Director, Product Design

Description Jeppesen ForeFlight builds industry-leading aviation software used by pilots, aircraft operators, and major airlines worldwide. As a high-growth, private equity-backed company, we are focused on scaling our operations, strengthening our financial infrastructure, and driving operational excellence across the business. Our team combines deep domain expertise with a collaborative, high-performance culture to solve complex challenges and support continued growth. This role is based in Austin, TX on a hybrid basis. Jeppesen ForeFlight is seeking a Director, Product Design to help lead the next evolution of Jeppesen ForeFlight's user experience as aviation software enters an AI-native era. This role will drive design strategy and execution across key areas of the ForeFlight product ecosystem while partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Data Science, and AI teams. The ideal candidate is an experienced design leader who can build alignment across cross-functional stakeholders, elevate design quality, and help shape innovative aviation experiences powered by emerging technologies. This role requires a blend of product design leadership, systems thinking, and technical fluency — and a clear understanding of how modern AI-enabled products are developed and delivered. You are a collaborative leader known for building strong relationships across teams and disciplines, aligning stakeholders around customer needs and product goals, and navigating ambiguity while maintaining momentum and focus. You balance customer experience, business objectives, and technical considerations — and you understand the opportunities and challenges of designing AI-enabled products. You view design and engineering as deeply interconnected disciplines and focus on practical customer outcomes rather than technology for its own sake. As a director, you will lead, mentor, and grow teams across Product Design, UX Research, and Design Systems while partnering closely with distributed product, engineering, and data science teams across the organization. Key Responsibilities Define and execute design strategy across major product initiatives and user experiences Lead, mentor, and grow teams across Product Design, UX Research, and Design Systems Establish and promote design best practices that improve usability, safety, efficiency, and customer satisfaction Foster a strong culture of user-centered design and continuous improvement Ensure high-quality design execution across multiple product teams Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Data Science, and Business stakeholders to deliver customer value Build strong working relationships across functions and help align teams around shared goals and priorities Influence product direction through customer insights, design expertise, and data-informed decision-making Help navigate complex product decisions within a highly regulated and safety-critical environment Help shape the design strategy for AI-assisted and AI-powered aviation workflows Collaborate with AI and engineering teams to create intuitive, trustworthy user experiences Contribute to frameworks that support transparency, explainability, and human oversight in AI systems Drive experimentation and innovation around intelligent recommendations, automation, and emerging workflows Advocate for responsible AI practices that deliver meaningful customer value Partner with Design and Engineering teams to evolve ForeFlight's design system Drive consistency, accessibility, scalability, and maintainability across products and platforms Improve design-to-development workflows and collaboration practices Support adoption of modern design tools and AI-enabled workflows Collaborate closely with Engineering to ensure high-quality execution of user experiences Use prototyping to accelerate learning, alignment, and decision-making Basic Qualifications 10+ years of product design experience 3+ years leading design teams and developing design talent Strong fluency in English, both written and verbal A portfolio demonstrating end-to-end product design leadership, systems thinking, and measurable business impact Experience leading design initiatives for complex software products Strong cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management skills Demonstrated success partnering with Product and Engineering teams Experience contributing to or scaling design systems Experience driving initiatives across multiple product teams Understanding of modern AI product development and user experience principles Ability to communicate design decisions effectively to technical and non-technical audiences Proficiency with modern design tools such as Figma Preferred Qualifications Experience in aviation, aerospace, transportation, mapping, navigation, or mission-critical software Experience designing AI-powered enterprise or consumer products Familiarity with modern frontend technologies and design-to-development workflows Experience working in highly regulated or safety-sensitive environments Experience supporting distributed teams Why Join Us At Jeppesen ForeFlight, we know you want a rewarding career. To do that, you need challenging projects, a good work environment, and awesome coworkers. We believe in our employees, and we empower them to make a direct impact on our products and services. We strive to provide our employees with a world-class benefits experience, focused on supporting their physical, financial, and emotional wellbeing. Our benefits package includes but is not limited to the following: Medical, dental, vision insurance with Employer paid health premiums Open PTO Policy 401(k) with up to 10% company matching and immediate vesting 12 Weeks Paid Maternity Leave 4 Weeks Paid Paternity Leave Flight Training Rewards Pay is based upon candidate experience and qualifications, as well market and business considerations: Summary Pay Range: $184,000-$225,000 Jeppesen ForeFlight - EOE including Disability/Vets | Pay Transparency | E-Verify Participant | Equal Opportunity Employer