Senior Director, XP Design

The Senior Director, Experience Design is accountable for shaping and leading end-to-end brand, shopper, and consumer experiences across the market, using design as a strategic lever for business growth. 

This role goes beyond creative execution to act as a core contributor to business and brand strategy, embedding design thinking into commercial priorities, portfolio choices, channel strategies, and system execution. 

The role requires a hands-on, highly strategic design leader with strong people leadership and communication capabilities—able to inspire teams, influence senior stakeholders, and translate consumer and cultural insights into distinctive, scalable experiences that drive brand equity and business results. 

Key Responsibilities 

1. Experience Design as Business Strategy 

• Act as a strategic partner to the CMO and Marketing Leadership Team, contributing to business and brand strategy development from a design and experience perspective. 

• Use experience design thinking to influence portfolio strategy, channel prioritization, and consumer engagement models. 

• Ensure brand, shopper, and consumer experiences are intentionally designed to drive relevance, differentiation, frequency, and system value. 

2. End-to-End Experience Leadership 

• Lead the design and delivery of holistic brand and shopper experiences across physical, digital, retail, and commerce touchpoints. 

• Ensure experiences are human-centric, culturally resonant, and locally relevant, while aligned with global brand platforms and creative standards. 

• Oversee the creation of master experience frameworks, design systems, and execution guidelines to enable scale and consistency. 

3. Shopper & Commerce Experience Excellence 

• Provide strategic leadership on shopper and retail experience design, spanning modern trade, traditional trade, on-premise, and e-commerce ecosystems. 

• Define experience principles, message matrices, and content strategies that drive impact at the moment of choice. 

• Partner with commercial, customer, and bottler teams to ensure strong translation from design intent to in-market execution. 

4. Creative Strategy & Design Craft 

• Set the creative ambition and quality bar for experience design across the organization. 

• Remain hands-on where it matters—reviewing, shaping, and elevating key creative and experience outputs. 

• Champion brave, innovative, and culturally progressive design solutions that build brand value. 

5. People Leadership & Capability Building 

• Lead, develop, and inspire a high-performing Experience Design organization. 

• Build strong design leadership bench, succession plans, and future-ready capabilities. 

• Foster a culture of collaboration, curiosity, and accountability across design, marketing, and commercial teams. 

• Act as a coach and mentor, developing both creative excellence and strategic thinking within the team. 

6. Cross-Functional & System Collaboration 

• Partner closely with Brand, Category, Commercial, Digital, and Platform teams to ensure seamless experience integration. 

• Lead agency and external partner ecosystems, ensuring clear direction, strong collaboration, and high-quality output. 

• Serve as a key connection point with global design and brand communities, contributing local insights and adopting global best practices. 

7. Governance, Effectiveness & ROI 

• Ensure experiences are delivered with clarity, consistency, and quality, aligned to brand governance and system standards. 

• Define and track measures of experience effectiveness, including brand impact, engagement, and commercial outcomes. 

• Manage budgets and resources allocated to experience design initiatives responsibly. 

Key Interfaces 

• CMO and Marketing Leadership Team 

• Brand, Category, and Commercial Leadership 

• Digital, Platform, and Experience teams 

• Bottlers and system partners 

• Global Brand and Design communities 

• Creative, design, and experience agencies 

Qualifications & Experience 

Required 

• Bachelor’s degree in Design, Marketing, Business, or related field (Master’s preferred). 

• Over 15 years of experience in Design, creative strategy, brand design, or shopper/retail experience roles. 

• Proven track record of using design to influence business strategy and drive growth. 

• Strong people leadership experience, including leading leaders and multi-disciplinary teams. 

• Deep understanding of consumer, shopper, and cultural insights. 

• Experience managing complex agency ecosystems and large-scale creative investments. 

Preferred 

• Experience working in or deeply with the Japanese market and consumer landscape. 

• Exposure to digital, commerce, and omnichannel experience design. 

• Ability to operate effectively in a matrixed, global organization. 

Leadership Attributes & Skills 

• Strategic and systems-oriented design thinker 

• Hands-on leader with strong creative judgment 

• Credible senior partner to business and marketing leaders 

• Excellent communicator and storyteller 

• Strong people developer with high emotional intelligence 

• Comfortable balancing global frameworks with local cultural nuance