Senior Director, UX Design

Primary Purpose

The Senior Director, UX Design sets the UX Design direction and strategy across all of Bright Horizons digital products to deliver on our brand promise. This includes both web and mobile interfaces, for end users ranging from HR Executives to our clients’ employees, to their family members. This leader will lead and evolve our end-to-end UX practice, with equal strength in user research and experience design. This role sets the vision for how customer insights translate into intuitive, impactful, and scalable product experiences.

As a natural leader, this leader will anticipate challenges and opportunities to mitigate risk. They will apply their breadth of experience to model, prototype, and iterate on ways our team works. They will align cross-functional stakeholders and build trust across teams.

They will partner closely with the leaders of Brand, CX leader, Product Management, Marketing, and Engineering to create a data-driven, test-and-learn culture. This role requires a strategic thinker who thrives in ambiguity, balances brand and performance goals, and inspires a team to deliver best-in-class digital experiences.

This is a hybrid position requiring 3 days a week onsite at our headquarters in Newton, MA.

Bright Horizons is a leading education and care company that helps employees thrive at work and at home by partnering with employers to offer high-quality child care, elder care, and educational support. Our workplace reflects this commitment—with collaborative environments, meaningful benefits, and a culture that supports both career growth and personal well-being. Whether you’re caring for children or powering the systems and partnerships that make it all possible, at Bright Horizons, you’re the difference.

Essential Functions/Responsibilities

• Define and champion a clear UX vision and strategy that aligns with company goals and product roadmaps
• Establish UX as a strategic partner across Product, Engineering, and the business
• Influence executive decision‑making by connecting user insights to outcomes such as adoption, satisfaction, and business impact
• Define information architecture, navigation, and interaction models that simplify complex offerings.
• Champion accessibility (WCAG 2.2) and inclusive design principles.
• Lead the development, governance, and evolution of comprehensive digital design guidelines that unify and streamline all web and digital interfaces, ensuring consistency, scalability, and an exceptional user experience across platforms.
• Establish a test-and-learn culture: lead A/B and multivariate testing programs to validate design hypotheses.
• Establish and manage a structured, compliant workflow that governs experience releases ensuring clarity, consistency, and efficient cross-team execution.
• Partner with Product and Marketing teams to optimize conversion funnels, engagement metrics, and personalization.
• Partner with Brand leadership and external agency partners to bring modernized design and brand compliance across web and mobile interfaces.
• Partner with internal creative teams to ensure seamless integration of brand design principles across all digital touchpoints, delivering a consistent and cohesive experience from offline to online assets.
• Work closely with the CX leader to align UX strategy with broader customer experience goals.
• Collaborate with Product, Marketing, and Engineering to ensure seamless execution of design initiatives.
• Leverage insights from CX data and user testing to continuously evolve and modernize the digital experience, ensuring the brand remains innovative, relevant, and future-focused.
• Manage and mentor a team of UX designers and foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.
• Drive qualitative and quantitative research (journey mapping, usability studies, analytics reviews) to inform design decisions.
• Ensure research is embedded early and often in product development and not treated as a downstream activity
• Translate insights into actionable design recommendations and prioritize based on impact.
• Collaborate with and support designers in delivering best-in-class designs
• Act as a bridge between the Design team and the Engineering, Product Management, and Marketing teams by making sure interdependencies are understood and planned for.
• Identify team needs with regard to process, tools, documentation, asset management, etc.
• Point out connections and reconcile possible collisions between different product offerings, features, and platforms
• Measure, implement or drive changes to make sure designers are working at optimum efficiency
• Collaborate with internal business partners throughout various departments
• Evaluate and implement new tools with designers, researchers, and cross-functional partners to solve for our growing need to collaborate holistically across the organization
• Work with Product Managers to conduct user research, facilitate user testing and provide solution-oriented recommendations based on the results
• Collaborate with design teams to create and manage the corporate design system
• Build, mentor, and retain a team of UX researchers, product designers, and managers

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree - Required
• 10 years of UX experience, including enterprise website ownership or large-scale digital experience design
• 5 years of people leadership experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proven success designing for multi-audience platforms (Consumer + B2B).
• Expertise in user research, interaction design, accessibility, and design systems.
• Strong understanding of CRO, analytics, and experimentation frameworks.
• Ability to thrive in ambiguous environments and lead through influence.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills.

At this time, Bright Horizons will not sponsor an applicant for employment authorization/visa for this position.

Compensation:

The annual salary for this position is between $177,000-$199,000. The pay range listed here is what Bright Horizons in good faith anticipates offering for this job opening. Actual compensation offers within this range will depend on a variety of factors including experience, education and training, certifications, geography, and other relevant business or organizational factors.

This position is also eligible for a bonus and RSUs.

Benefits:

Bright Horizons offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid vacation, sick, holiday, and parental bonding leave
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Long-term and short-term disability insurance
• Life insurance
• Money-saving discounts and financial planning tools
• Tuition assistance and education coaching
• Caregiving support and resources for the children and adults in your family
• Learn more at https://careers.brighthorizons.com/us/en/health-and-wellness

Our people are the heart of our company. Because we’re as committed to our own employees as we are to the children, families, and clients we serve, our collaborative workplaces are designed to grow careers and support personal lives. Come build a brighter future with us.

Bright Horizons provides equal opportunity in all aspects of employment and does not discriminate against any individual on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, national origin, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state, or local law. Bright Horizons complies with the laws and regulations described in the following federal government resources: Know Your Rights, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA).

If you require assistance or a reasonable accommodation in completing these application materials or any aspect of the application and hiring process, please contact the recruitment helpdesk at 855-877-6866 or [email protected]. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.