requirements and solutions have already been defined.

What you'll lead

Experience Strategy and Transformation

Define the long-term direction for UX and lead the shift from artifact-focused delivery to outcome-driven experience strategy. Establish the operating practices, standards, and measures that give UX a meaningful role in product and enterprise decision‑making.

Customer and Patient Experience

Champion a human‑centered approach while balancing customer needs, business priorities, and operational realities. Strengthen end‑to‑end journeys across mobile, web, store, pharmacy, customer support, and emerging AI‑powered interactions, including edge cases, service interactions, and experiences that do not go as planned.

Research and Customer Intelligence

Build a continuous customer intelligence capability that moves research beyond downstream validation and into upstream product and business decisions. Bring together qualitative research, analytics, customer feedback, operational data, and market insight to create evidence leaders can use to make decisions.

AI and Experience Innovation

Define how AI is applied across design, research, content, and service experiences to increase strategic impact—not simply production speed. This includes giving AI the appropriate context, questioning its assumptions, evaluating the quality of its output, and maintaining human judgment and accountability. The leader will encourage experimentation while protecting customer trust, quality, and the standards expected in a healthcare environment.

Organizational and Talent Leadership

Lead managers and senior professionals through a significant evolution in how the organization works. Strengthen multidisciplinary capabilities, develop future leaders, establish clearer ways of working, and create a culture of curiosity, accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning. Success in this role will be reflected in stronger use of customer evidence in decision‑making, more connected experiences across channels, increased strategic capacity within the UX organization, and a clearer link between experience investments and customer, patient, operational, and business results.

Important Details Before Applying

Location: This is a hybrid role based in Deerfield, IL, with 4 days onsite and 1 day remote.

Work Visa Sponsorship: Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future visa sponsorship. Walgreens will not sponsor employment authorization for this role now or in the future.

Job Responsibilities

• Defines the strategy around the customer experience and what is important to the success of the business. Translates business goals into a holistic plan (short term goals and longer-term strategic initiatives) with actionable strategies to ensure ease of use and an engaging experience.
• Provides leadership and guidance to build a world class user experience team by leading the work to define standards, guidelines, best practices, processes and determining how the user experience team interacts with other groups. Makes actionable recommendations to executive management and business groups on strategic “voice of the customer” topics to develop a world class user experience.
• Acts as the owner of the customer experience and advocate (voice) for the end user in the development of the philosophy and vision for the organization.
• Leads the analysis and research around the customer experience, collaborating with the Design Research team and Business Analytics. Ensures the implementation of research results to reduce user pain points.
• Works collaboratively with business leads, strategists, and product managers to enhance the experience of the customer and to ensure the online customer succeeds in obtaining value from the site.
• Analyzes long-term impact of new or anticipated strategies and decisions.
• Sets budgets, operational plans and performance requirements for the specified area of responsibility. Responsible for meeting budgetary goals and objectives.
• Leads team and facilitates communication between staff, management, vendors, and other technology resources within and outside of the organization. Shares highly complex information related to areas of expertise. Interacts with senior management to keep abreast of objectives. Interacts with direct reports and peers in management / customers / vendors to interpret information and improve cross‑functional processes and programs. Builds and enhances key internal and external contacts.

About Walgreens

Founded in 1901, Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) proudly serves nearly 9 million customers and patients each day across its approximately 8,500 stores throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Walgreens has approximately 220,000 team members, including nearly 90,000 healthcare service providers, and is committed to being the first choice for pharmacy, retail and health services, building trusted relationships that create healthier futures for customers, patients, team members and communities.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree and at least 8 years of experience in UX service design OR High School/GED and at least 11 years of experience in UX service design
• At least 5 years of experience directing and managing a UX design team
• Experience using interpersonal communication and presentation skills to present ideas effectively and strategically present ideas to executive level management and external stakeholders.
• Expertise in standard UX software such as Sketch, OmniGraffle, Axure, InVision, UXPin, Balsamiq, Framer, and the like
• Experience with usability testing, & A/B testing.
• At least 5 years of experience contributing to financial decisions in the workplace.
• At least 5 years of direct leadership, indirect leadership and/or cross‑functional team leadership.
• Willing to travel up to 20% of the time for business purposes (within state and out of state).

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Human Factors, Design, Business, Psychology, Information Science, or a related field.
• 12 or more years of progressive experience in UX, Product Design, Service Design, Customer Experience, Design Research, or a related discipline.
• Five or more years of experience leading managers, senior individual contributors, and multidisciplinary UX teams.
• Demonstrated success building, scaling, or transforming an established UX, Design, Research, or Customer Experience organization, including evolving operating models, team capabilities, and ways of working.
• Track record of influencing executive‑level product or business decisions through customer evidence, experience strategy, and strong cross‑functional partnership.
• Broad expertise across human‑centered design, customer research, service design, content strategy, and end‑to‑end journey design across digital, physical, service, and assisted touchpoints.
• Experience establishing customer intelligence, Voice of Customer, or continuous‑insight capabilities that integrate qualitative research, analytics, customer feedback, operational data, and market insights.
• Demonstrated AI fluency across design, research, content or customer experience, including the ability to provide appropriate context, question assumptions, evaluate output quality, and maintain human judgment and accountability.
• Experience connecting UX or experience investments to measurable customer, patient, operational, or business outcomes.
• Experience working in healthcare, retail, another highly regulated industry, or a large and complex enterprise.

We will consider employment of qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

The Salary below is being provided to promote pay transparency and equal employment opportunities at Walgreens. The actual hourly salary within this range that you will be offered will depend on a variety of factors including geography, skills and abilities, education, experience and other relevant factors. This role will remain open until filled.

Salary Range: $175000 - $284,375.00 / Salaried