Sr UX Designer (Product Designer)
Remote
Full Time
Mid Level
POSITION SUMMARY:
The Product Designer is a member of the Innovation Forward Labs Product Team in Higher Ed, responsible for leading end-to-end design across the institution’s student-, faculty-, and staff-facing digital experience ecosystem. The Product Designer works daily with product managers, application developers, QA testers, and institutional stakeholders to deliver user-centered design solutions that improve student outcomes, faculty experience, and administrative efficiency. The role encompasses the full product design lifecycle — from discovery and user research through interaction design, prototyping, and post-launch iteration — with deep integration into Agile development cycles. The ideal candidate brings significant experience designing within higher education technology environments, including direct familiarity with enterprise academic systems such as Learning Management Systems (LMS), Student Information Systems (SIS), and Constituent (or Customer) Relationship Management (CRM) platforms.
Responsibilities
Product Vision & Strategy
Qualifications
Education & Experience
The Product Designer is a member of the Innovation Forward Labs Product Team in Higher Ed, responsible for leading end-to-end design across the institution’s student-, faculty-, and staff-facing digital experience ecosystem. The Product Designer works daily with product managers, application developers, QA testers, and institutional stakeholders to deliver user-centered design solutions that improve student outcomes, faculty experience, and administrative efficiency. The role encompasses the full product design lifecycle — from discovery and user research through interaction design, prototyping, and post-launch iteration — with deep integration into Agile development cycles. The ideal candidate brings significant experience designing within higher education technology environments, including direct familiarity with enterprise academic systems such as Learning Management Systems (LMS), Student Information Systems (SIS), and Constituent (or Customer) Relationship Management (CRM) platforms.
Responsibilities
Product Vision & Strategy
- Lead the design of digital products end-to-end — from problem definition and discovery through delivery and post-launch iteration — maintaining ownership of design outcomes across the full product lifecycle.
- This will be a remote role with occasional visits required
- Partner with product managers and engineering teams to define product direction, establish success metrics, and ensure design decisions align with both user needs and the institution’s strategic goals.
- Translate ambiguous or evolving requirements into clear, well-scoped design directions, proactively identifying gaps and aligning cross-functional teams throughout the process.
- Contribute to product roadmap planning and sprint ceremonies, representing the user perspective in prioritization decisions.
- Design and optimize user-facing experiences that integrate with or surface data from core university enterprise systems, including Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as D2L Brightspace, Blackboard, or Canvas; Student Information Systems (SIS) such as Ellucian Banner, Ellucian Colleague, or Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions; and CRM platforms such as Salesforce Education Cloud, Slate, or EAB Navigate.
- Understand the technical and institutional constraints of these systems and translate them into student- and staff-centered interface solutions that reduce friction and administrative overhead.
- Collaborate with academic technology, IT, enrollment management, and student affairs teams to ensure designed experiences are feasible within existing system architectures and data structures.
- Design seamless integrations and handoffs between academic platforms and student-facing portals, ensuring consistent and coherent experiences across the institution’s technology ecosystem.
- Apply working knowledge of higher education workflows — including course registration, degree planning, enrollment, advising, financial aid, and academic progress tracking — to design experiences that reflect real institutional processes.
- Incorporate AI tools actively throughout the design process, including the use of LLMs such as Claude and ChatGPT to clarify project scope, draft user flows and personas, write design specifications, and surface edge cases early in the process.
- Use AI-assisted prototyping tools such as Figma Make, Lovable, Replit, and Magic Patterns to generate and iterate on interactive flows rapidly, enabling faster stakeholder alignment and reducing development rework.
- Apply tools such as Variant UI to explore design variations and visual directions efficiently, compressing exploration timelines.
- Document and share AI-assisted workflows and prompts with the broader design team to improve collective design velocity.
- Plan and facilitate UX discovery sessions, Design Thinking workshops, and user interviews with students, faculty, administrators, and institutional stakeholders to build a shared understanding of user needs and pain points.
