Director of Product Design

McAfee is seeking a Director of Product Design to lead our product design and systems team, raise the bar for design quality, and help the organization deliver better product experiences with greater speed, consistency, and business impact. 

This leader will partner closely with Product, Engineering, Research, Content Design, and executive stakeholders to shape UX strategy, strengthen design operations, and integrate design earlier into planning and delivery. A key focus is advancing AI-driven product design workflows—improving how teams explore concepts, apply the design system, prototype, critique, QA, and hand off work to Engineering, including pushing beyond traditional Figma-based handoff toward more executable, implementation-ready outputs. 

The role is also accountable for strengthening the design system as a foundation for scale, setting clear expectations through the levels and skills framework, and developing managers and senior ICs who can deliver high-quality, production-ready work. 

What You’ll Do 

• Set UX strategy and direction across multiple teams, connecting customer needs, business goals, product strategy, and measurable outcomes. 

• Advance AI-enabled product design workflows that improve concept exploration, prototyping, design system application, critique, QA, and handoff—pushing the organization beyond static files toward more executable, implementation-ready deliverables. 

• Strengthen the design system as a platform for consistency, efficiency, accessibility, reusable patterns, implementation fidelity, and cross-platform quality. 

• Raise the quality of design deliverables by defining what “excellent” looks like across flows, edge cases, interaction details, content, accessibility, specifications, and engineering handoff. 

• Build operational excellence through stronger planning, prioritization, design reviews, decision-making, documentation, and cross-functional alignment. 

• Lead and influence cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Research, Marketing, Data, and executive stakeholders to align strategy, scope, trade-offs, and delivery plans. 

• Grow talent and design culture by coaching managers and senior ICs, applying the levels and skills framework, and building a culture of ownership, feedback, high craft, and measurable outcomes. 

What You Bring 

• 10+ years of product design experience, including leadership of managers, senior ICs, or multiple design teams. 

• Proven ability to set strategy, translate ambiguity into clear priorities, and connect design work to customer and business outcomes. 

• Strong experience with design systems, reusable patterns, cross-platform design, and design-to-engineering handoff. 

• Practical fluency with AI-enabled product design workflows and strong judgment about where AI can improve speed, quality, system adoption, and implementation readiness versus where human craft must lead. 

• Track record of raising design quality, delivery discipline, operational effectiveness, and implementation fidelity across teams. 

• Experience using research, data, experimentation, and customer insight to guide product direction and validate decisions. 

• Strong executive communication, storytelling, stakeholder management, and cross-functional influence. 

• Experience mentoring and developing design managers, senior designers, and future design leaders against clear level expectations. 

• Commitment to inclusive design, accessibility, privacy, trust, and responsible AI practices. 

Success Looks Like 

• Teams deliver higher-quality work with clearer expectations, stronger rituals, and better handoff. 

• AI-enabled product design workflows improve concept exploration, prototyping, design system usage, critique, QA, and engineering handoff quality. 

• The design system reduces inconsistency, rework, and implementation ambiguity. 

• Design is engaged earlier in planning and contributes more directly to product strategy and business outcomes. 

• Managers and designers understand what great looks like at their level and have clearer paths for growth.