Director of User Experience

Company Overview:

Rue La La is the leader in transforming online retail with a high-growth, dynamic business model that is changing everything you might think about shopping. Rue La La is an exclusive, invitation-only online destination. A place where Members delight in discovering private sale Boutiques that open daily with a rush and promptly close 2 days later. A community where Members shape the experience by inviting their friends. A collection of premier brands that is well-edited, ever changing, and highly desirable. And an experience that is nothing short of thrilling.

Our mission is to partner with premier brands (currently over 300 of the best and counting), offering them a powerful online selling opportunity by enabling them to move merchandise in a private selling environment. But we do so with one key mantra – we respect and maintain the core integrity of each and every brand we partner with.

Rue La La is a portfolio company of Retail Convergence, Inc., an Internet 100 retailer. Our corporate headquarters is in Boston. Our success is largely due to capabilities in merchandising, technology, production and logistics that are unmatched. Our culture is defined by the people who make it happen every day – people who love style, innovation, and share a commitment to exceeding our Member and brand partner expectations. And we want the best to join our highly dynamic, collaborative team.

The Director of User Experience will be responsible for creating innovative user experience solutions for Rue La La with the objective of engaging our Members with our brand. We’re looking for someone who always thinks of the user first, someone with a sophisticated aesthetic sense, a dedication to innovation, and a love of design and technology. You’ll be joining a collaborative group that prides itself on the excellence of everything they do, that respects and protects the integrity of the world-class fashion and lifestyle brands we feature, and has fun together doing it.  The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of execution and delivery of product that combines strong usability with an engaging experience.  You will be responsible for working with key stakeholders to identify and develop the features and functions of the site and define the overall user experience.  You will work closely with the Creative Director as well as senior level executives to determine and support the most effective and engaging site experience.  This is a managerial role, responsible for building and directing a team of UX Designers.  This position reports into the SVP Customer Experience.

Job Responsibilities:

• Accountable for the vision, strategy, and execution of the user experience aligned with brand, marketing and business objectives.
• Portray subject matter expertise in the areas of information architecture, online user behavior and analytics, usability testing, and industry standard user experience best practices.
• Provide innovative, customer centric, information and visual design recommendations that contribute to an enhanced user experience.
• Create and maintain user experience documentation such as competitive site analyses, user personas, site maps, detailed navigation flow, and detailed functional wireframes.
• Work collaboratively with Creative Director, Designers and Developers to conceptualize, design, and implement ideas.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of new and existing products & features, performance metrics, customer feedback, competitive landscape, and industry standard best practices in order to continuously evolve and improve our online brand presence and user experience.
• Define, approve and enforce the user experience design and best practices standards.
• Manage the User Experience team priorities, establish level of effort estimates and manage the team accordingly.
• Build motivate, challenge, and inspire team members to deliver on expectations and goals, while fostering a creative, efficient and collaborative team environment.

Skills

• Bachelor of Arts / Sciences degree or equivalent experience.
• A minimum of 8 years of experience for consumer facing products, including e-commerce.
• A minimum of 3-5 years of management experience, overseeing a successful UX team.
• Demonstrated ability to develop big conceptual ideas and execute against them to create innovative user experience solutions in a highly collaborative environment
• Thorough understanding of best practices in web design and user interface/information architecture conventions.
• Strong knowledge of UX deliverables such as site maps, wireframes, flow charts personas, functional specifications, and style guides
• Experience with formal and informal usability testing.
• Solid understanding of what advanced web technology can do, and the ability to recommend where to use it
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the proven ability to interact effectively with all levels within the organization.
• Ability to thrive on rapid design and development cycles.
• Desire to keep abreast of the latest in the world of fashion, ecommerce, social networking and interaction design

If you are interested in learning more, please send your resume to opportunities@retail-convergence.com