Director of Design

Mapbox is the leading real-time location platform for a new generation of location-aware businesses. Mapbox is the only platform that equips organizations with the full set of tools to power the navigation of people, packages, and vehicles everywhere. More than 4 million registered developers have chosen Mapbox because of the platform’s flexibility, security and privacy compliance. Organizations use Mapbox applications, data, SDKs and APIs to create customized and immersive experiences that delight their customers.

We are seeking a strategic and visionary Director of Design to lead and scale Mapbox’s design organization. In this role, you will shape the end-to-end design vision across our products and experiences, establishing world-class usability, visual excellence, and interaction design for location-aware experiences.

You will lead multidisciplinary design teams spanning product design, UX, visual design, and design systems, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, and Go-to-Market teams to deliver intuitive and compelling experiences for end users worldwide. This team is responsible for creating a seamless and powerful user experience across our mapping tools, APIs, and data visualization platforms. We specialize in the intersection of design, cartography, and developer tools, ensuring our complex geographic data is presented beautifully and intuitively. We drive the visual language and interaction patterns for our core products, from the custom styling of digital maps to the user interfaces of our developer dashboards and mobile SDKs. Committed to user-centric research and design, we invent on behalf of developers to help them build the most innovative, location-aware applications. This role requires strong leadership, operational rigor, and deep expertise in building scalable design practices for highly technical products.

What You'll Do

Design Leadership & Strategy

• Define and drive the company-wide design vision, strategy, and standards.
• Lead and mentor a team of product designers, UX researchers, and design managers.
• Establish design principles that align with business goals and user needs.
• Elevate design quality and consistency across all customer touchpoints. Champion user-centered design thinking across the organization.
  
  

Product & Platform Design

• Guide design for complex developer tools, APIs, and mapping platforms.
• Ensure exceptional user experiences across web, mobile, and embedded environments.
• Partner with Product and Engineering leadership on roadmap planning and execution.
• Translate technical capabilities into intuitive, scalable user experiences.
  
  

Design Operations & Process

• Build and scale design systems, frameworks, and workflows.
• Improve design operations, tooling, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Implement measurable design metrics and performance standards.
• Establish efficient research and testing practices.
  
  

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with executive leadership to align design strategy with company vision.
• Collaborate with marketing and brand teams on cohesive visual identity.
• Advocate for design at all levels of the organization.
  
  

What’s Important For This Role

• 10 years of experience in product or UX design, including leadership roles.
• Proven experience leading and scaling high-performing design teams.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating shipped digital products and design impact.
• Experience designing complex platforms, developer tools, or technical products.
• Deep understanding of UX, interaction design, visual design, and design systems.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience working in fast-paced, cross-functional environments.
  
  

Nice To Have

• Experience in mapping, geospatial technology, or data visualization platforms.
• Background in designing APIs, SDKs, or developer experiences. Experience building global or enterprise-scale products.
• Familiarity with accessibility and inclusive design practices.
  
  

What We Value

In addition to our core values, which are not unique to this position and are necessary for Mapbox leaders:

• We value high-performing creative individuals who dig into problems and opportunities.
• We believe in individuals being their whole selves at work. We commit to this through supportive health care, parental leave, flexibility for the things that come up in life, and innovating on how we think about supporting our people.
• We emphasize an environment of teaching and learning to equip employees with the tools needed to be successful in their function and the company.
• We strongly believe in the value of growing a diverse team and encourage people of all backgrounds, genders, ethnicities, abilities, and sexual orientations to apply.
  
  

Our annual base compensation for this role ranges from $255,000 - $330,000 for most US locations and 5% to 10% higher for US locations with a higher cost of labor. Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. Please discuss your specific work location with your recruiter for more information.

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We are committed to a fair and equitable hiring process. We do not discriminate against any protected class.