Lead UX/UI Brand Design

Position Title: Lead UX/UI Brand Design
Reports To: Director, Corporate Marketing
Department: Brand Impact
Term: Permanent Full-Time


Work Arrangements: This is a hybrid role. You will work in our office in Waterloo, ON a minimum of two (2) assigned, consecutive days every other week, plus a fifth (5th) assigned day per month. You are welcome to work from the office more than the minimum requirement and there may be some roles that are required to work in our office more than the minimum requirement.

The Opportunity: Equitable is growing! We are looking for a Lead UX/UI Brand Design to join our Brand Impact team!

This role will lead the development of a robust UX/UI design practice across the enterprise, supporting all business lines. With the goal to foster a strong understanding of our brand design you will create a community focused on best-in-class design and UX practices at Equitable.

As an individual contributor you will lead the UX design function across different UX and UI development teams through design decision making and operational processes.

You will be key in developing strong partnerships and advocating for UX and UI development needs with senior leadership teams across the enterprise.

The role will be a key role on the Brand Impact team as an enterprise-wide leader of brand design.

Now is an exciting time to join one of the Waterloo Area’s and Southwestern Ontario’s Top Employers for 2024!

What you will be doing:

• Lead designer for digital expressions of the brand including UI design for Web and enterprise wide UX brand design expression.
• Build and lead a community of practice for design across the organization that brings together teams with distinct design skill sets. A strong focus on mentoring and educating on brand and design best practices and guidelines.
• Own the enterprise Brand UX-UI Playbook and design library that sets organizational consistency of UX design from which all UX designers and UI developers work from and adhere to.
• Guide UX designers on how to apply brand standards to UI design.
• Represent the Equitable UX community at UX council meetings.
• Lead the Equitable UX community to review UX components and peer review for designs.
• Lead and facilitate review of UX requests and designs across the enterprise UX community.  Work collaboratively to provide options and solutions while balancing brand guideline, consistency and autonomy within each area.   
• Support daily operations, inquiries and requests for enhancements to design library. Keep UX community informed of decisions.  Lead the enterprise-wide sprint planning, testing and coordination of activities with UI development team. 
• Define processes and cadence for UX community to provide feedback and support on-going discussions.
• Define processes and develop step by step guidelines on managing version controls within Figma.  Socialize the information and build upon it based on peer feedback.  Publish material for UX community for reference.
• Publish latest components in Figma for design consumption.
• Provide and facilitate release notes associated with UX component where applicable.  Track and publish decisions made by UX community.  Generate content needed to update UX-UI Brand Playbook based on enterprise design decisions.
• Work closely with enterprise UI development team to address UX requirements. Provide requirements and user stories in DevOps where needed to ensure enterprise components are built to specifications. Assist with UI component testing and resolution.
• Prioritize backlog of UI requests based on discussions across UX teams and Product owner. Facilitate conversations with developers and UX designers and product owners when needed.
• Assist with and increase overall adoption of the enterprise library across UX and Technology teams.
• As a change agent promote the benefits of leveraging the enterprise library.
• Create knowledge management documentation, training as part of operational support plan.

What you will bring:

• A minimum of 5 years experience in a UX/UI design role preferably in the financial industry.
• Proven strength in being an individual contributor with a strong creative vision to lead a design function across the organization with distinct UX and design teams.
• Excellent leadership and stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence and collaborate effectively across UX teams, business functions and external stakeholders/partners.
• Demonstrable record of cross-functional consensus building with stakeholders to find solutions.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to communicate clearly and concisely. Ability to present to a wide range of audiences including senior leadership.
• Experience in representing brand design by bringing together multiple UX teams across an organization on key design, process and best practice alignment.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating your expertise in bringing UX, UI and brand design all together.
• Experience in building or contributing to a design system.
• Experience applying UX best practices to design solutions, and a deep understanding of mobile-first and responsive design.
• A solid grasp of user-centered design (UCD).
• Demonstrated experience in conducting user research, user testing, A/B testing, rapid prototyping, heuristic analysis, usability, and accessibility.
• Expertise in standard UX software such as Figma, Sketch, OmniGraffle, Axure, InVision, UXPin, Balsamiq, Framer, and the like is a must.
• Proficient in Adobe Suite; Photoshop, XD, Illustrator and InDesign.
• Basic HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript skills are a plus.

What’s in it for you:

• A healthy work-life balance with employee wellness top of mind
• Annual bonus program, annual vacation allowance, and company-paid benefits program
• An additional paid volunteer day each year so you can spend time giving back to the community
• Immediate enrollment in the company’s pension program with employer matching
• Employee resource groups that support an inclusive work environment
• Tuition support and specialized program assistance
• An onsite, full-service cafeteria with a variety of daily options
• Discounts on company products and services, and access to exclusive employee perks
• Regular EQ Together events focused on company togetherness and collaboration
  
  

As part of the recruitment/offer process you will be required to:

• Provide two professional references (minimum one supervisor and above)