[Sigia-l] Durham, NC - Creative Director, UXD - full time position

[carolmtaylor at comcast.net]

Durham, NC - Creative Director, UXD - full time position 

Why Not Durham? It's a GREAT place to live!!! 
Durham occupies a prime location in the heart of North Carolina and is a nexus for learning, achievement, creativity, research, and industry. Consistently ranked by regional and national media as one of the top places to live and do business in the United States, Durham is not only a great city to work, but an affordable place to buy a beautiful home and raise a family. While McKinney ranked this city the best place to work for 2010, Forbes rated it as one of the top 25 “Best Places for Business and Careers” the very same year. Renown Fortune 1000 companies such as iBM, Burt’s Bees, Merrill Lynch, iContact, Charles Schwab and Thomson Reuters all have major offices here, as do many others (too many to list!). 

About the Company: 
With over 20 million customers, this financial services giant is one of the world's largest providers of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing and many other financial products and services. 


About the Job: 

The User Experience Design team is responsible for designing this Company’s award-winning websites, mobile applications and internal workstations. Our national team of elite user experience professionals works collaboratively with the business and technology teams to design and deliver online experiences that enable our customers' financial success. 

We are currently looking for a seasoned Creative Director to provide visual direction to important initiatives in our personal investing business. In this role, you'll be responsible for directing visual design for our customers, guiding and 
coaching a team of visual designers, driving simplicity and consistency across our digital properties, and actively championing a user-centered design approach. You will work directly with the Executive Creative Director for UXD, and have frequent meetings with product owners and development partners. 

Successful candidates will be strong storytellers who inspire other designers, and who lead with superb empathy skills, a clear and elegant aesthetic sensibility, and great communication. We're looking for true designers who embrace the constraints of digital design while constantly sensing for new technologies. 

Responsibilities 
Works with the Executive Creative Director and Art Director(s) to ensure that various aspects of design work meet both UX Design and clients' expectations 
Drive consistency and simplicity in all UX designs 
Mentor and support visual design team and help recruit top talent 
Direct the visual design of external agency partners 
Help define standards of visual design excellence 
Ensure that design efforts are in sync with the client's business goals and expectations 
Work closely with our usability team to test and refine designs and prototypes 
Communicate and "sell" design solutions to teammates, engineers, product managers, partners, etc. 
Partner with our development team to push the boundaries of what's possible and to create specs in order to ensure technical feasibility and flawless implementation 

Requirements: 
8+ years' experience as creative director with focus on UXD 
3-5 years' experience at an interactive, brand, or advertising agency with national clients 
Experience with large company, co-branded websites with B-to-B and B-to-C platforms 
Experience designing large, transaction-oriented websites 
Deep experience and understanding in digital design and the ability to express aesthetic direction in an actionable, inspiring way 
Demonstrated experience with template-driven, CMS design 
Experience with financial services and education site design 
Expert knowledge of interaction design and methodology 
Demonstrated experience using web analytics to inform design decisions 
Superb large organization executive presentation and negotiation skills 
Detail-oriented and highly developed organizational skills including the ability to prioritize tasks and meet deadlines 
In-depth understanding of HTML and CSS with the basics in HTML5 
Understanding of iOS and WebOS platforms, and ability to articulate a mobile-first design strategy 
Expert skills in Fireworks, Photoshop and Illustrator image creation a must 
Experience with animation, motion design and dynamic interaction skills 
Bachelors Degree in a related field, such as Interactive Design or Human Factors 


The Perks! 
Competitive salaries, bonuses, phenomenal retirement benefits & equity are just some of the attractive perks to working here! 


Other: 
• These positions are full time during regular business hours 
• No offsite/offshore/remote/agency talent 
• At this time we cannot provide visa assistance 
• Local candidates will be given preference 
• Visa transfers OK; visa sponsorship not available at this time 

Interested? 
Please send resume, target salary requirements and portfolio to CarolTaylorRecruits(at)gmail(dot)com . Online portfolio should showcase IXD skills on a variety of B-to-B and B-to-C project types: transactional/ecommerce, mobile, website development, etc. Must include sample wireframes, user flows, schematics, persona development, presentations and visual design (In other words, your portfolio should demonstrate how you tackle and solve a problem from user requirements to launch). 


Referral Bonus: 
Send me a great referral (you must provide candidate’s phone & email) and you will qualify for a referral bonus if your referred candidate is successfully placed in this full time positions.