- Serve as the design voice in cross-functional product discussions, ensuring user needs are represented in every product decision.
- Conduct usability testing at appropriate design stages, using findings to validate and refine design decisions prior to development.
- Perform competitive audits and benchmarking against peer institutions and industry platforms to identify opportunities for improvement.
- Produce wireframes, interaction flows, high-fidelity mockups, and functional prototypes for web and mobile platforms.
- Build and maintain scalable, component-based design systems and shared libraries that support design consistency across multiple product teams.
- Collaborate closely with front-end and back-end engineers from handoff through implementation to ensure design intent is accurately reflected in the final product.
- Support Agile ceremonies including sprint planning, standups, reviews, and retrospectives, ensuring development teams have design clarity at every stage.
- Define and monitor UX KPIs and product metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of shipped features and experiences.
- Design and interpret A/B tests and other quantitative studies to validate improvements and guide ongoing iteration.
- Monitor product performance and user feedback post-launch, recommending and prioritizing design improvements based on evolving student and institutional needs.
- Stay current on UX, AI, and EdTech trends and recommend design innovations relevant to the institution’s digital experience strategy.
- Ensure all designs meet WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards and are inclusive of users with diverse abilities and levels of digital literacy.
- Design with awareness of higher education compliance requirements, including FERPA and ADA, as they apply to student-facing digital platforms.
Qualifications
Education & Experience
- Prior UMGC or USM Experience preferred
- Bachelor’s degree in Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Graphic Design, or a related field preferred; equivalent professional experience in product design or UX will be considered in lieu of a formal degree.
- 8+ years of experience in product design or senior UX design, with a portfolio demonstrating end-to-end ownership of complex digital products from discovery through launch.
- 3+ years of experience designing within EdTech or higher education technology environments preferred; equivalent experience in adjacent regulated or enterprise SaaS environments will be considered, with exposure to LMS, SIS, or CRM platforms used in academic institutions.
- Experience working within higher education institutions or vendors serving the higher education market strongly preferred.
- Proven track record of delivering user-centered design solutions within Agile development environments.
- Proficiency in Figma, including advanced prototyping, component-based design, and design system architecture.
- Working knowledge of LMS platforms (e.g., D2L Brightspace, Blackboard, Canvas) and their student and faculty interfaces.
- Familiarity with SIS platforms (e.g., Ellucian Banner, Ellucian Colleague, Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions) and how their data structures inform student-facing product design.
- Familiarity with CRM platforms used in higher education contexts (e.g., Salesforce Education Cloud, Slate, EAB Navigate) and their role in enrollment and student success workflows.
- Familiarity with AI-assisted design tools (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT, Figma Make, Lovable, Replit, Magic Patterns, Variant UI, or equivalent) and a willingness to integrate them into the design workflow; demonstrated use is preferred.
- Working knowledge of front-end development concepts (HTML, CSS, component states) relevant to design handoff and implementation review.
- Familiarity with usability testing and analytics tools (e.g., Maze, UserTesting, Hotjar, Heap, or equivalent).
- Strong product design skills: end-to-end process ownership, interaction design, information architecture, and visual design.
- Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills — able to translate complex user research and design decisions into clear business rationale for non-design audiences.
- Strategic thinker with the ability to align design initiatives to institutional goals including student success, enrollment, retention, and operational efficiency.
- Experience facilitating Design Thinking workshops, discovery sessions, and cross-functional alignment meetings.
- Skilled in Agile/Scrum methodologies and collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence, or equivalent.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with experience using data and research to drive design decisions.
- Ability to design for large, diverse user populations, including working adults, military-affiliated students, and learners with varying levels of digital literacy.
- Google UX Design Certificate or equivalent formal UX/design certification.
- Nielsen Norman Group UX Certification or similar professional UX credential.
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or equivalent Agile certification is a plus.
- Accessibility certification (e.g., CPACC — Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies) is a plus.
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