VP, Digital Design

• Act as a key member of the Digital Leadership Team, influencing enterprise strategy and advocating for the value of design in shaping differentiated user experiences and business outcomes. 
• Define and champion a bold, forward-looking vision for design that aligns with Thrivent’s mission and digital transformation objectives, positioning design as a core enterprise capability, integrating behavioral finance principles to inspire trust and financial confidence in clients and advisors. 
• Serve as the senior-most design leader responsible for setting enterprise design strategy across all digital touchpoints, including Client Experience (DCX), Advisor Experience (DAX), and Money Canvas; driving business growth, innovation, and advisor/client satisfaction. 
• Drive integration of design strategy into Thrivent’s Product Operating Model, ensuring alignment from strategic planning through execution. 
• Champion design as a strategic differentiator—positioning Thrivent at the forefront of human-centered, technology-enabled financial services. 
• Establish and evolve a robust Design Operations (DesignOps) function that supports process efficiency, talent management, enables consistent delivery, and design systems at scale. 
• Serve as a central orchestrator between Product, Technology, Marketing, Compliance, and Data teams to ensure that design is embedded seamlessly into cross-functional workflows. 
• Ensure collaboration and consistency across all digital platforms and experiences, fostering alignment through shared principles, tools, and practices. 
• Lead the recruitment, development, and retention of top-tier design talent; establish Thrivent as a destination employer for mission-aligned designers. 
• Establish clear performance expectations, growth paths, and development opportunities to promote engagement and career mobility. 
• Act as the connective tissue between design, research, and product strategy—ensuring insights and voice of customer data directly shape roadmap and delivery priorities. 
• Influence and align stakeholders at all levels—from scrum teams to the executive committee—on the value of design and user-centered thinking. 
• Define and enforce design standards and principles that drive consistency, accessibility, and excellence across all digital channels and touchpoints. 
• Oversee the evolution and adoption of Thrivent’s “Midwest Design System,” ensuring alignment across teams and improving design velocity, quality, and scalability. 
• Instill a mindset of experimentation and innovation; promote the use of data, behavioral insights, and research to inform design decisions and demonstrate business impact. 
• Partner with internal research and behavioral science teams to ensure Money Canvas and other proprietary experiences remain industry-leading in usability, empathy, and outcomes. 
• Establish accountability and performance measurement frameworks to ensure individual and team effectiveness aligns with business outcomes. 
• Create scalable governance structures for managing design initiatives, team capacity, prioritization, and delivery across a growing portfolio of work. 
• Integrate behavioral insights, data analytics, and financial wellness principles into the design lifecycle to strengthen Thrivent’s value proposition and deepen customer engagement. 
• Lead innovation efforts by incubating new interaction patterns, digital capabilities, and service models that differentiate Thrivent in the marketplace—particularly through signature programs like Money Canvas. 
• Models Thrivent’s leadership competencies – Model the Way, Rally the Team, and Deliver Outcomes.  
• Supports and/or develops an environment in which Thrivent employees and colleagues are focused on continuous improvement, exceptional employee engagement, and an unwavering commitment to our clients.  Shapes and/or supports a culture that represents the Thrivent purpose, promise and values, ensuring that Thrivent’s trust and reputation remain strong with its clients.  

 Required: 

• Master’s degree or equivalent work experience in design. 
• 10+ years relevant business experience, including in principal designer or similar.  
• Understand fundamentals of iterative development, software development process and procedures  
• Expertise in the principles of Agile Product Management, stakeholder management, market and user research, technology management, and process design.  
• High level of organization and attention to detail.  
• Passion and understanding of new technology and trends.  
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and influence skills among all organizational levels; strong facilitation and executive communications skills.  
• Has supervisory experience.  
• Proven success developing business cases, roadmaps, and enterprise level strategy. 
• Strong ability to effectively manage and resolve conflicting priorities.  
• Expertise in developing and delivering product strategy, articulated in terms of value and outcomes with relevant and compelling metrics and measurements. 
• Adept at financial management to administer budgets across multiple products and ensure the product meets its requirements for return on investment. 
• Experience leading large, complex organizational initiatives. 
• Proven experience in leading and influencing cross-functional teams.  
• Expertise with foundational product management tools, techniques and principles across discovery, design, build, release, and measure cycle. 
• Proven success in developing and leading product teams in multiple contexts. 

Preferred:   

• Certified Product Manager or similar certification 
• Demonstrated experience with user interface design and best practices for usability 
• Advanced skills in MS Office Suite with particular emphasis on Excel and PowerPoint