Director, Product design

Yahoo serves as a trusted guide for hundreds of millions of people globally, helping them achieve their goals online through our portfolio of iconic products. For advertisers, Yahoo Advertising offers omnichannel solutions and powerful data to engage with our brands and deliver results.

The Director of Design (M5) is a senior design leader responsible for shaping the vision, strategy, and execution of design across a significant product or business area. As a key member of the design leadership team, this role oversees multiple design teams, driving quality, alignment, and innovation across complex, multi‑disciplinary initiatives. The Director ensures design excellence while fostering a healthy, inclusive, and scalable design culture that supports both people and product growth.

• Develop senior design leaders: Mentor and grow senior managers (M4) and principal designers (IC5-IC6), building a strong leadership bench for future organizational needs.
• Organizational design: Proactively structure and evolve the design organization to meet long‑term strategic goals, ensuring clarity in roles, ownership, and accountability.
• Culture and inclusion: Champion psychological safety, collaboration, and inclusion across all levels, fostering a strong, values‑driven design culture.
• Succession planning: Actively manage and prepare successors for key leadership roles across the design organization.

• Strategic program delivery: Own a portfolio of high‑impact, multi‑year design initiatives, ensuring delivery aligns with business goals.
• Operational excellence: Design and implement scalable operational processes (e.g., planning, design reviews, hiring, onboarding) that enhance quality and predictability.
• Resource stewardship: Ensure optimal allocation of senior design talent and resources across teams to tackle complex challenges effectively.
• Quality and consistency: Act as the executive escalation point for major design decisions and ensure all design output meets the highest standards of user experience and business impact.

• Vision for design excellence: Define and uphold design quality standards across the organization, serving as the final point of accountability for user experience within the business unit.
• System architecture: Oversee and guide design system strategy to ensure coherence, scalability, and long‑term sustainability across products.
• Strategic simplification: Identify opportunities to align and simplify design systems across teams and organizations, reducing fragmentation and improving efficiency.
• Industry influence: Champion alignment with industry best practices and innovations, ensuring the company's design remains competitive and forward‑looking.

• Strategic partnership: Serve as a trusted advisor to VPs, GMs, and executive peers across Product, Engineering, and Research, co‑defining business strategy through a design lens.
• Design strategy ownership: Translate broad, ambiguous business objectives into a clear, multi‑year design strategy that drives measurable impact.
• Cross‑functional influence: Build deep relationships across business units, ensuring design priorities are represented and integrated into company‑wide planning.
• External representation: Shape and elevate the company's external design brand through partnerships, industry engagement, and thought leadership opportunities.

• 12+ years of experience in product design, UX, or related disciplines, with 5+ years managing design teams at scale.
• Proven success leading senior managers and cross‑functional design organizations.
• Deep expertise in systems thinking, user‑centered design, and large‑scale design operations.
• Strong business acumen and experience translating design strategy into measurable outcomes.
• Exceptional communication and collaboration skills, with a track record of influencing senior executives.
• Experience working in complex, matrixed organizations or across multiple product areas preferred

• A high‑performing, motivated design organization aligned with company values and…