Director, UX

LaunchDarkly has evolved from a feature management tool into a broader platform serving developers and technical teams across experimentation, regression detection and observability, AI configuration, and beyond.

As our product surface expands, the complexity of our user experience increases and so does the need for strong, opinionated UX leadership at every level of the organization.

We are looking for a Director of UX to own the UX function across at least two product areas. Reporting to the Head of UX, you will lead product designers embedded in technical product areas, build deep cross-functional partnerships with Engineering and Product, and help scale a design practice that punches above its weight in a fast-moving developer-facing company.

This is not a brand role. This is not a visual design role. This is not a consumer UX role.

This is a systems, platform, and leadership role inside a developer-facing company. Your job is to raise the bar on craft, build trust with cross-functional partners, and deliver experiences that make complex workflows feel intentional.

1. Leading on a High-Bar DevTools UX Organization

• Lead and manage a group of product designers across multiple product lines.

• Establish clear expectations and accountability for design quality.

• Raise the quality and consistency of UX design across multiple product lines.

• Develop (senior) ICs into stronger designers that work in modern, collaborative ways.

• Hire designers with demonstrated DevTools or technically complex product experience.

2. Ensure Design’s Cross-Functional Credibility

• Build deep trust and partner directly with Engineering and Product Directors+.

• Operate comfortably in highly technical discussions.

• Clarify decision-making boundaries between UX, PM, and Engineering. Have an opinion where UX should lead versus support.

• Ensure UX is engaged early in product strategy conversations, not just execution.

• Model constructive conflict and high-trust collaboration.

3. DevTools-Native Product Judgment

• Drive experience improvements in technically complex, developer-facing workflows.

• Improve cross-product cohesion across the product suite.

• Identify and prioritize UX debt that costs the business, and build the case to get it resourced. Consistently communicate the value of this work to peers and leadership.

• Ensure LaunchDarkly’s product experience feel intentional, not assembled.

4. Delivering Business Impact

• Connect UX projects and improvements to activation, adoption, and expansion.

• Prioritize work based on measurable impact.

• Operate with urgency and bias toward execution.

• You’ve led design for products used by developers, SREs, data engineers, data scientists, or other technical audiences.

• You understand platform complexity and cross-product workflows, and you know how to optimize those because you’ve done it before.

• You have increased design’s influence in product strategy discussions.

• Engineers respect you and the teams you’ve built.

• PMs see you as a strategic partner.

• Designers describe you as clear, steady, and demanding in a productive way.

• 10+ years in UX, with 5+ years leading a team of product designers.

• Significant experience designing and leading UX in DevTools or developer-facing products.

• Experience scaling design in a growth-stage B2B SaaS company.

• Proven track record of building and improving cross-functional trust in technical organizations.

• Comfort engaging in technical conversations with engineers.

If your background is primarily consumer, marketing, or brand design, this role will not be a fit.

About You:

• You have led design for products used by developers, SREs, data engineers, data scientists, or other technical audiences.

• You understand platform complexity and cross-product workflows, and you know how to improve them because you have done it before.

• You have increased design's influence in product strategy discussions.

• Engineers respect you and the teams you have built.

• PMs see you as a strategic partner.

What Success Looks Like:

• Established trusted partnerships with your Engineering and Product counterparts, such that UX is included in roadmap and strategy conversations from the start.

• Raised the visible quality bar of work coming out of your product areas.

• Built a clear picture of the UX debt that matters most, and made progress getting it prioritized.

• Developed your direct reports. Your team describes you as experienced, clear, steady, and demanding in a productive way.

Pay:

Target pay ranges based on Geographic Zones* for Level M4:

• Zone 1: San Francisco/Bay Area or NYC Metropolitan Area, Boston, Seattle - $240,600 - $330,700**
• Zone 2: Irvine, LA, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Austin, Portland, Philadelphia, Chicago - 216,500 - $297,600**
• Zone 3: All other US locations - $204,500 - 281,100**
• Inclusive of 15% Bonus

LaunchDarkly operates from a place of high trust and transparency; we are happy to state the pay range for our open roles to best align with your needs. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location.

*Within the United States, our geographic pay zones are defined by counties surrounding major metropolitan areas.
**Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), health, vision, and dental insurance, and mental health benefits in addition to salary.

Modern software delivery was supposed to be the foundation for a thriving digital business but reality has proven otherwise. Slow, inefficient development cycles, costly outages, and fragmented customer experiences are preventing developers from building their best software. The LaunchDarkly platform helps developers innovate on new features faster while protecting them with a safety valve to instantly rewind when things go wrong. Developers can target product experiences to any customer segment and maximize the business impact of every feature. And by gradually rolling out new application components, they escape nightmare "big-bang" technology migrations. 

The LaunchDarkly platform was built to guide engineers to the next frontier of DevOps by:

• Improving the velocity and stability of software releases, without the fear of end customer outages
• Delivering targeted experiences by easily personalizing features to customer cohorts
• Maximizing the business impact of every feature through the ability to experiment and optimize
• Coordinating the release and optimization of software to provide consistent experiences across mobile platforms and device types
• Improving the effectiveness and productivity of engineering teams, by providing insights into engineering cadence and stability

At LaunchDarkly, we believe in the power of teams. We're building a team that is humble, open, collaborative, respectful and kind. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. LD invites any applicant to review our written Affirmative Action Plan. To do so, contact People Ops at [email protected]. 

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