Director of Design

Responsibilities

• Set the vision and design strategy for Vanta’s Risk product area.
• Lead, mentor, hire, and develop a high-performing team of product designers.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Research, Content Design, Design Systems, and Go-to-Market teams.
• Translate complex risk management workflows into intuitive, scalable enterprise experiences.
• Design workflows across risks, assets, vendors, controls, tasks, frameworks, owners, approvals, and organizational hierarchies.
• Guide enterprise-grade risk registers, dashboards, reporting experiences, and workflows.
• Lead customer discovery and research, including prototyping and validation with risk and security stakeholders.
• Establish a high bar for interaction design, visual design, information architecture, accessibility, content, and product quality.
• Influence product strategy and roadmap decisions through design perspectives, customer insights, prototypes, and narratives.
• Develop frameworks and processes for effective, consistent design decisions.
• Partner with Design Systems to evolve reusable patterns.
• Define and measure design impact through customer outcomes, adoption, usability, efficiency, and business results.
• Shape AI-powered risk-management experiences with sound judgment around trust, transparency, and responsible AI use.
• Represent Design in leadership discussions, planning, product reviews, and cross-functional forums.
• Contribute to the broader Design organization through mentoring and best-practice sharing.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience designing digital products, including significant leadership experience in complex B2B SaaS or enterprise software.
• 4+ years managing and developing product designers, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and career development.
• Experience setting design direction for a product area and translating company strategy into team priorities and outcomes.
• Track record designing intuitive workflows for complex, data-rich, or highly configurable products.
• Strong product thinking and systems thinking.
• Experience partnering with Product and Engineering leaders on strategy, prioritization, and delivery.
• Customer-centered design experience, including qualitative research, journey mapping, prototyping, usability testing, and iterative development.
• Strong interaction design, information architecture, visual design, and storytelling skills, with a relevant portfolio.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity and balance strategic thinking with bias for action.
• Collaborative leadership style and ability to build trust and align teams.
• Bachelor’s degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Must be authorized to work in the U.S. without current or future employer sponsorship.
• Willingness to use AI responsibly to improve efficiency and impact.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in risk management, cybersecurity, compliance, GRC, IT, infrastructure, financial services, or another complex and regulated domain.
• Familiarity with design systems and scalable design patterns.

Compensation and Benefits

• Base salary: $275,000–$323,000.
• Industry-competitive equity.
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage, with employee-only premiums covered for most medical plans.
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave.
• Health and wellness stipend.
• Remote workspace, internet, and cellphone stipends.
• Commuter benefits for San Francisco and New York City office reporters.
• Family planning benefits.
• Matching 401(k) contribution with immediate vesting.
• Flexible paid time off, 80 hours of sick time, and 11 company-paid holidays.
• Virtual team activities, lunch and learns, and company-wide events.