Manager, User Experience Design

Manager, User Experience Design

Here at Appian, our values of Intensity and Excellence define who we are. We set high standards and live up to them, ensuring that everything we do is done with care and quality. We approach every challenge with ambition and commitment, holding ourselves and each other accountable to achieve the best results. When you join Appian, you'll be part of a passionate team dedicated to accomplishing hard things, together.

As the Manager, User Experience Design, you will play a dual role as both an individual contributor and a people manager. As a designer, you will execute the design lifecycle for one or more software features, creating user-centered experiences that help our customers automate complex business processes. As a manager, you will guide and develop a team of UX designers, assessing their performance against Appian's values and helping them grow in alignment with company needs. This is an opportunity to shape both the product and the people who create it.

This role is based at our office in Chennai, India. Appian was built on a culture of in-person collaboration, which we believe is a key driver of our mission to be the best. Employees hired for this position are expected to be in the office 5 days a week to foster that culture and ensure we continue to thrive through shared ideas and teamwork. We believe being in the office provides more opportunities to come together and celebrate working with the exceptional people across Appian.

Key responsibilities:

• Feature Design Execution: Own the end-to-end design process for assigned features, from research and ideation through prototyping, testing, and implementation. Create wireframes, mockups, prototypes, and detailed implementation specifications that guide engineering teams.
• User Research & Testing: Conduct user research, usability testing, and design validation activities to ensure features meet user needs and business objectives. Synthesize insights into actionable design decisions.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders throughout the design lifecycle. Participate in design reviews, sprint planning, and feature definition sessions.
• Team Leadership & Development: Manage and mentor a team of UX designers, providing regular feedback, career guidance, and performance assessments. Model Appian's values of Intensity and Excellence in your work and interactions.
• Performance Management: Assess your team members' performance against Appian's values and design standards. Identify areas for growth and create development plans that align individual capabilities with company needs.
• Design Quality & Standards: Ensure your team's work meets Appian's design standards and contributes to a cohesive product experience. Champion design best practices and contribute to the evolution of our design system.
• Resource Planning: Work with Product leadership to balance team workload, prioritize projects, and ensure efficient delivery of design work across multiple features or products.

To be successful in this role, you need to:

• Be passionate about creating intuitive, user-centered designs that solve complex business problems.
• Have strong visual design, interaction design, and prototyping skills with a portfolio that demonstrates your craft.
• Be comfortable balancing hands-on design work with people management responsibilities.
• Have a genuine desire to develop others and help them reach their potential.
• Be skilled at giving and receiving constructive feedback with candor and empathy.
• Understand how to conduct user research and translate insights into design decisions.
• Be comfortable working closely with engineers and product managers to bring designs to life.
• Have experience with enterprise software design and an understanding of the software development lifecycle.
• Be organized and able to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• Embrace Appian's values and have the ability to assess and guide others in living up to these standards.

Basic qualifications:

• 7+ years of experience in UX design, with a strong portfolio demonstrating end-to-end design process work.
• 2+ years of people management experience, plus demonstrated leadership of design projects and mentorship of other designers.
• Proficiency with design tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, or similar.
• Experience designing for enterprise software or complex B2B applications.
• Bachelor's degree in Design, HCI, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to articulate design decisions to diverse audiences.