Director Of User Experience Overview
Working as a Director Of User Experience
The Director of User Experience is the principle leader of the User Experience department. The Director of UX also conducts research and documents findings, creates consumer scenarios, and creates strategy documents and content to supply to the UX department personnel as well as collaborating product departments.
The qualifications needed to become a director of user experience often include at least ten years of experience in a sales or product management position and a master's degree in an appropriate field. You may also be expected to have experience managing a UX team. In today's data-driven world, analytical skills are also increasingly important. You will need excellent interpersonal skills, as you have to be able to work with people in other departments and carefully juggle their skills and responsibilities with your expectations and requirements.
All these duties and burdens do not come without rewards. The average salary for a director of user experience is $138, 429. They make an average of $69.12 per hour. Furthermore, this career is expected to grow 8% and create over 21,000 jobs in the United States between 2018 and 2028.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a director of user experience. For example, did you know that they make an average of $69.12 an hour? That's $143,767 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 21,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Director Of User Experience Do
There are certain skills that many directors of user experience have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, computer skills and creativity.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a director of user experience, we found that a lot of resumes listed 16.4% of directors of user experience included product development, while 14.3% of resumes included user interface, and 5.2% of resumes included user research. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the director of user experience job title. But what industry to start with? Most directors of user experience actually find jobs in the technology and media industries.
How To Become a Director Of User Experience
If you're interested in becoming a director of user experience, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 57.8% of directors of user experience have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 25.8% of directors of user experience have master's degrees. Even though most directors of user experience have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a director of user experience. When we researched the most common majors for a director of user experience, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on director of user experience resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a director of user experience. In fact, many director of user experience jobs require experience in a role such as creative director. Meanwhile, many directors of user experience also have previous career experience in roles such as art director or user experience manager.
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Director Of User Experience Jobs
Director Of User Experience Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of marketing director you might progress to a role such as marketing vice president eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title marketing vice president.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Director Of User Experience
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Robert Half Art Director-Ui/Ux Art Director-Ui/Ux | Robert Half Robert Half | 09/01/2020 09/01/2020 | $79,30609/01/2020 $79,306 |
Virginia Tech Director of UX Design and Assessment Director of UX Design and Assessment | Virginia Tech Virginia Tech | 08/29/2020 08/29/2020 | $67,62108/29/2020 $67,621 |
Chick-Fil-A Chick-Fil-A Director Experience Required Chick-Fil-A Director Experience Required | Chick-Fil-A Chick-Fil-A | 08/11/2020 08/11/2020 | $40,00008/11/2020 $40,000 |
Management Decisions, Inc. Director of Ux/Ecommerce/New Team Director of Ux/Ecommerce/New Team | Management Decisions, Inc. Management Decisions, Inc. | 08/04/2020 08/04/2020 | $150,00008/04/2020 $150,000 |
Robert Half UX Director UX Director | Robert Half Robert Half | 05/14/2020 05/14/2020 | $120,00005/14/2020 $120,000 |
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Top Colleges for Director Of User Experiences
1. University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI
2. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN
3. University of Georgia
Athens, GA
4. Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN
5. Howard University
Washington, DC
6. Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
7. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX
8. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
9. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
10. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA
Entry Level Jobs For Becoming A Director Of User Experience
Top Skills For a Director Of User Experience
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 16.4% of directors of user experience listed product development on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and computer skills are important as well.
- User Interface, 13.8%
- User Research, 7.5%
- Customer Service, 6.9%
- Visual Design, 4.4%
- Interaction Design, 4.1%
- Other Skills, 63.3% See All Director Of User Experience Skills
Best States For a Director Of User Experience
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a director of user experience. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Washington. Directors of user experience make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $153,563. Whereas in Minnesota and New Jersey, they would average $145,269 and $143,154, respectively. While directors of user experience would only make an average of $143,093 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Rhode Island
$153,563
Avg. Salary
2. Minnesota
$145,270
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
$143,093
Avg. Salary
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