Head Of Customer Experience Design

About Us

Bringing True Hospitality to the world.

We want to welcome you to a world of bringing True Hospitality to everyone. When you join us at IHG®, you become part of our global family. A welcoming culture of warmth, honesty and a passion for providing True Hospitality.

We pride ourselves on letting your personality and passions shine, recognizing the individual contribution you make and supporting your ambition to learn and create your own career path. In making a difference to our guests and owners, colleagues and communities, every day is a chance to create great and unique experiences, in your own way.

With over 370,000 colleagues in nearly 100 countries sharing our values, there’s countless opportunities at your fingertips.

We’re growing; grow with us.

Your day to day

Work Location – Atlanta, GA Corporate Office or any remote US location

Purpose of the Role –

This role is the digital design champion for the company. The leader will be responsible for building a vision, strategy and delivery model that helps us create a differentiated user experience across digital platforms. A strong, clear voice and leader who recruits and mentors a team of hands-on CX professionals and engages across a wide range of products, channels, platforms, and releases to drive sustained, measurable progress in IHG’s digital success

Key Accountabilities –

• Lead design of world-class guest experience products to drive differentiation for IHG brands, superior experiences for IHG guests, and an industry-leading hotel owner value proposition.
• Own overall end-to-end user experience and UI across the entire guest product experience, including mobile, web, display, in-room and other interfaces
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional product teams, marketing, operations, and many other functions at all stages of product development to define requirements, prototype, create, test, measure, and drive consensus and enthusiastic buy-in across all stakeholders. Leverage research and constant test-and-learn to rapidly update/improve designs, launch new brands and experiences, and drive successful results across digital channels.
• Provide a strong, expert voice for our customers’/guests’ experience, leveraging data, competitive insights, and best practices from other industries, as well as design thinking and other modern methodologies to gain rapid, continuous, and meaningful insight to drive successful outcomes across digital products and channels.
• Be a leader in driving our organization from project-centric work to an agile product environment that wins by listening to our customers and develops products they love
• Recruit, Lead and develop/mentor teams of highly experienced, motivated and talented internal/FTE, as well as agency professionals in creating global design strategy; leverage previous experience in hands-on roles to drive excellence and grow team capabilities. Understand and coach team to leverage the best and latest methods and tools.
• Be fluent and current in all modern design practices and tools; lead by example, demonstrating a personal command and excellence in production of user profiles, wireframes, journey maps/flow diagrams, functional prototypes, storyboards, navigation flows, and functional designs across web, mobile (iOS & Android), large format display (e.g., TV; digital signage), IoT, and more.

Key Shared Accountabilities –

• Product vision and roadmap for all guest products and platforms
• Hotel and Owner Solutions Development
• Successful mobile and digital product launches
• Development and integration of new hotel brands, marketing experiences, and products and services to drive guest loyalty and share of wallet

Key Interfaces –

• Product leadership & teams across all guest products
• Marketing, brand, and regional stakeholders
• Development, engineering, testing, data & analytics and other key internal counterparts
• Senior leadership across all corporate functions
• Regional Teams
• Corporate Services – Finance, Legal, HR

What we need from you

Education –

• Bachelor’s (Master’s preferred) degree required in design-related discipline: Graphic or Interface design, Information Technology, Psychology, Human Dynamics, or Anthropology. (Note that degree is highly preferred but not required for candidates who possess an outstanding level of relevant work and leadership experience).

Critical Expertise & Experience -

• 8-10 + years of UX experience designing and leading the design of user interfaces for web, mobile web, mobile apps, and digital marketing mediums, following user-centered design principles.
• 5+ years recruiting, leading, coaching, motivating and mentoring large, high-performing teams, including direct and indirect reports, in a digital-first organization or product team
• Must have significant hands-on experience; will be required to show a portfolio of own work, and demonstrate evidence of delivery and implementing successful design processes with clear, actionable strategy and plans in large, complex, customer-centric environments
• Demonstrated expertise using design and prototyping tools (Figma advanced knowledge preferred, Webflow is highly desirable.)
• Demonstrated knowledge of digital accessibility and WCAG compliant design, and ability to coach team where needed.
• Deep knowledge of cross-platform, cross-browser compatibility and internationalization issues.
• Experience creating exceptional presentations & ability to present ideas and information across broad and diverse groups, from team members deeply embedded in the work to senior executive and hotel ownership audiences. High-EQ and strong relationship building skills are essential.
• Innovative and strategic thinker. Customer focus is essential. A fearless leader and customer advocate, who must have the ability to stand tall, ask probing valuable questions, influence others, and drive rapid consensus and successful outcomes.
• Ability to present (verbally and with compelling imagery) what the future looks like in a manner that resonates with the specific audience, to drive alignment and successful outcomes. Spots emerging trends; constantly learns new skills and incorporates innovative approach to drive successful outcomes.
• Customer Experience. Knows how to listen to customers and interpret data to create products that exceed their expectations.
• Agile – in all senses of the word. Experience driving successful outcomes in agile SDLC environment; also strategically agile, able to pivot quickly when need, recognize patterns and opportunities others don’t see, and drive alignment toward successful, timely implementation of critical items
• Strong architectural foundation and systems level knowledge with a demonstrated understanding of digital and mobile applications and systems

Decision Rights –

Owns:

• Accountable for final approval on design and usability direction across all the IHG web and mobile site portfolio (this portfolio drives over $5 billion annually and will grow significantly).
• Staffing, resource allocation, performance management, mentoring, and budget management for all User Experience, Interface Design, and Interactive design team.

Influences:

• Enterprise systems and roadmap
• Competitive overall Owner Value Proposition in relation to other hotel chains

What we offer

We’ll reward all your hard work with a great salary and benefits – including great room discount and superb training.

Join us and you’ll become part of the global IHG family – and like all families, all our individual team members share some winning characteristics. As a team, we work better together – we trust and support each other, we do the right thing and we welcome different perspectives. You need to show us you care, that you notice the little things that make a difference to guests as well as always looking for ways to improve - click here to find out more about us.

At IHG Hotels & Resorts, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. IHG Hotels & Resorts provides equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to an individual’s, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital or familial status, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

IHG is committed to promoting a culture of inclusion where everyone feels safe, respected and valued. We seek talent from all backgrounds to join our teams, and encourage our colleagues to bring their authentic and best selves to work.