Lead UX Designers with Airline domain experience

Overview:
The Lead Designer – UX will drive design excellence and strategic vision on United’s Customer UX team, leading cross-functional design initiatives and mentoring design talent while elevating the quality of digital experiences across the travel journey. This role is responsible for setting design direction, leading complex design projects, managing stakeholder relationships, and fostering a culture of design excellence while contributing to United’s design system and organizational design maturity.

We’re looking for an experienced design leader who combines strategic thinking with hands-on craft excellence, demonstrates strong leadership and mentoring capabilities, and can drive design decisions that balance user needs with business objectives in a complex, fast-paced environment.

Key Responsibilities:
• Lead design strategy and vision: Define and communicate design strategy for complex, multi-platform initiatives, ensuring alignment with business goals and user needs across the travel ecosystem.
• Mentor and develop design talent: Provide guidance, feedback, and career development support to junior and mid-level designers, fostering growth and maintaining high design standards across the team.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management: Lead design discussions with senior stakeholders, product managers, and engineering leaders, advocating for user-centered design decisions and managing competing priorities.
• Oversee complex, omnichannel experience design: Lead the design of sophisticated user journeys that span multiple touchpoints, ensuring consistency and excellence across platforms, devices, and channels.
• Establish design standards and governance: Define interaction patterns, design principles, and quality standards that guide team decisions and ensure scalable, maintainable design solutions.
• Lead prototyping and validation initiatives: Direct the creation of high-fidelity prototypes and design validation studies, working with research teams to inform design decisions through user insights.
• Champion design system evolution: Partner with the Atmos team to drive design system strategy, contributing advanced patterns and establishing governance that promotes consistency and craft excellence.

Qualifications
What’s needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (Human-Computer Interaction, Information Design, Communications, Computer Systems, Visual Design or related disciplines)
• 6-10+ years of experience in UI/UX design with 3+ years in a lead or senior design role
• Proven experience leading design teams and mentoring designers
• Portfolio demonstrating leadership in complex design projects, strategic thinking, and measurable business impact
• Experience presenting design work and strategy to senior leadership and executive stakeholders
• Deep expertise in emerging UI trends, tools, and technologies with ability to evaluate and implement new approaches
• Advanced proficiency in digital design and prototyping tools (Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, etc.)
• Expert-level experience applying WCAG accessibility standards and advocating for inclusive design practices
• Proven track record leading cross-functional initiatives with business analysts, researchers, developers, and product owners
• Experience with design strategy, roadmap planning, and resource allocation
• Extensive design experience for web, mobile, and emerging platforms
• Demonstrated ability to balance user advocacy with business constraints and technical
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with ability to influence and align stakeholders
• Strong leadership presence with ability to drive consensus and manage conflict
• Experience managing multiple complex projects and teams while maintaining high attention to detail
• Strategic problem-solving abilities with focus on scalable solutions