VP, Experience Design

Velir is an established mid-sized agency with a top-tier portfolio of clients, ranging from the world’s largest non-profits to Fortune 500 brands. As of 2023, Velir acquired Brooklyn Data Company, a premier data and analytics consultancy focused on leadership, process improvement, implementation, and advanced analytics. At Velir, we believe people are our greatest asset. Our culture is built on a foundation of trust, collaboration, and continued improvement. We strive for excellence in everything we do, embracing challenges as opportunities for growth. Our success is driven by a shared passion for making a positive impact on our customers, our communities and each other. We are a remote first company that offers competitive pay and excellent benefits. Overview: The VP, Experience Design is a senior creative leader that Velir x Brooklyn Data puts in front of clients when the stakes are highest. On the large redesign, platform, and AI pursuits assigned by the Chief Creative & Innovation Officer, this position leads as the CCIO’s stand-in: setting the strategy, shaping the solution with Sales and Technology, running the finalist presentation, and handling the hard questions from a client’s executive team with full authority in the room. This position also leads the Experience Design practice, spanning UX (research, information architecture, interaction design) and UI and visual design (interface design, brand expression, design systems), ensuring the work sold is work the team can deliver to the standard promised. The VP, Experience Design is accountable for AI on both sides of the work: proving new ways AI makes our delivery team faster and better, and bringing AI-enabled experiences to clients before they ask for them. Responsibilities: Report to the Chief Creative & Innovation Officer (CCIO) and represent the full creative, strategy, and data remit on the pursuits you lead. Lead Velir x Brooklyn Data’s largest pursuits as the CCIO’s stand-in, owning the response strategy, win theme, creative and experience concept, and finalist presentation from RFP to decision. Present integrated offerings across experience strategy, content intelligence, data, and technology, supported by practice leaders on the substance. Shape solutions with sales land development leads, including scope, phasing, team, and estimate assumptions, and push back when a solution won’t win or can’t be delivered at the price. Build go/no-go cases on new opportunities for the CCIO, covering fit, winnability, required creative investment, and trade-offs. Build lasting relationships with client executives, serving as a trusted advisor when engagements face hard decisions. Package the practice’s capabilities into offerings Sales and account leads can sell independently, and keep the pursuit toolkit current with case studies, references, concept work, and a published point of view. Represent Velir x Brooklyn Data’s design point of view at industry events and with DXP platform partners. Run a pipeline of AI use cases across UX and UI delivery, measure results, and feed them into estimates and pricing, while setting guardrails and review standards for AI-assisted client work. Bring AI-enabled experience concepts (conversational and agentic interfaces, AI search, personalization) into pursuits and existing accounts, and build the firm’s design patterns for trust, uncertainty, failure states, and human handoff. Own the economics of design delivery, including utilization, margin, and staffing shape, and recommend tooling and hiring decisions to the CCIO. Hold the quality bar across the practice, measure performance, and document standards and decisions so the team can work from them. Skills & Qualifications A proven track record of being an idea-led and concept driven creative with the portfolio to back it up. 10+ years of experience leading experience design teams, a practice, studio, or business unit with accountability for growth and operational metrics. Track record of leading and winning finalist presentations on $1M+ engagements as the senior person in the room. Experience selling integrated work spanning design, content, data, and technology, with the ability to speak credibly outside your own discipline. Experience shipping enterprise-scale experience design on a DXP (Sitecore, Optimizely, Adobe Experience Manager, or Drupal) for organizations with layered governance, such as associations, nonprofits, healthcare systems, financial services firms, or universities. Experience leading both UX and UI/visual design teams, with personal craft in research-led interaction design and high-quality visual and brand expression. Demonstrated success embedding AI use cases into a design team’s daily practice, with measurable before-and-after results. Experience designing or selling AI-enabled client experiences, including approaches to trust and failure states. Daily hands-on use of AI tools and the ability to explain their strengths and limits to skeptical clients. Ability to connect recommendations to client business metrics such as revenue, membership, cost to serve, and risk. Strong written communication, with a habit of bringing clear recommendations backed by options, numbers, and risk. Client executive references from competitively won engagements. Physical Requirements: Frequent sitting at a desk performing work on a computer Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions Travel will be required for this role up to 25% Compensation Range: $225,000- $245,000k annually Please note that compensation packages are finalized after the interview process is concluded. We use a competency-based approach to base pay, which means it is based on the competencies and skills demonstrated for this role. Core Company Values Take the Long View - Ensure the company is built to last Be Courageous - Make the right dec