Director of Design
Versant · Carlsbad, California, United States
VERSANT (Nasdaq: VSNT) is an industry-changing media and entertainment business and home to trusted brands that shape culture, inform audiences, and build lasting connections. It operates across four core markets: political news and opinion, business news and personal finance, golf, and sports and genre entertainment. These markets are served through a powerful portfolio of iconic and innovative brands, including CNBC, MS NOW, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Versant's sports division USA Sports, along with complementary digital assets including Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and GolfPass.
Summary/Objective
Full Swing's product design process runs through a defined set of stage gates, from initial concept and
architecture alignment through multiple rounds of design review to final UI/UX sign-off, spanning our
simulator software, companion apps, and web platforms. That process currently has no single design leader
accountable for it end to end. This is an opportunity to build and lead a new Design Center of Excellence:
establish design as a strategic, well-run function with its own standards, systems, and career path, rather than
a set of individual contributors assembled reactively around whatever ships next.
You will own the design vision and standards for the company, build and lead the team that executes on them,
and be the design voice in cross-functional planning alongside engineering, product, and program leadership.
You are measured on whether design work reaches a consistent, high bar across every product line, and on
whether design is a strategic partner in planning.
Primary Functions
- Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- The design vision and standards for Full Swing's products, ensuring consistency in brand, UX, and interaction design across every active product line.
- A formal design review process, from concept and architecture alignment through final UI/UX sign-off, so design decisions are made deliberately and on a predictable cadence rather than ad hoc.
- Hiring, mentorship, and career growth for the design organization, including leveling, growth paths, and performance standards for an already existing and high performing small team.
- A shared design system, pattern library, and style guide used consistently across the company's software and web products.
- Design capacity planning across concurrent product lines, including making the case for additional headcount grounded in real workload data and product roadmaps.
- Direct partnership with engineering, product, QA, platform, and program management leadership to ensure design is engaged at the requirements and architecture stage.
- Design representation in executive and cross-functional planning, presenting strategy, trade-offs, and resourcing needs directly to senior leadership.
- Partnership with QA and Release Management so design sign-off functions as a genuine readiness gate.
- The craft bar for the organization: running critique, giving direct feedback, and holding the team to a consistent standard of execution.
Required Education, Experience & Skills
- 10+ years of UX/UI or product design experience, including substantial experience leading and
- managing a design team.
- A track record of building or significantly scaling a design organization or practice, including establishing standards, systems, and review processes where they didn't previously exist.
- Experience partnering directly with engineering, product, and program leadership on cross-functional roadmaps and delivery, including presenting design strategy and trade-offs to senior or executive stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to allocate a design team's capacity across multiple concurrent product lines and defend resourcing decisions with evidence.
- Experience establishing or maintaining a design system, pattern library, or style guide at an organizational level.
- A strong portfolio demonstrating both individual design craft and the outcomes of teams you've led.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, comfortable setting a bar and holding the team and stakeholders to it.
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field, or equivalent hands-on experience.
Preferred Education, Experience & Skills
- Experience leading design for a games, simulation, consumer hardware, or interactive entertainment product.
- Experience designing across both consumer-facing apps and internal/admin tooling (e.g., admin consoles, back-office utilities) at the same time.
- Experience running design across multiple distinct product lines or brands at once, each with its own visual identity, under a single shared design system.
- Experience designing data-dense, real-time or performance-data interfaces (e.g., sports statistics, shot or session data, analytics dashboards) for a non-technical consumer audience.
- Familiarity with Jira and Confluence-based design review and PRD workflows.
- Interest or hands-on experience in applying AI tools to the design practice itself (prototyping, critique, design ops), reflecting the company's broader push toward AI-forward ways of working.
Salary Range: $170,000-$195,000
Other Duties
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties
or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may
change at any time with or without notice.
Work Environment
- This role operates in a hybrid or office-based environment, depending on company needs.
- Work is primarily performed in an office setting with standard working hours; however, occasional after-hours support may be required.
- The position requires frequent interaction with employees across different departments, requiring strong collaboration and communication skills.
- The role may involve sitting for extended periods, working on a computer.
- Able to lift 25 lbs
As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.
If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to candidateaccessibility@versantmedia.com.
VERSANT Media is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We include a good faith pay range for each position to comply with applicable state and local pay transparency laws and to promote equity across our organization. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, experience, and location and may include additional forms of compensation and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc.
VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.