Senior Product Designer

Senior Product Designer (UI Focus)

Pay rate: $65-$70/hr Duration: 5 months Location: Remote Role: Senior Product Designer (UI Focus) Mode: long term (tech teams extend twice a year: June/Dec) Team: Details below - Position will support the Higher Ed Platforms team, the position will support an wide array of products serving students and Higher Ed institutions. Profile: while I'm looking for a full stack product designer the focus and need is on someone with very polished UI skills, a strong visual designer - a portfolio that "looks" clean, modern and accessible will be great

Rate: others we have placed in this role were in the *** pay range and equivalent mark-up

Process: Submit portfolio and LINKS (with password if applicable) Team looks for Modern/Clean lines in designs (review Client.org or bigfuture.org for a better understanding) - initial.5 video followed by team session (.75)

About the Opportunity

As a Senior Product Designer at the ***, you are a highly skilled, thoughtful, and user-centered practitioner with a passion for designing products and experiences that meet real user needs. You will facilitate product discovery, shape design strategy, and guide solutions from concept through delivery.

You will work across one or more cross-functional teams and products, helping to connect the dots between research, design, engineering, and company mission. You are confident working independently on features, while also seeking feedback and alignment with teammates and design leadership. You are an advocate for users and inclusive design. As a creative problem solver, you identify patterns across large systems and balance the big picture with hands-on execution—bringing clarity to complex challenges while staying focused on impact.

Your responsibilities will span early-stage discovery, end-to-end product design, usability testing, accessibility, and the creation of design artifacts that support high-quality implementation. You will also contribute to our design culture through mentorship, continuous learning, and collaborative design practices.

In this role, your responsibilities include:

Product Discovery and Design Strategy (30%)

· Design Thinking. Apply design thinking within complex education ecosystems to deeply understand user needs, reframe complex problems, and drive the creation of intuitive, scalable, and human-centered product solutions.

· Research. Constantly conduct and synthesize generative, formative, and evaluative research, using methods such as user interviews, usability testing, and surveys.

· Design with Users. Facilitate workshops and co-creation sessions to align teams and uncover opportunities.

· Data into Insights. Turn user, behavioral, and operational data into actionable insights.

· Prioritization. Influence prioritization and road-mapping efforts by connecting user needs with business goals and mission.

· User Advocacy. Champion human-centered and inclusive design principles.

· Storytelling. Use strategic storytelling to communicate vision, value, and direction.

Design Execution and Delivery (40%)

· Product Design. Work closely with product and engineering teams to translate concepts into detailed, production-ready designs, creating artifacts such as user flows, sitemaps, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity UI design.

· Design Systems. Apply and contribute to design systems, ensuring visual and functional consistency

· Plain Language. Write and test content using plain language for clarity and accessibility

· Testing. Conduct usability tests, user research and A/B tests to validate design decisions.

· Accessibility. Perform accessibility audits to meet inclusive design standards.

· Responsive Design. Design for responsive, mobile-first experiences, and mobile apps, experience with iOS and Android Native systems is a plus.

· Artificial Intelligence. Leverage AI tools proficiently to accelerate wireframing, rapid prototyping, and design exploration, and use AI as an active thought partner throughout the design process.

· Tools. Use tools like Figma, Miro, Zeplin, Lyssna, Dscout to design and document work.

Collaboration and Communication (20%)

· Collaborate. Collaborate with product managers, engineers, researchers, leadership, and other stakeholders. throughout the design and development process.

· Ceremonies. Participate in standups, sprint planning, design reviews, design critiques, and QA cycles.

· Specifications. Translate design decisions into clear specifications for implementation.

· Presenting. Present ideas, research findings, and designs with confidence and clarity.

· Design Operations. Contribute to company-wide design efforts, including shared tools, systems, and templates.

Growth and Culture (10%)

· Teaching. Mentor junior designers or peers through pairing and feedback.

· Continuous Learning. Continuously invest in personal development and share emerging tools, trends, and provocations.

· Organizational Support. Support design education efforts such as lunch & learns, design critiques, and by contributing to internal documentation.

· Hiring. Participate in hiring and onboarding activities.

About You

You have:

· A portfolio of your work included in your application.

· A Bachelor's degree in a related field (interaction design, HCI, industrial design, information science, social sciences, computer science, graphic design, etc.) and/or equivalent years of work experience.

· 5–7 years of experience in product or service design.

· Experience designing complex, data-heavy dashboards—ideally in fintech, edtech, health tech, or enterprise SaaS—focused on usability and clarity.

· Skilled in leading focus groups, interviews, and usability testing, with a track record of turning insights into actionable product decisions.

· Takes initiative in driving design projects, actively seeks feedback, and communicates clearly across teams to align vision and execution.

· A product design mindset and experience designing for complex, content-rich websites and applications, including strong skills in creating and communicating design artifacts, such as user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity UI designs.

· Proficiency in design thinking and human-centered methodologies, with the ability to reframe challenges and translate insights into actionable design direction.

· Strong skills in information design, user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity UI design, with fluency in tools like Figma, Zeplin, Dscout, Lyssna.

· A strong understanding of design systems, responsive design, and accessibility standards, including designing for web and native mobile platforms.

· Comfortable discussing technical constraints and collaborating with engineers to ensure design feasibility (experience with front-end technologies is a plus).

· A commitment to inclusive, ethical, and user-centered design, with the ability to write and test content using plain language principles.

· Curiosity and adaptability—you're self-motivated, continuously learning, and excited by emerging tools and trends; you are proficient with AI tools and actively use them to accelerate wireframing, prototyping, and design thinking.

· The ability to travel at a minimum of 3-5 times a year to *** offices or on behalf of *** business (including but not limited to traveling to client/user sites to engage with stakeholders).

· Authorization to work in the United States.