Company Overview
Zoro offers millions and millions of products — an endless aisle with everything you need to run your business. We offer fast and free shipping, no-hassle returns, and exceptional customer service. We’ve grown quickly in a short time and are continuing to do so while aggressively growing our revenue. We are excited to be a part of an award-winning culture — we have been named a Great Place to Work for multiple years in a row, among other local and national accolades. We think Zoro is a pretty amazing place to work and grow, and think you will too! 

Position Description
The Experience Design team works collaboratively with different groups across Zoro to solve important customer problems in elegant, scalable, and measurable ways. As an integral part of Zoro’s Product teams, which are aligned to driving outcomes at key points in the customer journey, Experience Designers participate in all steps of the value-creation process for customers: defining a problem, exploring the potential solutions, testing and measurement, and iterative improvement. 

The Senior Manager of Experience Design plays a strategic role in bringing our products to market, working closely with Product and Engineering leaders and other business partners to ensure that the products we design and build are aligned with user needs and expectations and delivered with care and commitment to quality. As an embedded member of the Product team, the Experience Design Manager helps to shape the product roadmap, contributes customer context, defines user stories and design tasks, drives collaborative design practices, and ensures quality and a sense of urgency within the team, emphasizing the use of lean tools and techniques. Acting in a player coach role, the Experience Design Manager remains hands-on, creating sketches, wireframes, user flows and other critical design documentation as needed, while also managing and mentoring a small team of 2-6 UX Architects and UI Designers who support design work for the product team as well as other key Experience Design initiatives. This is a high-visibility position, with direct lines of communication to senior leadership and executive team members, and reports directly to the Senior Director of Customer Experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of Experience Designers to deliver design solutions that meets customer needs, aligns with the product vision and roadmap, and results in a delightful customer experience
• Work closely with design leadership to ensure a cohesive user experience across the Zoro.com product.
• Partner with the Design Operations Manager to continuously improve the way we deliver design and collaborate with other key roles (e.g., Engineers, QA).
• Influence the business and product strategy while being a strong and articulate advocate for user-centered design.
• Build relationships with cross-functional team members from Product Management, Engineering, Data Science & Analytics, Merchandising, Supply Chain, and Marketing and speak to experience strategy, design goals, and execution.
• Drive early-stage product discovery and definition through design thinking workshops and other collaborative activities, research planning and execution, rapid prototyping, and concept testing.
• Understand and incorporate complex technical and business requirements into elegant design solutions based on data, trends, and industry best practices. 
• Prototype static and interactive concepts for communication with the business, demos, development, and for usability studies
• Create and execute on plans for user research and usability testing in collaboration with internal team members and stakeholders
• Provide design critique and reviews, sharing your thoughts and domain knowledge in a supportive and constructive manner.
• Recruit, hire, and manage team members; Manage team member priorities and deliverables, ensuring project and skill set fit to distribute work projects, active feedback to improve deliverables, capacity management and productivity expectations.
• Maintain a high bar of quality, promote strong ethical and cultural norms, and make sure your team feels empowered and enabled to perform at their best.
• Support professional development for team members, identifying key opportunities for growth and skill development to support the team vision
• Develop collaborative partnerships with leaders across different teams to set strategy, priorities, and resourcing as well as efficiently implement user experiences that are cohesive, inclusive, and well-informed
• Champion, socialize, and evangelize the value of UX best practices to the broader business through Lunch & Learns, workshops, and other activities

Qualifications

• Training in Human-Centered Design, Design Thinking, Human Factors, or related field. A Masters Degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Information Systems, or a related UX discipline is preferred.
• 5-7 years of work experience in a UX role; prior B2B and/or B2C ecommerce experience is preferred.
• Fluent in many of the tools in our design toolkit (Sketch, InVision, Abstract, Axure, Lucid Chart, Mural) with a clear perspective on when, where, and how they are most useful.
• Practical knowledge of Google Analytics and behavioral analytics tools such as ContentSquare, SessionCam, or HotJar.
• Ample experience collaborating across multiple stakeholder groups, communicating with diverse audiences, and balancing/negotiation priorities
• A portfolio of work that demonstrates process / approach, the ability to communicate informed design rationale, and an understanding of design, usability, and research best practices.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and persuasion skills; successful in building buy-in with stakeholders and senior management
• Experienced with delivery of UX artifacts within an agile or lean framework (e.g., design sprints, dual-track agile)
• Experience with translating complex problems into elegant design solutions
• Ability to juggle multiple priorities and effectively deliver in a dynamic environment
• Prior experience with managing and mentoring the work of others is preferred
• Knowledge of Atlassian JIRA and Confluence platforms for agile collaboration and workflow management
• Familiarity with web accessibility guidelines and standards (e.g., WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA Section 508 compliance) is preferred.
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative user research methods and associated platforms, specifically Validately, Qualtrics, and Optimal Workshop.
• Experience with A/B and multivariate test design and analysis; familiarity with Google Optimize or Optimizely is a plus. 

 
You will be a great fit for the role if: 

• You are a compelling storyteller, able to build empathy and convey the mindset of users to the broader organization.
• You have the ability to ask, as well as answer, meaningful and impactful questions.
• You are an excellent listener with keen attention to detail.
• You show a relentless bias for action. One of your favorite things to do is to launch, learn, and iterate. 
• You love collaborating with others; they should also love collaborating with you.
• You are naturally inquisitive and love solving problems.
• You embrace ambiguity.
• You learn from failure.
• You are passionate about building, prototyping, and continually evolving digital products throughout the product lifecycle.
• You can convey concepts through sketches, flows, wireframes, clickable prototypes, etc. – whatever method you determine to be the most efficient and effective to gain alignment and support from your target audience.
• You’re a systems thinker; you can logically visualize complex systems and user interaction flows.
• You have the ability to learn new tools and do self-guided work within a fast-paced environment.

Zoro Values and Inclusive Culture:
We share a commitment to our Zoro values – Win & Lose Together (We prefer winning!), Take Ownership, We Are Transparent, and Aspire to be Customer-Obsessed. Everything we do at Zoro is centered around delighting our customers. It's a natural extension of our company culture and how we care for each other. We believe when we act in ways that are consistent with these values, we can solve any technical challenge that lies ahead of us. As a Zoro employee, you can expect to work with smart, energetic people, learn something every day, and be valued for your perspective. 

Zoro is dedicated to fostering an environment where people of all backgrounds and beliefs are represented, and all team members can be confident that their experiences and perspectives are valued. Zoro aims to empower all employees to learn about, raise awareness, and promote diversity and inclusion through all of our workplace interactions.
 

Zoro is an Equal Opportunity Workplace and an Affirmative Action Employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.