FLEX Director - Associate User Experience Design

Job Description

This is a temporary position.

Reporting to the VP, Experience Design - Business Transformation Office, the Flex Director, Associate User Experience plays a critical role in creating industry-leading associate-facing (employee-facing) digital experiences across the full portfolio of Marriott brands. The ideal candidate must be able to think strategically, obsess about the associate and implement at scale, all while fostering cohesion across the customer and associate journey.

The ideal candidate has experience rooted in an empathetic understanding of both the associate's physical and digital environments and where the two connect/overlap. The Director leads the design of on-property user experiences, with a keen focus on data-driven, best-in-class product design from both the travel industry and other key disruptors/innovators (think mobile, Web, voice, etc.). This UX leader advances digital experiences that deliver on both revenue conversion and emotional engagement to foster loyalty. This role works closely with disciple SMEs, product management and technology colleagues to meet needs across our various associate groups.

The Director both leads tracks of work (ranging from near-term tactical to longer-term strategy and vision) while also serving as contributor and consultant/advisor to others. This position leads designers, including both internal associates and contractors, driving the creative process from concept through execution. Manages a team of one or more direct reports and coaches and guides careers for these reports.

A strong portfolio is critical. Your portfolio should showcase experience in UX and interaction design, particularly highlighting simplicity and ease-of-use. Diversity of projects is as important as curation to choose a solid collection of outcomes. Candidates should be prepared to discuss their role in leading and executing the work included in the portfolio.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Education and Experience Required

• 8+ years experience in digital product design, 5+ as a manager, with demonstrated leadership experience across platforms
• 4-year undergraduate degree, with bachelor's degree in relevant discipline, or equivalent experience
• Demonstrated success in end-to-end UX design for specific digital products; ideally with associate/employee-facing and/or enterprise products
• Solid background/understanding of UX, design thinking, methodology, and design operations; passion for DesignOps and how to build, scale, train, and refine teams, tools, and processes/deliverables
• Proven experience delivering concepts, user flows/ journeys, wireframes, prototypes, etc. across platforms (desktop, mobile web, app, etc.) with inclusivity in mind
• Provides oversight and direction to achieve a cohesive user experience that fosters synergy between the digital and physical experience
• Understands and advocates for associate needs and how those manifests through digital experiences
• Promotes UX best practices drawn from a variety of disciplines (within and beyond hospitality)
• Proactively maintains a keen focus across product areas to ensure journey-wide synergy
• Communicates through appropriate visuals and deliverables
• Oversees the design work with resources both internal to Marriott and external

Education and Experience Preferred

• Demonstrated strong presentation, negotiation, and persuasion skills
• Demonstrates self-confidence, energy, and enthusiasm in leading and influencing teams
• Is adept at explaining complicated concepts through clear visuals to facilitate understanding across the organization
• Proven ability to lead and work with cross-functional teams in support of specific business priorities, work well with counterparts from various business functions, and influencing work of counterparts without direct reporting accountability, through strong interpersonal skills
• Demonstrated ability to deliver results under challenging conditions, breaking complexity into understandable chunks, bringing ambiguity into focus
• Ability to solve problems quickly, think creatively, and drive speed-to-market delivery, while optimizing outcomes
• Strong grounding in general usability and transactional design best practices
• Demonstrated success in managing large-scale, omni-channel digital platform design and development initiatives, ideally for a major, large-scale global digital app, web site, or other digital product within the commerce or travel space
• Experience with Agile / SAFE development methodologies preferred

CORE WORK ACTIVITIES

Goals

• Sets and maintains personal development goals and works with leadership to set team goals
• Helps direct reports with setting and maintaining personal development goals and provides feedback on progress to goals through review process
• Provides discipline expertise and leadership to help meet department and company goals and KPIs

Managing Work, Projects, and Policies

• Meets deadlines once agreed upon; ensures teams and directs also meet deadlines
• Provides regular status updates through appropriate channels
• Successfully leads multiple tracks of work at once
• Works based on priorities and ensures teams and direct reports are clear on their own priorities
• Accepts critique and critiques work of others in a helpful and professional manner
• Communicates in a timely and appropriate manner

