At Northwestern Mutual, we are strong, innovative and growing. We invest in our people. We care and make a positive difference.
The Northwestern Mutual Innovation team is primarily focused on discovering, experimenting, and building new, industry disruptive opportunities that have the potential to capitalize on changing consumer behaviors over the next 3-10 years. Additionally, every member of the team is empowered to invest in, and partner closely with, external startups that we believe are poised for exponential growth. The team is composed of VCs, founders with multiple exits, and seasoned operators from the likes of Brex, Plaid, Twitter, Eventbrite, and even the White House.
This Sr. Director, Innovation Designer role provides the rare opportunity to ignite change and disrupt the industry across a multitude of markets, with a specific focus on the future of web3, FinTech, InsurTech, and across Health & Wellness. The role provides all the energy and autonomy of building an early-stage startup, but with the stability and resources backed by a Fortune 100 company.
The Role
Explore, Identify, and develop new forms of consumer engagement that deliver against consumer problems / needs within identified opportunity spaces. Work with engineers and product managers to define both the long-term vision for the opportunities we're exploring and the short-term tactics for our experiments Sometimes work on very broadly defined, loose concepts, and sometimes on narrowly defined, tactical deliverables Focus on what you do best - whether that's sketches, wireframes, prototypes, designs, or code-and you'll have the opportunity to sharpen the skills you're looking to develop Work in a highly collaborative fashion with the design, product, and project teams Partner closely with our user researcher and support research projects
The Skills

• Essential ways of working: Ability to take initiative, work independently, and deliver results.
• A strong point of view on design direction with an openness to new ideas
• Experience with prototyping as a means to communicate design solutions (UI development experience a plus)
• Compelling portfolio demonstrating strong visual skills as well as deep UX intuition
• Understanding of how to leverage customer-centric creativity to meet business goals
• Proven track record of delivering impactful and beautiful products that customers love
• Experience with industry standard design tools; Figma, Sketch, InVision, Framer, Mural, Keynote
• Are skilled in explaining your work, process, and decisions to cross-functional stakeholders and crave feedback to help you produce your best work
• Experience with product development processes and an understanding of how to solve product challenges across platforms
• An intense desire to solve problems
• Are uncompromisingly service-minded towards our users and your colleagues, but able to set and achieve priorities
• Unmatched attention to detail and due diligence, with a data-driven approach to understanding what's required for great customer experiences
• Can balance working with urgency and focus with methodological rigor and adapt as needed for the situation
• Internalize the best ideas from across the team, humbly setting a vision that others are excited to get behind
• Desire to work autonomously. Prefer simple solutions and designs over complex ones, and have a good intuition for what will last and scale
• Enjoy working with a diverse group of people with different areas of expertise.
• Bonus Points: A strong mastery of HTML/CSS/JS.

If you don't tick every box above, we'd still encourage you to apply. We're building a diverse team whose skills balance and complement one another.
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This job is not covered by the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Required Certifications:
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We are an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.
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