Manager - Digital UX/UI na Acehardware

About This Role

The Manager – Digital UX/UI will define and shape the digital customer experience for Acehardware.com, Ace Hardware Consumer Mobile App, Ace Home Services and other consumer facing digital-based experiences.  This individual will be responsible for managing a team of UX/UI designers responsible for these areas.

What You’ll Do

• Own the user experience for Ace Hardware’s digital properties; acehardware.com, consumer mobile app, and home services:

• Identify new features and enhancements needed to continually improve customer experience, based on quantitative and qualitative data.

• Assess and ensure the usability of new and existing features and advocate for change where & when needed.

• Work with Product Owners & Stakeholders to prioritize enhancements, build & manage the backlog, build roadmap strategic plans, determine size of UX effort estimates, and manage team resourcing needs 

• Act as strategic thought leader for the UX/UI design & greater ecommerce team, by providing design feedback during review sessions, sharing best practices, providing direction to solve design problems, and ensuring the entire team is creating the best user experiences for Ace’s digital properties, while also helping with vision casting how the digital experience may evolve over longer time frames, based on consumer & market trends

• Ability to lead and navigate the UX Design Team through multiple projects at any given time, varying in size and complexity, without significant oversite from the Product/UX Director.

  • Manage, prioritizes, and determines UX/UI activities for assigned projects.

  • Resolve problems and roadblocks as they occur.

  • Work within Agile/Sprint & Waterfall/Project based frameworks

  • Resource plan and budget team’s bandwidth within project timelines & expectations

• Create innovative and friction free user experiences for Ace Hardware’s digital offerings;:

  • Capture and translates business requirements and user needs into innovative user experiences.

  • Lead working sessions with UX/UI team, product owners, business stakeholders, data analysts and development teams to gather insights and form UX solutions.

  • Document the user experience solution in the form of presentations, user flows, wireframe specifications, visual comps, prototypes, and other necessary documentation to communicate the recommended user experience to stakeholders and development teams.

  • Apply best practices, from 3rd party orgs (such as Baymard) to design solutioning.

  • Lead review sessions of in-progress work within the UX team but also with stakeholders and leadership to share design direction and gather feedback

• Lead UX research initiatives

  • Conduct, analyze, and document competitive analyses and heuristic evaluations; to share ecommerce landscape, understand best practices across other ecommerce sites and inform design directions.

  • Identify research needs for project work, including qualitative and quantitative research; as well as, A/B tests, outlining with hypothesis and desired outcomes.

  • Guide UX team through when/how to leverage Live User testing to inform new designs or updates to existing features.

  • Work with data analysts and product owners to interpret review and analyze KPIs and behavioral on-site data to uncover areas of opportunity.

  • Leverage & review Voice of Customer to inform future decisions (on-site feedback, app store reviews, etc.)

• Establish and apply the visual design language for Ace’s Web/App Design System

  • Collaborate with the Creative Services team (the team responsible for the brand standards) to determine the visual design direction for the digital ecommerce platforms, ensuring the visual design aligns to and elevates the Ace Hardware brand.

  • Create and maintain the designs for the common components (i.e. buttons, links, input fields, alert messages, modals, etc.)

  • Own and maintain the UI Tool Kit in Figma, used by all UX/UI designers to document the designs for the app and web experiences.

• Work with the app and web development teams, to implement the Design System, Partner with UX/Product Director to drive forward the mobile app experience.

  • Leverage best practices in mobile app design and a deep understanding of native mobile device capabilities to best create useful and sticky experiences that keep the Ace customer engaged and wanting to use the App.

  • Stay on top of new consumer technology trends around AR/VR/Glasses/Mobile/AI/Etc. to help ensure Ace’s digital experience remains relevant with the evolving consumer.

Who You Are

You are a team player with great humility, yet a strong drive to win.  This is the Ace culture.  You have a passion for digital design and are truly obsessed with doing what is best for the customer.  You are actively curious in learning and staying on top of new technologies shaping our industry including AI, AR/VR, Mobile, Personalization, Etc.

Required Skills

• 8+ years of experience in UX/UI design, visual or graphic design, digital product design, information architecture, interaction design, and other related UX/UI disciplines.

• 4+ years of experience leading and/or mentoring other UX/UI designers.

• Proven experience creating UX/UI designs for both web and mobile applications on iOS and Android operating systems.

• Deep knowledge on web and app user experience best practices and can clearly communicate and apply those practices to project work.

• Understands the ecommerce competitive landscape to inform UX design solutions.

• Experience creating user experiences for e-commerce businesses (ideally retail businesses).

• Experience with all stages of the digital product development lifecycle in both waterfall and agile environments.

