Experience Design Advisor Lead

Job description

Why USAA? At USAA, our mission is to empower our members to achieve financial security through highly competitive products, exceptional service and trusted advice. We seek to be the #1 choice for the military community and their families. Embrace a fulfilling career at USAA, where our core values – honesty, integrity, loyalty and service – define how we treat each other and our members. Be part of what truly makes us special and impactful. We are proud to support active-duty military spouses. USAA roles may offer remote or hybrid flexibility for active-duty military spouses consistent with applicable policy and business needs. The Opportunity Every day, our members encounter moments that are harder than they should be. Some are small frustrations. Others create real barriers to achieving their financial goals. Our mission is simple: identify the biggest sources of member friction across the bank and drive the changes that make banking easier. As an Experience Design Advisor Lead, you'll operate at the center of that mission. You'll partner with executive leaders and teams across products, operations, digital, servicing, and support functions to solve some of the bank's most complex and visible member experience challenges. We're looking for a leader who can uncover root causes, connect insights to action, challenge conventional thinking, and influence decisions across the Bank. You will use data, member experiences, and business context to help the bank prioritize the changes that matter most and drive measurable improvements in how members experience banking. The ideal candidate is energized by creating impact at scale. They ask the tough questions others avoid. They are comfortable navigating ambiguity, building alignment among diverse stakeholders, and influencing senior leaders without formal authority. This role offers unique exposure to executive leadership, enterprise-wide scope, and the opportunity to shape how the bank identifies, prioritizes, and eliminates friction. If you're motivated by making banking simpler, one decision, one process, and one experience at a time, we'd love to meet you. This role is remote eligible in the continental U.S. with occasional business travel. However, individuals residing within a 60-mile radius of a USAA office will be expected to work on-site four days per week. What you'll do: • Leverage business expert knowledge (products, processes, etc.) and expert level subject matter knowledge to lead the collaboration with stakeholders and cross-functional teams in the development and implementation of key initiatives. • Understand team dynamics, promote the development of team relationships, and build processes that facilitate productive teamwork. • Direct analyses or investigations into understanding root causes for complex and often unique or undefined business problems or issues; synthesizing and interpreting large quantities of information. • Plan, lead and facilitate brainstorming sessions and planning workshops to optimize solutions for end-user needs. • Create and apply principles of user-centered design towards creating visual artifacts and representations of strategic intent. • Create and share creative design alternatives to project challenges. • Develop communication materials reports, or presentations that clearly define the business case and drive business decisions; communicates strategic vision and project deliverables to key stakeholders across the Enterprise to include Senior Executive Management. • Identify, research and assess capabilities and industry best practices for Financial Services and other customer focused industries to ensure USAA meets and exceeds member service expectations; proposes new ideas and provides thought leadership influencing research direction. • Anticipate opportunities and potential solutions and leads team through the problem resolution process. • Champion and develop a compelling rationale in support of the final recommendation(s). • Ensure risks associated with business activities are effectively identified, measured, monitored, and controlled in accordance with risk and compliance policies and procedures. ​ What you have: • Bachelor's degree; OR 4 years of relevant education and/or experience. • Minimum 8 years’ experience in experience or user-centered design and/or research and testing in a customer-centric work environment. • Minimum 4 years’ relevant customer relationship management experience. • Experience in customer experience or member relations within a fast-moving and highly regulated environment with clear examples of improving customer experience. • Experience in Agile and/or human center design. • Experience utilizing user experience design methods, principles of interface design, interactive technologies and artifacts including but not limited to prototypes, interactive mockups, design guidelines/specifications, and user stories. • Experience with Tableau or similar data visualization tools. • Strong communication, presentation, interpersonal and analytical skills. • Ability to work with highly technical teams in a fast-paced environment. ​ What sets you apart: • Demonstrated experience leading complex, enterprise-wide customer, member, or client experience initiatives across multiple business functions. • Proven ability to influence senior leaders and executives without direct authority and drive alignment across a highly matrixed organization. • Experience facilitating workshops, executive forums, and cross-functional working sessions focused on solving complex business or customer experience challenges. • Strong executive presence with experience presenting insights, recommendations, and business cases to senior leadership teams. • Experience leading organizational change initiatives and building stakeholder buy-in for new approaches, processes, or solutions. • Proven success identifying customer or member friction points and driving measurable improvements in customer satisfaction, op