Executing and Supporting Design

• Produces sketches, wireframes, personas, journey maps, flows, designs, motion specs, prototypes and/or presentations as needed to communicate experience design
• Produces both innovative high-level design concepts as well as development-ready designs with specifications
• Ensure a quality experience on live digital products by participating in the user acceptance testing process
• Employ prototyping, user testing and research to inform your design work and thinking
• Present and clearly communicate design solutions and rationale
• Engage in critiques as well as share new learnings and case studies
• Manage and contribute to the evolving design system
• Challenge existing processes with new ways for the team to be more effective
• Create and maintain design documentation

Leadership & Management

• Leads work done by both internal associates and external vendors
• Manages vendor relationships
• Provides oversight and leadership for multiple tracks of work, providing quality feedback to both internal associates and vendor resources to move design work forward
• Thinks and works at both the strategic and executional levels; sees both the "forest" and the "trees" and guides teams accordingly

Demonstrating and Applying Discipline Knowledge

• Where appropriate, communicates through rapid hand sketched interfaces and flows rather than more time-consuming deliverables.
• Provides subject matter expertise on key functional systems to help shepherd strategic initiatives from idea to feasible implementation
• Provides subject matter expertise on Associate Experience including associate needs and interactions to ensure optimal infusion throughout digital products
• Provides information architecture / user experience / visual design oversight through review and critique for all products to promote a cohesive user experience
• Produces both innovative high-level design concepts / strategy visualizations as well as development-ready designs with specifications
• Partners closely with the Customer User Experience to ensure continuity across Customer and Associate channels, where applicable.
• Works collaboratively with other sub-disciplines in User Experience as well as other teammates across the organization
• Keeps skills up-to-date on industry trends and applies new knowledge to job, identifying strategic opportunities for competitive advantages through those findings

Measurement and Analytics

• With an evidence-based mindset, stay focused on continuously improving and re-evaluating the best business and user experience solutions across all channels and products
• Comfortable with multiple qualitative and quantitative research methods, like surveys, usability testing, multivariate testing, A/B testing, etc.
• Ability to take qual/quant dashboards/results and translate into an actionable design strategy
• Uses tracking, metrics, segment data, and user research to inform design decisions
• Collaborates with product managers to ensure priorities align with business objectives and KPIs
• Uses various user research methodologies to get design feedback and iterates designs based on findings
• Breaks down designs into options/variables for A/B or multi-variate testing

Demonstrating and Applying Technical Knowledge

• Understands web technologies and principles- like responsive design, front-end markup and libraries such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery and Ajax methods, plus Content Management Systems, Web Services, Salesforce, and APIs-and uses this knowledge in collaboration with developers
• Understands underlying technologies behind guest communications (email and chat), guest services (check-in/out, service requests, shuttle service), venue applications (dining, spa, golf), guest room entertainment, smart screens, property portal and internet services, etc. and uses this in collaboration with developers and operations teams working on related business processes
• Expertise level understanding of design tools such as Figma, Sketch and Invision DSM and uses this knowledge in extending and maintaining a Design System
• Keeps technical knowledge up-to-date and applies new knowledge to job

Additional Responsibilities

• Works and leads independently with minimal supervision, but knows when issues should be escalated to manager
• Foster relationships with key partners within and beyond the digital space
• Presents work with clarity and confidence; explains complex matters so that others can understand
• Uses appropriate communication mechanisms (i.e. in-person conversation, Microsoft Teams chat, email, phone call) for each situation
• Demonstrates self-confidence, energy and enthusiasm
• Performs other reasonable duties as assigned by manager

MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES

Leadership

• Communication - Conveys information and ideas to others in a convincing and engaging manner through a variety of methods.
• Leading Through Vision and Values -Keeps the organization's vision and values at the forefront of employee decision making and action.
• Managing Change -Initiates and/or manages the change process and energizes it on an ongoing basis, taking steps to remove barriers or accelerate its pace; serves as role model for how to handle change by maintaining composure and performance level under pressure or when experiencing challenges.
• Problem Solving and Decision Making - Identifies and understands issues, problems, and opportunities; obtains and compares information from different sources to draw conclusions, develops and evaluates alternatives and solutions, solves problems, and chooses a course of action.
• Professional Demeanor - Exhibits behavioral styles that convey confidence and command respect from others; makes a good first impression and represents the company in alignment with its values.
• Strategy Development - Develops business plans by exploring and systematically evaluating opportunities with the greatest potential for producing positive results; ensures successful preparation and execution of business plans through effective planning, organizing, and on-going evaluation processes.

