Associate Director UX/CX Designer

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Strategic Focus: 20% Strategic, 40% Managerial, 40% Tactical.

The Enterprise Digital Product Office (EDPO) at Optum is a centralized organization focused on accelerating digital transformation across the enterprise. The team partners across business, technology, and operations to design, build, and scale product-centric solutions that improve customer experiences, optimize operational workflows, and deliver measurable business outcomes. The team drives consistency in product strategy, agile delivery, and design practices, enabling teams to operate with greater speed, clarity, and impact. By aligning cross-functional stakeholders and leveraging modern technologies, including cloud platforms, data, and AI, the organization supports the development of scalable, user-centered solutions that help advance Optum's mission to build a more effective and equitable health care system.

As an Associate Director, Product Design, you will lead a team of Product Designers while owning end-to-end customer experiences, product journeys, or strategic initiatives. You will partner closely with Product, Engineering, Research, Content Strategy, and Business leaders to translate product strategy into a compelling experience vision and drive delivery of high-quality, user-centered solutions.

This is a player-coach leadership role that combines people leadership, design strategy, and hands-on execution. You will guide and develop designers, influence product direction, foster a culture of design excellence, and remain actively involved in solving complex experience challenges.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Design Leadership & Delivery
  • Own the design strategy, experience vision, and execution for a broad set of features, customer journeys, products, or strategic initiatives
  • Translate business objectives, customer needs, and product strategy into clear design opportunities, experience principles, and actionable design solutions
  • Lead teams in transforming complex and ambiguous problems into simple, elegant, and innovative experiences across web, mobile, conversational, and AI-enabled channels
  • Guide designers in creating user journeys, workflows, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity experiences that bring product vision to life
  • Partner with Product, Engineering, Research, Content Strategy, Analytics, Accessibility, and Legal teams to ensure experiences are desirable, feasible, viable, and compliant
  • Provide design direction informed by user research, analytics, accessibility standards, health literacy considerations, legal requirements, technical constraints, and best practices
  • Drive quality and consistency across multiple concurrent initiatives while balancing customer needs, business priorities, and delivery timelines
  • Collaborate with Design System teams to contribute reusable components, patterns, and standards that improve scalability and efficiency across products
  • Champion accessibility, inclusive design, and health equity considerations throughout the product design process
  • Support teams in identifying opportunities that improve healthcare access, health outcomes, member engagement, and clinical quality measures such as HEDIS and STARS
  • Leverage AI-enabled tools and emerging design methodologies to accelerate workflows, improve team effectiveness, and enhance product experiences
• Design Strategy & Thought Leadership
  • Help define and evolve experience strategy across key customer journeys, products, and business initiatives
  • Lead teams in identifying emerging opportunities in healthcare, digital experiences, and AI-powered products, evaluating their applicability and business value
  • Drive design thought leadership by advocating for customer-centered design practices, innovation, and continuous improvement
  • Navigate ambiguity and help teams achieve clarity, alignment, and momentum in complex problem spaces
  • Constructively challenge assumptions and existing approaches to uncover new opportunities and improve customer experiences
  • Frame problem spaces, establish priorities, define success measures, and structure work to deliver meaningful outcomes
  • Influence stakeholders through solid storytelling, facilitation, strategic thinking, and evidence-based design recommendations
  • Foster a culture of curiosity, experimentation, and continuous learning across the design organization
• Team Leadership & Management
  • Lead, coach, and develop a team of Product Designers, creating opportunities for career growth, skill development, and increased impact
  • Foster an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing team culture grounded in trust, accountability, creativity, and innovation
  • Establish clear expectations, performance standards, and development plans for direct reports
  • Lead design critiques, coaching sessions, workshops, and working sessions that elevate the quality of design across teams
  • Review and approve work produced by team members, partners, and agencies to ensure consistency, quality, and alignment with experience standards
  • Support resource planning and prioritize team efforts across strategic initiatives and product delivery needs
  • Build solid partnerships across Product, Engineering, Research, and Business organizations to drive alignment and successful outcomes
  • Promote employee engagement, retention, and professional development through effective coaching and people leadership
  • Serve as a trusted advisor and representative of the design organization across cross-functional teams and leadership forums
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regard to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience designing digital products and experiences across web, mobile, and emerging digital platforms
• 2+ years of experience leading, coaching, or managing product designers and design teams
• Proven experience owning and delivering complex end-to-end customer experiences, product journeys, or strategic initiatives
• Experience partnering with Product, Engineering, Research, and Business leaders in Agile product development environments
• Demonstrated success translating product strategy and business goals into meaningful customer experiences and measurable outcomes
• Solid portfolio showcasing both strategic thinking and hands-on product design execution across complex products and services
• Deep expertise in user experience design, interaction design, information architecture, accessibility, service design, and human-centered design methodologies
• Expert proficiency with Figma, prototyping tools, and modern design workflows
• Solid communication, facilitation, storytelling, and stakeholder management skills
• Ability to lead teams through ambiguity while balancing strategic priorities and executional excellence.
  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience leading design teams responsible for enterprise software, healthcare products, or large-scale digital ecosystems
• Experience designing AI-powered, conversational, generative, or agentic experiences
• Experience driving adoption of design systems and reusable experience patterns
• Experience collaborating with globally distributed teams, including U.S.-based stakeholders
• Healthcare experience preferred but not required. Experience in similarly complex or regulated industries such as insurance, financial services, telecommunications, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, or enterprise software is also valued
• Experience designing accessible experiences that align with WCAG 2.1 AA requirements
• Demonstrated experience incorporating health equity, accessibility, and inclusive design principles into product development
• Experience using AI-enabled tools to improve research, ideation, design exploration, prototyping, documentation, and workflow efficiency

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone - of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income - deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes - an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.