Visual Design Lead

Ford; Michigan; Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

Parental leave programs

Vehicle discount program

Tuition assistance

Paid time off & holidays

Employee resource groups

Job summary

Ford's Digital Product Design Team is seeking a Visual Design Lead to shape the look and feel of Ford and Lincoln digital experiences across in-vehicle, connected devices, and mobile apps. You will translate user needs into cohesive visual language, prototypes, and launch-ready experiences that tie physical products to digital services.

You will guide visual and motion design standards, review work, mentor others, and collaborate with engineers to ensure high-quality execution at scale.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in graphic design, UI/UX design, digital product design or related field.
• 6+ years of Visual UI/UX design for complex digital products.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating exceptional visual design for digital products.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams.
• Experience mentoring and/or managing others in the visual design field.

Responsibilities

• Establish and codify the 'Look and feel' of Ford/Lincoln digital experiences (in-vehicle and beyond).
• Define, create, and guide standards for visual and motion design.
• Collaborate with UX designers to deliver high-quality, on-brand digital experiences.
• Lead the development of exemplar work in visual design.
• Support design reviews with constructive feedback to deliver world-class products.

Skills

Visual design

Portfolio presentation

Cross-functional collaboration

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in graphic design/UI/UX/digital product design

Tools

Figma

Protopie

Adobe CS

After Effects

Rive

Job description

As a leader on Ford’s Digital Product Design Team, you'll be at the heart of designing products that drive this revolution - inspiring your peers and pushing the industry. You'll also be creating/working at scale. Every day, Ford's vehicles and services support millions of people worldwide. We're not just inventing the future; we're operationalizing it to help everyone improve their lives. The Visual Design Lead within our Design DNA team plays a vital role in this future state by helping our Digital Product Design team reimagine how people interface with Ford vehicles — through the visual design of the in-vehicle experience,connected devices and mobile applications. Grounded in understanding user needs, we conceive, design, prototype, and launch experiences that bind physical products, digital services, and human interactions.

What you'll do...

• Work cross-functionally with leadership and fellow designers within Digital Product Design to establish and codify the 'Look and feel' of the Ford and Lincoln digital experiencesin-vehicle and beyond
• Work to define, create, and guide standards for visual and motion design - including developing the visual design guidelines/standards for Digital Product Design
• Problem-solve alongside UX designers to deliver high-quality, on-brand experiences to the digital space
• Lead the development of 'exemplar' work product in visual design
• Work with design teams to up-level presentation and prototyping through visual and motion execution
• Work with engineering teams to guide them towards visual design execution at the highest standard, with consistency
• Participate in design reviews, supplying guidance and constructive feedback in service of delivering world-class products and experiences
• Manage communication with internal colleagues and stakeholders
• Utilize consumer research, benchmarking and knowledge of the automotive space to drive considered responses to evolving the visual design language

You’ll have...

• Bachelor's degree in graphic design,UI/UX design,digital product design or related field,or a combination of education and equivalent experience
• Strong visual design skillsand experience building/extendingcomplexdigital designlanguagesis amust
• Strong portfolio demonstrating exceptional visual design skills for digital products, including a strong understanding of layout, hierarchy, typography, color theory, and iconography within interactive contexts
• 6+ years of dedicated experience inVisual UI/UX design for complex digital productsand consumer-facing brands
• 6+ years’ experience within (product side or consultancy) highly collaborative creative teams
• A good attitude that inspires those around you while providing pertinent, actionable feedback

Even better, you may have...

• Experience of working closely with multi-disciplinary product teams comprised of researchers, designers, product managers and engineers
• Proficiency with modern UI design and prototyping tools (e.g., Figma,Protopie, Adobe CS, AE, 3D animation tools, Rive)
• Passionate about brand and digital product design
• Extensive experience designing digital design experiences for key touch points across the customer journey
• Extensive experience developing brand guidelines and/or standards for user interfaces; including color, typography, iconography, imagery, and all GUI (Graphical User Interfaces) elements
• Experience of developing digital services and bringing products or services to market
• Experience mentoring and/or managing others in the visual design field
• Passionate about automotive and transportation industry
• Strong verbal, written and visual presentation skills

As an established global company, we offer the benefit of choice. You can choose what your Ford future will look like: will your story span the globe, or keep you close to home? Will your career be a deep dive into what you love, or a series of new teams and new skills? Will you be a leader, a changemaker, a technical expert, a culture builder…or all of the above? No matter what you choose, we offer a work life that works for you, including:

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

This position is leadership level 6 and ranges from $150,000-$250,000.

Candidates for positions with Ford Motor Company must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status or protected veteran status. In the United States, if you need a reasonable accommodation for the online application process due to a disability, please call 1-888-336-0660.