Design Director - Client Leadership (UX)

Koru is an AI-first UX design consultancy that has designed complex software for US enterprise healthcare and technology companies since 2011. Our clients, both incumbents and startups, build EHRs, population health and payer platforms, pharmacy workflows, care management and patient engagement products, where getting it wrong has real consequences. We work as an embedded extension of their product teams. Over 1,500 healthcare UX projects and several iF Design Awards later, we are a team of about 25+ designers.

AI is now part of every product and every workflow, so we expect real fluency on both sides: using AI to do better work, and designing AI and agentic experiences that people can trust. That fluency is the baseline. What sets a team apart is the judgement on top of it: understanding the context, making the right calls and standing behind what ships. That is what we hire for and grow at Koru, and we are small enough that every leader shapes how the firm works.

Role Overview

You have led client-facing design teams and accounts, and you want to be measured on the results. We match the level to what you bring.

You may hold a title today like Associate UX Director, Design Director, Senior Manager – UX or Principal UX Consultant. We care less about your title and more about the scope you have actually held.

• Experience: minimum 10 years in UX and design, including at least 4 years leading client-facing design teams
• Location: Remote, within India, with regular overlap with US working hours
• Travel: A core part of the role. We meet our clients in person in the US, and come together across India for events, quarterly leadership offsites and team co-working weeks.
• Reports to: CEO

The role

You are a design leader first. You set the design direction for complex healthcare and enterprise products, raise the quality of the work, and grow the designers who do it. You also own the client relationship and the health of the account, and you are measured on both the quality of the design and the business results. Depending on the experience you bring, that means leading a design pod across several clients, or a large enterprise account with a team of designers, researchers and PMs. At senior levels, you will also work with Koru's leadership on pitches and new client opportunities.

Your first 6–12 months

• Take over an active client account or pod and earn the client's confidence early
• Raise the quality of the design work and set a clear direction for it
• Develop the designers on your team, and help at least two grow into more responsibility
• Grow the client relationship in scope, influence and revenue
• Make your mark on how Koru works, beyond your own engagements

What you'll own

• Design strategy: decide what is worth building. Challenge the brief, bring evidence from users and the business, and set a direction client leaders adopt as their own.
• Craft: own the standard of everything your teams ship. It should hold up in front of a clinician on a busy shift, and you know exactly how to take work from good to excellent.
• AI in practice: lead how your teams use AI and design for it: fast where mistakes are cheap, careful where the stakes are high, and accountable for what ships.
• Talent development: working with our Head of Design Practice, coach, critique, hire and grow designers into leads and leads into leaders.
• Client leadership: be the person client leaders, up to VP and CXO level, call first, and handle high-stakes moments with confidence.
• Business performance: you are measured not only on the quality, creativity and timeliness of the work, but on how your accounts perform: growth, repeat revenue and margins. You also work with Koru's leadership on pitches, proposals and new client opportunities.
• Thought leadership: build a voice in the design community through writing, talks and the work itself, and help raise Koru's profile with it.
• Team and delivery: put the right people on the right work and keep delivery on track.

Requirements

What we look for

You have done this before, with clients.

• You have led design engagements for external clients, at a consultancy, agency, studio or the design practice of a services firm. In-house leaders are welcome if they have owned real stakeholder and business outcomes.
• You are still close to the craft, and you raise the quality of others' work through critique.
• You have shaped design strategy, not just executed it.
• You are recognised in the design community for your thinking, or you have the point of view and ambition to be.
• You have built teams and developed other leaders.
• You have taken commercial responsibility for a client relationship, not just its delivery.
• You have worked across domains and types of clients, not just one product. Experience in healthcare or complex enterprise software is a strong plus.

You lead like an owner.

• You are ambitious, and you want your work to shape a firm, not just a project.
• You communicate with clarity and presence, in writing and in the room, with senior stakeholders.
• You take responsibility for outcomes without waiting to be asked, and you stay steady under pressure.
• You are fluent in both using AI and designing for it, and have an informed view of where design is heading.

How we hire

This is a leadership hire, so our process is built around conversations and evidence, not tests.

After an initial check with our HR team, you can expect:

1. Discovery call: an open conversation with the Director of Customer Success about your experience, what you are looking for, and what Koru is building, followed by a short walkthrough of how you work.
2. Founder conversation: an in-depth conversation with our founders about the leader you are and the kind of firm you want to help build.
3. Working session: a half-day session with our leadership team at our Pune office, built around your own work and live client scenarios.
4. References: conversations with clients and colleagues who have seen you lead.

We set your level and title at the end of this process, based on the scope of client work and teams we see you are ready to lead, not the title you hold today.

Benefits

Why join Koru

• Real scope from the start: you lead accounts and people from your first weeks, not after a long ramp-up.
• Direct access to the founders: you work closely with Koru's leadership, with a real voice in decisions.
• Shape an AI-first firm: help define how design consulting works as AI changes the field.

Compensation and growth

Compensation is competitive and matched to your level. We will discuss it openly once we understand where you fit.

People who prove themselves here grow quickly in scope and responsibility.