Our Customer is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, they were created to expand access to higher education. Today, the membership association is made up of over 6,000 of the world’s leading educational institutions and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education. Each year, our Customer helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success, including the SAT, the Advanced Placement Program, and BigFuture. The organization also serves the education community through research and advocacy on behalf of students, educators, and schools.

We are seeking a Senior Product Designer on a contract basis to help support our Customer’s business needs. This role is 100% remote.

As a Senior Product Designer, 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 the company's 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 the design culture through mentorship, continuous learning, and collaborative design practices.

Responsibilities

_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. Experiment with generative AI tools to support ideation and prototyping.
Tools. Use tools like Figma, Miro, Zeplin, Lyssna, and 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.

Qualifications

A portfolio of your work should be 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, and 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, including generative AI.
The ability to travel at a minimum of 3-5 times a year to the offices or on behalf of the business (including but not limited to traveling to client/user sites to engage with stakeholders).

_We offer a competitive salary range for this position. Most candidates who join our team are hired at the median of this range, ensuring fair and equitable compensation based on experience and qualifications.

_An Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.