Principal Designer

About Northern Trust As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions. Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide. With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service. Overview Northern Trust is seeking a Principal Product Designer to lead strategic design efforts on our flagship client facing wealth management platform at Northern Trust. A key contributor on our design team that’s transforming the way wealth management clients engage with our advice and financial services. Work Model Hybrid – a balanced model where the successful candidate will spend time both in the office and working from home. Location: Chicago, IL. Objectives and Responsibilities Accelerate product delivery by increasing the availability of reusable, production-ready components, templates, patterns, and page frameworks. Improve consistency across advisor, client, prospect, and operational experiences through standardized interaction and visual patterns. Strengthen alignment between future-state experience vision, product roadmaps, and implementation through continuous Storybook enhancement. Reduce long-term technical and design debt created by delivery-driven compromises that were necessary to support near‑term roadmap commitments. Increase operational efficiency by reducing duplicate component development and fragmented experience patterns across domains. Improve scalability of the platform by creating extensible component architectures that support future products, channels, and business capabilities. Increase development efficiency through improved component documentation, implementation guidance, governance, and code reuse. Expand enterprise design system integration to ensure greater consistency across platforms, business domains, and delivery teams. Continuous accessibility maturity by systematically remediating gaps and aligning digital experiences with evolving accessibility standards and best practices. Summary A Principal Designer ensures that the design of a new or existing product or offering exceeds the needs of the people who use these experiences. The principal design is a subject matter expert, with deep experience, who leads and collaborates to create truly differentiating experiences reflective of Northern Trust’s capabilities and business objectives as well as client and partner needs and behaviors. Principal designers work with leadership to craft, refine, implement, and communicate design vision and strategy across teams, business units, and the larger organization. Principal designers take ownership for complex design initiatives, delivering solutions that are driven by deep design and business experience. They act as a resource for colleagues with less experience and will run point on specific design activities. They are a master storyteller, systems thinker, and have high levels of influence within business and technology teams. Major Duties Help establish an open culture of optimism, experimentation, curiosity, and rapid prototyping. Lead multidisciplinary teams to work together with a shared purpose to deliver great design that addresses user needs. Conduct trial and experimentation, recognize that prototyping can be done at various levels of fidelity. Synthesize multiple and sometimes conflicting inputs into a common point-of-view. Design and specify user interfaces and information architecture using human-centered techniques including observational studies, client and partner interviews, and usability testing. Develop others and help identify talent, building teams with a lens to how different personalities and capabilities could fit together on a project to create real impact. Seek new approaches and tools, build bridges to corporate innovation initiatives and the broader design community. Knowledge and Skills Ability to put Human-Centered Design and UI/UX best practices to work within a professional setting. Ability to recognize, predict and incorporate use cases and user interactions into design. Expertise in a range of relevant design methods and concepts, including low-fidelity sketching, information architecture, wireframe development, usability testing, research planning, competitive analysis. Exceptional presentation and storytelling skills, leading teams to a common vision. Highly flexible, adaptable to change and comfortable with ambiguity. Exceptional use of collaborative/communication tools, able to present work and decisions effectively within the EDR team through presentation and storytelling skills. Clear growth mindset, looking for opportunities to learn and motivated to approach challenges proactively. Experience Required 12+ years of demonstrated work experience delivering digital experiences. Educated in design or related field, formally or through comparable training. Design thinking and UI/UX best practices, as demonstrated in a portfolio of professional work. Experience working with a cross‑functional team or large-scale software development lifecycle, preferably in an agile environment. Work Authorization Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity. Salary Salary Range: $137,400 - 233,600 USD. Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Benefits Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well‑being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component. Reasonable Accommodation Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at View email address on click.appcast.io, or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with. EEO Statements North American EEO Statement: Northern Trust is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants. Northern Trust does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion or belief, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, disability or age. All employment decisions will be made in a non-discriminatory manner in accordance with our obligations under the law and codes of practice. Canada EEO Statement: Northern Trust is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Hiring and other employment decisions at Northern Trust are made without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, ancestry, national origin, ethnic origin, age, disability, citizenship, veteran status, sexual orientation, record of offences, marital status, family status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial, or local law, regulation, or ordinance. EMEA EEO Statement: Northern Trust is the policy and practice of Northern Trust to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants. Northern Trust does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion or belief, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, disability or age. All employment decisions will be made in a non-discriminatory manner in accordance with our obligations under the law and codes of practice. USA EEO Statement: It is the policy of The Northern Trust Company to afford equal opportunity in all phases of employment without regard to an individual's age, race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic tests and information, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status or any other legally protected status. #J-18808-Ljbffr 001 The Northern Trust Company