Senior Manager UX Design - ACC

Aquent; Bentonville (AR); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Aquent is seeking a Senior Manager, UX Design to lead strategy, frameworks, and design execution across a medium- to large-sized product portfolio. This onsite role collaborates with Product, Engineering, and Business leadership to deliver accessible experiences in Bentonville, AR.

You will mentor UX, interaction, and visual designers, drive design systems, and guide cross-functional teams through research, prototyping, and implementation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in UI/UX or related field with 5+ years UX experience.
• Or 7+ years UX/UI with 2+ years supervisory experience.
• Master’s degree is preferred for advanced roles.

Responsibilities

• Define UX roadmaps and design strategies balancing business goals and user needs.
• Oversee end-to-end UX lifecycle for multiple platforms and portfolios.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration with Product, Engineering, and Business teams.
• Mentor and develop UX designers and manage resources and performance.
• Ensure accessibility and WCAG 2.2 AA compliance across products.

Skills

UX Design

UX Strategy

Team Leadership

Design Systems

Education

Bachelor's degree (UI/UX or related)

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

HTML/CSS/JavaScript

Job description

EXCITING Senior Manager, UX Design ROLE – Onsite in Bentonville, AR

Generous Relocation Assistance will be provided.

The Senior Manager, UX Design leads the user experience strategy, frameworks, and design execution across a medium- to large-sized product portfolio. This leadership role directs a team of design professionals, partners closely with Product, Engineering, and Business leadership, and drives cohesive, accessible, and scalable customer experiences across omni-channel touchpoints. The opportunity is at the nation’s largest retailer and is located in Bentonville, AR.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Leadership & Framework Design

• Define and champion user experience roadmaps and design strategies that balance business objectives, technical feasibility, and customer needs.
• Establish, scale, and govern design frameworks, interaction patterns, design systems, and documentation across native mobile (iOS/Android) and web platforms.
• Drive end-to-end design consistency across multi-disciplinary teams in partnership with Engineering Architects and Product Managers.
• Monitor industry trends, emerging technologies, and competitive benchmarks to anticipate user needs and inspire design innovation.

Execution & Portfolio Delivery

• Oversee the end-to-end UX lifecycle across complex initiatives: user journeys, information architecture, wireframes, high-fidelity prototypes, and design specifications.
• Guide teams in executing qualitative and quantitative research, user interviews, contextual inquiries, and usability testing to validate design hypotheses.
• Review Product Requirement Documents (PRDs) and technical architectures to ensure design intent and usability standards are maintained through launch.
• Partner with technical teams to develop functional proofs of concept, evaluate UI components, and troubleshoot prototype implementations.

Team Leadership & Talent Development

• Manage, mentor, and foster the professional growth of UX, interaction, and visual designers.
• Set clear performance expectations, conduct evaluations, recognize high performance, and cultivate an inclusive, high-trust team culture.
• Lead resource planning, workload allocation, and project milestone tracking across the portfolio.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Alignment

• Act as a strategic partner and trusted advisor to cross-functional leaders in Product Management, Engineering, Merchandising, Analytics, and Customer Advocacy.
• Translate complex customer insights and data analytics into compelling narratives and executive presentations to secure strategic alignment.
• Facilitate co-creation workshops, design sprints, and cross-functional brainstorming sessions.

QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum Qualifications

• Option1: Bachelor’s degree in UI/UX Design, Graphic Design, Visual Communication, Product Design, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, plus 5+ years of professional experience in UX/UI, interaction design, or product design.
• Option2: 7+ years of professional experience in UX/UI, interaction design, visual design, or related digital product design fields.
• 2+ years of direct supervisory or people management experience leading design teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in UI/UX Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Product Design, or related discipline.
• 7+ years of hands‑on design experience, with 5+ years in large-scale eCommerce, retail, supply chain, or enterprise environments.
• 4+ years driving UX strategy across multi-product portfolios.
• Demonstrated expertise in digital accessibility, including practical implementation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards and assistive technologies.
• Experience designing front‑end user experiences interfacing with Service‑Oriented Architectures (SOA) and design system component libraries.
• Recognized design or design‑thinking certification (e.g., IDEO U Foundations in Design Thinking).

CORE COMPETENCIES

• UX & Interaction Design: Information architecture, wireframing, user task flows, journey mapping, site maps, and platform‑specific design patterns (iOS Human Interface Guidelines, Android Material Design).
• Design Systems & Frameworks: Developing scalable component libraries, setting UI style guides and templates, governing site standards, and producing precise system‑level design specifications.
• User Research & Discovery: Qualitative and quantitative research methods, contextual inquiries, user interviews, surveys, persona creation, and synthesizing behavioral data and analytics into actionable design insights.
• Usability Testing & Iteration: Designing test plans, building test scenarios, conducting user acceptance testing (UAT), documenting test cases, and iterating based on empirical user feedback.
• Prototyping & Technical Acumen: Interactive prototyping, proof‑of‑concept modeling, and collaborating with engineering architectures (familiarity with HTML/CSS/JavaScript and front‑end solutions for SOA environments).
• Accessibility & Inclusive Design: Applying Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA, designing for assistive technologies, and championing inclusive digital experiences.
• People Leadership & Talent Development: Managing and mentoring designers, setting performance expectations, conducting evaluations, resource planning, and cultivating a culture of belonging.
• Strategic Influence & Cross-Functional Alignment: Executive storytelling, consensus building across engineering and business partners, conflict resolution, and translating high‑level business goals into actionable UX roadmaps.