Senior Director, AEC Design Tools

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Position Overview

We’re hiring a Senior Director of User Experience Design, Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Design Tools within the Experience Foundations organization. This person will lead experience design across Autodesk’s core AEC design tools, including products that are focused on the task of design for architects, engineers and other users—including Revit, AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Forma Design, and related workflows.

This is a critical executive-level role reporting to the VP of Experience Foundations and serving as a senior member of the AEC Experience Foundations leadership team. You’ll lead a global organization of 70+ designers with dotted line leadership with researchers, content designers, and operations across North America, EMEA, and APAC, and partner deeply with Product, Engineering, AI/ML, and Business leaders to shape the future of Autodesk’s AEC platform.

This leader will be instrumental in transforming our industry-defining tools from best-in-class applications into AI-first, agentic, and deeply integrated experiences—aligned with Autodesk’s Forma Industry Cloud vision. This role is about both elevating the tools millions rely on today and re-imagining how AEC design work happens tomorrow.

This leader sets the experience vision, strategy, and operating model for AEC design tools that span disciplines, workflows, and the full AEC lifecycle—from concept through delivery and operations.

This role is remote-friendly within North America. For those who prefer in-office or hybrid work, the role can be based in San Francisco, CA; Portland, OR; Boston, MA; or Toronto, ON.

Travel requirements are approximately 20%

Responsibilities

Vision & Strategy

• Define and champion a multi-year user experience design vision for Autodesk’s AEC design tools, grounded in real customer workflows and outcomes
• Shape how AI-first and agentic experiences fundamentally change AEC design tools—moving from feature-centric software to intelligent, proactive, and integrated systems
• Establish a clear north-star for tool unification, modernization, and experience cohesion across products and platforms
• Partner with executive leadership to align experience strategy with Autodesk’s Forma Industry Cloud and broader AEC business strategy

AI-First & Agentic Experiences

• Lead the evolution of AEC design tools into agent-powered experiences, including copilots, assistants, automation, and proactive workflows
• Partner with AI/ML teams to integrate emerging agentic frameworks (reasoning, tool use, memory, orchestration) into real-world AEC workflows
• Ensure experiences remain trustworthy, transparent, and human-centered, even as autonomy increases

Design Systems, Platforms & Foundation

• Drive experience consistency and scalability through design systems, shared patterns, and foundational UX capabilities
• Ensure AEC design tools work as part of a cohesive ecosystem, not isolated products—across desktop, cloud, and connected services
• Balance innovation with craft, usability, performance, and technical constraints in complex, mature products

Leadership & Organizational Excellence

• Build, lead, and inspire a high-performing global team of user experience designers, researchers, and design leaders
• Coach and develop senior design managers; establish clear charters, expectations, and growth paths
• Foster a culture of customer empathy, experimentation, quality, and accountability at scale
• Ensure operational excellence—clear prioritization, healthy team structures, and strong execution rhythms

Cross-Functional Partnership & Influence

• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders across Product, Engineering, and Data Science professionals
• Advocate relentlessly for customer-centered decision-making while balancing business and technical realities
• Represent the voice of user experience design in executive forums and strategic planning

Minimum Qualifications

• 15+ years of professional experience in user experience (UX), product design, or experience design, with 5+ years leading large, multi-layered teams or portfolios
• Proven experience leading design at scale across complex, multi-product ecosystems
• Demonstrated success driving large-scale experience unification and modernization efforts
• Experience building or evolving AI-assisted or agentic product experiences
• Deep expertise in human-centered design, research, design systems, and design operations
• Strong executive communication skills—able to distill complexity and influence at all levels of the organization
• Experience working in highly collaborative Agile/Scrum environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s and/or Masters degree in interaction design, HCI, or a related field
• Experience designing professional tools for AEC industries, CAD modeling or highly technical enterprise domains
• Experience designing multi-platform ecosystems (desktop, cloud, services)
• Familiarity with Autodesk products or comparable design and engineering software
• Passion for AI-driven transformation and empowering designers, engineers, and builders

About Autodesk

Welcome to Autodesk! Amazing things are created every day with our software – from the greenest buildings and cleanest cars to the smartest factories and biggest hit movies. We help innovators turn their ideas into reality, transforming not only how things are made, but what can be made.

We take great pride in our culture here at Autodesk – it’s at the core of everything we do. Our culture guides the way we work and treat each other, informs how we connect with customers and partners, and defines how we show up in the world.

When you’re an Autodesker, you can do meaningful work that helps build a better world designed and made for all. Ready to shape the world and your future? Join us!

Benefits

From health and financial benefits to time away and everyday wellness, we give Autodeskers the best, so they can do their best work. Learn more about our benefits in the U.S. by visiting https://benefits.autodesk.com/

Salary is one part of Autodesk’s competitive compensation package. For U.S.-based roles, we expect a starting base salary between $213,000 and $381,150. Offers are based on the candidate’s experience and geographic location, and may exceed this range. In addition to base salaries, our compensation package may include annual cash bonuses, commissions for sales roles, stock grants, and a comprehensive benefits package.

Equal Employment Opportunity

At Autodesk, we're building a diverse workplace and an inclusive culture to give more people the chance to imagine, design, and make a better world. Autodesk is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic. We also consider for employment all qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

Diversity & Belonging

We take pride in cultivating a culture of belonging where everyone can thrive. Learn more here: https://www.autodesk.com/company/diversity-and-belonging

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