Managing Execution

• Building a Successful Team -Uses an effective interpersonal style to build a cohesive team; inspires and sustains team cohesion and engagement by focusing the team on its mission and importance to the organization.
• Strategy Execution - Ensures successful execution across of business plans designed to maximize customer satisfaction, profitability, and market share through effective planning, organizing, and on-going evaluation processes.
• Driving for Results - Sets high standards of performance for self and/or others; assumes responsibility for work objectives; initiates, focuses, and monitors the efforts of self and/or others toward the accomplishment goals; proactively takes action and goes beyond what is required.

Building Relationships

• Customer Relationships - Develops and sustains relationships based on an understanding of customer/stakeholder needs and actions consistent with the company's service standards.
• Global Mindset - Supports employees and business partners with diverse styles, abilities, motivations, and/or cultural perspectives; utilizes differences to drive innovation, engagement and enhance business results; and ensures employees are given the opportunity to contribute to their full potential.
• Strategic Partnerships -Develops collaborative relationships with fellow employees and business partners by making them feel valued, appreciated, and included; explores partnership opportunities with other people in and outside the organization; influences and leverages corporate and continental shared services and/or discipline leaders (e.g., HR, Sales & Marketing, Finance, Revenue Management) to achieve objectives; maintains effective external relations with government, business and industry in respective countries; performs effectively as a liaison between locations, disciplines, and corporate to ensure needed resources are received and corporate strategies are understood and executed.

Generating Talent and Organizational Capability

• Developing Others -Supports the development of other's skills and capabilities so that they can fulfill current or future job/role responsibilities more effectively.
• Organizational Capability - Evaluates and adapts the structure of assignments and work processes to best fit the needs and/or support the goals of an organizational unit.

Learning and Applying Professional Expertise

• Continuous Learning - Actively identifies new areas for learning; regularly creates and takes advantage of learning opportunities; uses newly gained knowledge and skill on the job and learns through their application.
• Technical Acumen - Understanding and utilizing professional skills and knowledge in a specific functional area to conduct and manage everyday business operations and generate innovative solutions to approach function-specific work challenges
• Business Process and Analysis - Knowledge of multiple processes within sponsor department; ability to document key process flows, recognize processes for redesign, identify opportunities and translate business processes into information system's needs. Ability to define quality measures and evaluate performance against standards and to identify issues, risks and possible paths of resolution or mitigation strategies.
• IT Business Management - Ability to monitor and evaluate trends in technology, technology delivery mechanisms and IT organizational processes and tools. This includes the ability to redefine processes, make recommendations, and perfect process governance frameworks.
• Basic Competencies - Fundamental competencies required for accomplishing basic work activities.
• Basic Computer Skills - Using basic computer hardware and software (e.g., personal computers, word processing software, Internet browsers, etc.).
• Mathematical Reasoning - The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly, correctly, and in a way that allows one to solve work-related issues.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.

The pay range for this position is $56.58 to $75.10 per hour.

Washington Applicants Only: Employees will accrue 0.0334 PTO balance for every hour worked and eligible to receive minimum of 9 holidays annually.

FLEX opportunities offer coverage for medical, dental, vision, health care flexible spending account, dependent care flexible spending account, life insurance, disability insurance, accident insurance, adoption expense reimbursements, paid parental leave, 401(k) plan, stock purchase plan, discounts at Marriott properties, commuter benefits, employee assistance plan, and childcare discounts. Benefits are subject to terms and conditions, which may include rules regarding eligibility, enrollment, waiting period, contribution, benefit limits, election changes, benefit exclusions, and others.

Marriott HQ is committed to a hybrid work environment that enables associates to Be connected. Headquarters-based positions are considered hybrid, for candidates within a commuting distance to Bethesda, MD; candidates outside of commuting distance to Bethesda, MD will be considered for Remote positions.

The application deadline for this position is 28 days after the date of this posting, May 30, 2025.

Marriott International is an equal opportunity employer. We believe in hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive, people-first culture. We are committed to non-discrimination on any protected basis, such as disability and veteran status, or any other basis covered under applicable law.

About the Team

Marriott International is the world's largest hotel company, with more brands, more hotels and more opportunities for associates to grow and succeed. Be where you can do your best work, begin your purpose, belong to an amazing global team, and become the best version of you.