Corporate Vice President, Digital Design Strategy and Innovation

Director of Digital Design Strategy and Innovation

Location Designation:
Hybrid - 3 days per week

Full-time. Based in New York City. Hybrid | Onsite 3x/week (Tues…Thurs). Marketing, Product & Design.

As an award‑winning Fortune 100 Company, diversity and humanity are deeply rooted values in our company culture. We are vocal advocates for a supportive and inclusive work culture that inspires our employees to do meaningful, life‑changing work. We believe there is a wealth of knowledge we can learn from one another, and that together, we can enact real‑world change.

When you join New York Life, you’re joining a company that values career development, collaboration, innovation, and inclusiveness. We want employees to feel proud about being part of a company that is committed to doing the right thing. You’ll have the opportunity to grow your career while developing personally and professionally through various resources and programs. If you’re ready to channel your creativity and strategic insight into an environment that values impact, we can’t wait to welcome you to our team.

“Having built my entire career at New York Life, I have a deep appreciation for our history of providing financial security and peace of mind to our policy owners and clients.” – Craig DeSanto, Chair, President & CEO of New York Life

New York Life is embarking on an ambitious journey to deliver industry‑leading digital experiences for our customers and agents/advisors. This is a transformative role where creativity meets purpose. Beyond concepting, this role is about the strategy and execution of digital product design strategies, concepts, and visions that inspire key partners across the organization to new heights of what’s possible to deliver on NYL’s mission and strategy.

We are seeking a visionary Director of Digital Design Strategy and Innovation to lead transformative design initiatives that elevate our customer and financial advisor/agent experiences. This role will drive innovative design strategies that connect users with intuitive, engaging, and seamless digital solutions. By collaborating across product, marketing, technology, and design teams, this leader will shape design practices that enhance customer and agent journeys, strengthen brand trust, and improve business outcomes.

• Develop human‑centered and data‑driven digital product design strategies for 0‑1 and 1‑n digital product execution, enhancements, innovation, and strategic concept validation to deliver on NYL business strategies and OKRs
• Connect digital design strategies for end‑to‑end cohesive and seamless experiences across departments and digital products
• Partner with product, technology, business, program and other leaders to envision seamless design experiences across a range of digital product experiences for consumer/customers, agents/advisors and other priority users
• Deliver design artifacts such as wireframes, interactive prototypes, and visual concepts that translate strategic objectives into impactful experiences
• Develop scalable design strategy frameworks, guidelines, and principles to ensure seamlessness and cohesion across products
• Lead efforts to integrate emerging design tools and techniques, including generative AI, to rapidly accelerate design innovation and especially rapid prototyping
• Develop and deliver compelling storytelling and visual communications/materials to convey design strategies to all levels of NYL stakeholders
• Design, deliver, and scale design workshops with stakeholders (e.g., product designers, product managers, etc.) to develop, iterate, and align on design strategy

• Identify and experiment with cutting‑edge design tools and frameworks, including AI‑enhanced design systems, to push creative boundaries and accelerate concept validation
• Stay up to date on advances, use cases, and applications of GenAI (e.g., agentic AI)
• Foster an experimentation culture, leveraging design‑driven frameworks to rapidly test and iterate on new digital concepts
• Champion the adoption of intelligent design practices that personalise experiences,…