Senior UX Design Manager

Aquent; Bentonville (AR); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Aquent is seeking a Senior Manager, UX Design in Bentonville, AR. You will lead a team shaping how members experience memberships and retail journeys, with a focus on AI-enhanced design, craft, and measurable business impact.

You will collaborate across Product, Engineering, Research, Marketing, Analytics, and store teams to guide roadmaps and deliver cohesive experiences. Expected to relocate and establish a high standard of craft from concept through shipped products, while developing

Qualifications

• 7-10 years of experience designing consumer digital products with 2-3 years in UX leadership.
• Portfolio of shipped customer/member experiences showing craft in interaction design and storytelling.
• Hands-on use of AI tools in design processes with measurable impact.
• Experience in membership, loyalty, or consumer growth and understanding of measurable outcomes.
• Strong communication and influence skills across cross-functional teams.
• Commitment to accessible, inclusive experiences across digital and physical contexts.

Responsibilities

• Shape the Membership and Store Experience by defining vision and design strategy across acquisition, enrollment, onboarding, benefits, engagement, renewal, and retention.
• Connect digital and in-store journeys for consistent value across touchpoints.
• Translate insights and business priorities into opportunities improving experience and performance.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Research, Marketing, Analytics, and store stakeholders to influence roadmaps and deliver cohesive experiences.
• Lead and develop designers, providing direction, ownership, feedback, and growth opportunities.
• Drive loyalty and sustainable growth by understanding the customer-to-member lifecycle and measuring outcomes.

Skills

UX leadership

Design strategy

AI in design

Job description

** MUST BE WILLING TO RELOCATE TO BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS **

We're looking for a design leader to shape how customers discover membership value, become members, and build lasting relationships through digital and in-store experiences.

As Senior Manager, UX Design, you'll lead a team of UX designers in creating connected experiences that make shopping easier, membership more valuable, and everyday interactions more rewarding. You'll bring a high standard of craft, expertise in loyalty and growth, and a practical, curious approach to using AI in how you and your team work.

This role calls for a leader who can set a clear vision, help designers grow, and pay attention to the details that make a customer experience work well.

What You'll Do

Shape the Membership and Store Experience

Define the experience vision and design strategy across customer acquisition, membership enrollment, onboarding, benefit discovery, engagement, renewal, and retention.

Connect digital and in-store journeys so customers and members experience clear, consistent value across touchpoints.

Translate customer insights, business priorities, and behavioral data into opportunities that improve both the experience and business performance.

Partner with Product, Engineering, Research, Marketing, Analytics, and store stakeholders to influence roadmaps and deliver cohesive experiences.

Uphold a High Standard of Craft

Set and maintain a high bar for customer- and member-facing experiences, from early concepts through shipped products.

Guide the team’s work in interaction design, visual design, motion, prototyping, and storytelling.

Use motion purposefully to explain transitions, guide attention, provide feedback, and create moments of delight.

Develop clear narratives, storyboards, and realistic prototypes that make complex ideas tangible and build alignment.

Stay engaged through implementation, partnering with Engineering so that interaction behavior, visual details, accessibility, and performance meet the intended standard.

Use AI Thoughtfully in Everyday Design Work

Look for where AI can improve the speed, breadth, or quality of an approach, and apply it with clear purpose.

Use AI across the design process, including discovery planning, synthesis, concept exploration, content development, prototyping, critique, and collaboration with Engineering.

Combine AI-assisted design and coding tools to create realistic, interactive prototypes and explore more possibilities earlier.

Evaluate AI outputs with care: check accuracy, challenge assumptions, identify bias, and validate ideas with customers and members.

Build repeatable team practices that improve quality and productivity while maintaining accountability for design decisions and responsible use of company and customer information.

Support team members at different levels of AI experience through shared learning, training, and practices.

Lead and Develop Designers

Lead, coach, and grow a team of UX designers, providing clear direction, meaningful ownership, and actionable feedback.

Tailor your leadership to each person’s experience and goals, creating room for independent judgment while maintaining shared standards and accountability.

Build a critique culture where ideas are challenged thoughtfully and feedback improves the work.

Support career development, performance, hiring, and thoughtful allocation of design talent.

Create an environment where people can ask questions, experiment, disagree respectfully, and learn from mistakes.

Drive Loyalty and Sustainable Growth

Apply an understanding of the customer-to-member lifecycle, including value perception, conversion, activation, habit formation, benefit utilization, renewal, and churn.

Understand how UX influences these outcomes through clarity, relevance, ease of use, emotional connection, and trust.

Partner with Research and Analytics to identify friction, develop hypotheses, and evaluate experiments.

Measure success through customer and member outcomes alongside conversion, engagement, retention, and long-term value.

Make thoughtful tradeoffs that support growth and preserve customer confidence.

Required Qualifications

• 7-10 years of experience designing and delivering consumer-facing digital products, and minimum 2-3 years of experience leading UX designers.
• A portfolio of shipped customer or member experiences that shows strong craft, including interaction design, prototyping, motion, and storytelling.
• Hands-on experience using AI tools in your work, with concrete examples of how they affected your process or outcomes.
• Experience in membership, subscriptions, loyalty, or consumer growth, and an understanding of how design contributes to measurable outcomes.
• Working knowledge of qualitative research, behavioral data, usability testing, and experimentation.
• The ability to move between long-term experience strategy and detailed design decisions.
• Strong communication and influence skills, with experience aligning partners around a clear customer problem and design direction.
• A commitment to accessible, inclusive experiences across digital and physical contexts.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with retail, ecommerce, omnichannel experiences, or products that connect digital interactions with physical stores.
• Experience leading design across complex organizations and multiple partner teams.
• Experience scaling design systems, motion principles, or AI-assisted workflows across a design team.

Portfolio Expectations

Please include work that shows your personal contribution, how you led a design team, and the quality of the final customer experience. Be prepared to discuss how you used AI in your process, how motion and storytelling strengthened the experience, and how you assessed customer, member, and business impact. Work from non-traditional or team-based contexts is welcome, and you may redact confidential details.