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The Coca-Cola Company are hiring a

Head of Product Design & Research

Location(s)

United States of America

City/Cities

Atlanta

Travel Required

00% - 25%

Relocation Provided

Yes

Job Posting End Date

February 27, 2026

Shift

Job Description Summary

This is a People Leader role. The incumbent must be based in Atlanta, GA and work a hybrid work schedule. Digital products play a central role in how we create value for customers, support the teams who serve them, and shape the consumer experience. Our product organization brings together small, empowered teams that move with clarity, speed, and purpose, enabling digital to be a meaningful source of advantage across our operating unit. Our work touches on the experiences that keep the business running, including customer journeys, service delivery, sales execution, and the platforms that connect them. We are raising our standards for product, design, and engineering craft, deepening our connection to users, and rebuilding the systems that power these experiences end to end. We are expanding our in-house design and research practice. This team will turn complex workflows into simple, coherent, human experiences. Designers will work side-by-side with Product and Engineering to shape how our ecosystem looks, feels, and works. If you want to help build this practice and define our experience vision from day one, we would love to meet you.

About the Role

The Head of Product Design & Research will build and lead our design practice. You will set the vision for how our products should work, feel, and flow, and you will hire and grow the team that brings this vision to life. You will create the systems, standards, and ways of working that embed design and research into every empowered product team. You are a hands-on design leader who can move easily between high-level experience architecture, thoughtful critique, and rapid prototyping. You help teams see around corners, use user insight to shape strategy, and bring clarity to complex spaces. You believe great products come from tight collaboration, continuous learning, and strong design judgment. You will also guide how we use AI as a creative accelerant, opening new possibilities while maintaining high standards of craft and integrity.

Responsibilities

  • Build and Lead the Design and Research Organization
    • Build an in-house design practice from the ground up, including hiring the founding designers and researchers.
    • Define expectations, rituals, and ways of working within empowered product teams.
    • Create a culture of critique, curiosity, and craft excellence.
  • Set the Experience Vision
    • Establish the north star for digital and service experiences.
    • Champion simplicity, coherence, and usability across the portfolio.
    • Shape principles and patterns that guide teams toward high-quality work.
  • Integrate Design and Research into Discovery
    • Make research a continuous practice.
    • Promote rapid prototyping and frequent user testing.
    • Use insight, narrative, and prototyping to influence product direction.
  • Own the Design System and Experience Architecture
    • Build a scalable design system that accelerates delivery and improves consistency.
    • Define cross-product frameworks and shared UI patterns.
    • Reduce fragmentation across journeys and surfaces.
  • Champion Holistic, Multi-Touchpoint Design
    • Consider digital, operational, communication, and support interactions together.
    • Translate complex workflows into simple, human-centered experiences.
    • Ensure customers and associates experience one unified ecosystem.
  • Guide the Use of AI in Design and Research
    • Define how AI supports exploration, prototyping, and insight generation.
    • Maintain high quality and ethical standards.
    • Explore emerging AI-native interaction models.
  • Shape Product Strategy and Experience Outcomes
    • Co-create experience strategy with Product and Engineering.
    • Influence strategic decisions through insight and storytelling.
    • Ensure user experience considerations guide prioritization and trade-offs.

Key Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in design, HCI, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • 10+ years in product design, UX, or experience design with a strong portfolio of shipped digital products.
  • 5+ years leading design teams in empowered product environments.
  • Strong capabilities across UX, interaction design, systems design, and visual design, with some familiarity in service design.
  • Experience leading user research or working closely with dedicated researchers.
  • Track record shaping strategy with Product and Engineering leaders.
  • Experience building or scaling a design system.
  • Ability to design for multi-role, multi-touchpoint, or ecosystem products.
  • Familiarity with generative AI in design or research workflows.
  • Exceptional storytelling, facilitation, and communication skills.

Leadership Attributes

  • Experience vision and clarity. Defines how experiences should work and feel, brings coherence to complex spaces, and helps teams understand what great looks like.
  • Builder of design talent and practice. Builds the in-house design and research team from the ground up, develops craft and capability, and establishes a modern design culture.
  • Influence and cross-functional leadership. Builds trust across Product, Engineering, and business teams, shaping strategy and decisions through insight, narrative, and thoughtful critique.
  • Systems thinking and quality. Creates the frameworks and patterns that ensure experiences are simple, unified, and scalable, and holds a high bar for craft and usability.

Skills

Pay Range: $210,000 - $237,000
Base pay offered may vary depending on geography, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered.

Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage: 50
Annual Incentive reference value is a market-based competitive value for your role. It falls in the middle of the range for your role, indicating performance at target.

Long-term Incentive Reference Value Percentage: 20
Long-term Incentive reference value is a market-based competitive value for your role.

Our Purpose and Growth Culture

We are taking deliberate action to nurture an inclusive culture that is grounded in our company purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. We act with a growth mindset, take an expansive approach to what’s possible and believe in continuous learning to improve our business and ourselves. We focus on four key behaviors – curious, empowered, inclusive and agile – and value how we work as much as what we achieve. We believe that our culture is one of the reasons our company continues to thrive after 130+ years.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race