Vice President & Head of Design

Description

Veterans Encouraged to Apply: Detroit Defense proudly supports those who have served. We welcome applicants with military experience, including those transitioning to civilian careers. Your leadership, adaptability, and mission-focused mindset are valued here. Detroit Defense is a 3x recipient of the Hire Vets Gold Medallion Award.

Detroit Defense is seeking a transformative, visionary Vice President & Head of Design to lead and evolve our industrial and product design function in support of enterprise growth, technical innovation, and mission-relevant solutions for the warfighter.

Reporting directly to the CEO, this role is a senior leadership position responsible for integrating best-in-class design practices across Detroit Defense’s product and service development lifecycle. The ideal candidate combines deep industrial design experience with strategic acumen and a bias toward bold, executable ideas. This role will help shape the look, feel, functionality, and usability of our systems and solutions, from physical products to digital interfaces, ensuring that design becomes a powerful driver of value, differentiation, and impact.

This is a hybrid role and can be based remotely with frequent travel to Troy, MI.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership:

• Define and champion a bold, forward-leaning vision for design that enhances the effectiveness, usability, and user experience of Detroit Defense products and services.
• Bring disruptive thought leadership and fresh perspective to defense design problems, balancing tactical functionality with innovative form and system-level thinking.

Organizational Development:

• Build, lead, and mentor a multidisciplinary team of designers across industrial design, UI/UX, and human factors.
• Establish Detroit Defense as a design-driven organization, where design rigor and creative problem-solving are central to how we innovate.

Design Integration Across Programs:

• Partner with Engineering, Program Management, Business Units, and Business Development to ensure design is integrated from concept through production across both customer-funded and internally developed efforts.
• Drive design input into IRAD, advanced concepts, and new product development initiatives to shape differentiated, fieldable solutions.

Process & Standards:

• Establish repeatable design processes, principles, and standards that support speed, scale, and quality.
• Promote clear documentation, stakeholder engagement, and feedback loops across the lifecycle, from user research and prototyping to production and sustainment.

Human-Centered Design:

• Advocate for the end user – warfighters, maintainers, and commanders – in all design decisions.
• Ensure designs reflect user insight, mission relevance, and a relentless focus on performance, safety, and simplicity.

Innovation & Thought Leadership:

• Stay current on commercial and defense-sector design trends, technologies, and tools.
• Represent Detroit Defense in engagements with customers, partners, and thought leaders to position the company at the forefront of defense design. 

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in industrial design, Product Design, Human Factors, or a related discipline; Master’s degree preferred.
• Must be eligible to obtain a U.S. Government Secret Security Clearance (U.S. Citizenship required).
• A minimum of fifteen years of progressive design leadership experience, including experience in complex, regulated industries such as defense, aerospace, automotive, or medical devices.
• Demonstrated ability to lead human-centered design in multidisciplinary environments with a track record of delivering innovative, high-impact physical and digital products.
• Strong portfolio of work that includes concept development, design for manufacturability, and fielded product deployment.
• Expertise in design tools and processes including CAD, prototyping, UI/UX platforms, and human factors validation.
• Exceptional communication skills and proven success influencing cross-functional teams and executive stakeholders.

Detroit Defense offers an impressive compensation and benefits package including:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Benefits
• Company Paid Life and AD&D
• Company Paid Short Term and Long-Term Disability
• Flexible Spending & HSA Accounts
• Legal & ID Shield Services
• 401k with Company Match
• Paid holidays, vacation, and sick days

Why Detroit Defense:
At Detroit Defense, we deliver mission-critical solutions that enhance national security, protect the warfighter, and enable readiness through innovation, technical excellence, and end-to-end lifecycle support. 

Remaining steadfast in our core values of Trustworthy, Mission Driven, Creative, and Agile we are a complex systems integrator for the U.S. Government, Detroit Defense provides solutions to meet the technical and programmatic challenges faced by our customers. Our proven success in multi-domain cross-platform system-of-systems integration results in fielded capability for warfighters. From R&D to production, fielding, and sustainment, Detroit Defense provides services and solutions to Empower Those That protect Us.

Detroit Defense is a proud recipient of the 2022, 2023 & 2024 Hire Vets Gold Medallion Award.

Detroit Defense is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including gender identity or gender expression), age, mental or physical disability, creed, ancestry, citizenship, veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation, medical condition, genetic trait or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.