• Experience creating wireframes, visual design comps and prototypes in Figma

• Experience conducting research & live user testing through platforms like User Testing or PlaybookUX.

• Proven ability to diplomatically advocate for the user, communicate informed design rational and value.

• Effective cross-function collaboration skills with designers, business partners, developers, and other stakeholders.

• Experience presenting design concepts, finalized designs, and insights to an executive leadership team

• Outstanding communication, organization, time management and interpersonal skills.

MUST have a strong portfolio demonstrating past work experience and deliverables (e.g. visual designs, graphic designs, wireframes, user flows, site maps, research, etc.).

#LI-JK1

Compensation Details:

$170000 Per Year

Why should you join our team?

We live our values - W.E.L.I.G.H.T (Winning, Excellence, Love, Integrity, Gratitude, Humility, and Teamwork). Gratitude. Humility. Love. You don’t often see values like these in most corporate statements, but Ace is different. These things are important to us. They represent our commitment to the company, our employees, to Ace retailers and to the Ace brand.

In addition to providing our employees a great culture, Ace also offers competitive benefits* that address life’s necessities and perks, many of which expand and improve year after year, including:

• Incentive opportunities, based on role/grade level (rapid company growth over the past 5 years resulted in incentives being paid out at an average of 122% of your target opportunity!)
• Generous 401(k) retirement savings plan with a fully vested matching contribution the first year in addition to quarterly contributions and annual discretionary contribution (once eligibility requirements have been met). Over the past 5 years, company contributions (matching, quarterly & discretionary) for fully eligible employees have averaged 10.4% of total eligible compensation.
• Comprehensive health coverage (medical, dental, vision and disability – up to 26 weeks short-term disability and long-term disability) & life insurance benefits for you and your dependents
• 21 days of vacation immediately available (prorated in the first year) and up to 6 paid holidays depending on the month of hire
• Your career at Ace is more than just a job. It’s a chance to be part of something meaningful. We help locally-owned businesses thrive and make an impact in their communities – and we support our employees in doing the same by offering an annual Ace Cares Week, 20 hours off work per year to volunteer at an organization of your choice, opportunities to help Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and the Ace Helpful Fund through the Ace Foundation
• Ace invests in every employee we hire, with a key focus on development and coaching. We offer on-site classes, facilitator-led courses, and a generous tuition assistance program, plus a performance management approach that goes beyond the typical annual review
• We know the work environment matters. That’s why Ace holds frequent campus events like Employee Appreciation Week, vendor demos, cookouts, and merchandise sales
• We bring them to you! Services such as mobile spas, auto maintenance, car wash and detailing, dry cleaning, dentists, eye doctors, flu shots, recycling and more!
• Employee discounts on Ace merchandise (including top brands like Weber, Traeger, Yeti, Craftsman, DeWalt and more), travel, fitness, computers and thousands more
• Birth/Adoption bonding paid time off
• Adoption cost reimbursement
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) – access to free visits to therapists and lawyers, guidance on financial matters, elder and childcare, and assistance with tickets to entertainment events
• Identity theft protection

* Benefits are provided in compliance with applicable plans and policies.

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We want to hear from you!
When most people think of career opportunities with Ace Hardware, they often think of the helpful cashiers and sales associates at their local store. However, have you also considered the people behind the scenes who select, promote, ship and process the invoices for more than 75,000 products? Maybe you haven't, but we'd like you to. Because together we help our customers take care of their homes. Come find out why a career with the Ace Hardware Corporation is one of America's best kept secrets.

Equal Opportunity Employer
Ace Hardware Corporation is committed to a policy of promoting equal employment opportunities. The company recognizes the importance of diversity and leveraging the skills and talents of all people to the mutual advantage of each individual and the organization. The company is committed to the prevention of employment discrimination related to race, religion, color, sex (including sexual harassment), gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, disability and military or veteran status, sexual orientation or any other action covered by federal or applicable state/local laws.

Disclaimer

The pay range for this position starts as listed in the job posting, but could be higher based on education and experience. Please note, compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each opening. We take into consideration the minimum requirements outlined in the job description, such as an individual’s education, training and experience, the position’s work location, required travel (if any), and external market conditions when determining the final salary for potential new hires.

Be aware that salary estimates published via alternate online job boards may not be a true representation of the actual pay range offered for this position. Please refer to the Ace position description for the accurate starting pay range information and feel free to discuss this with a Talent Acquisition professional if you are chosen to move forward with an interview.

This written “Position Description” is not intended to cover all aspects of the position listed. It is meant to cover the basic/general essential job functions of a particular position. Ace Hardware Corporation reserves the right to change job duties, including essential job functions, according to business necessity.

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.