Job details

Lead Designer

Title: Lead Designer

Division / Department: College Board - Technology

Location: Remote / NY

About the Team

The Design team is a close-knit group of about 40 members with a passion for empowering students. The College Board is seeking a Lead Designer with an eagerness to help build the long-term strategy of the BigFuture ecosystem. You will be working alongside, collaborating with several designers and product owners across several agile product teams. In this role you will be integral in guiding our mission of building products that support students in planning for their future.

About the Opportunity

As our Lead Designer you are a leader who is highly skilled and motivated with a passion for user-centered Design. You will represent design in the product trio, partnering closely with the Product Manager and Tech Lead to advance product discovery and build the long-term strategy of the BigFuture Ecosystem. You will be the voice and advocate for users, working across all BF Student teams to facilitate communication, alignment, and consistency. As a creative problem solver, you'll identify patterns across large systems while maintaining strategic priorities. Your responsibilities include creating and sharing comprehensive documentation to track decisions, strategies, and research efforts.

As a peer to the other Design Leads, you will collaborate with them in providing support, guidance, and facilitating effective communication. Your aim is to align their work with the longer-term vision and ensure cohesive integration of efforts. Additionally, in this managerial role, you will oversee a team of 2-5 UX/UI designers, ensuring their professional growth and driving impactful design outcomes. Outside of BF Student you'll serve as the primary point of contact and coordinator for the design team, ensuring smooth collaboration and workflow. You will also communicate and build relationships with the BigFuture Higher Ed team.

In this role, you will:

Strategy & Communication (60%)

Analyze business and technical requirements, partner with Product, Engineering, and relevant stakeholders to help plan, manage, implement portfolio strategy

Collect and analyze data to derive actionable insights, facilitating informed design decisions and strategic planning

Lead design thinking workshops and collaborative design sessions to identify customer problems, generate solutions, and integrate cross-functional insights into the product development process

Develop interaction prototypes, presentations slides, and other documents to communicate design strategies to project teams

Help foster an environment for collaboration by partnering with business units on design decisions, thus enhancing UX while carefully considering needs of Technology, Marketing, and other internal stakeholder groups

Work as a thought partner with Product and Engineer Managers to ensure goal alignment

Create and share comprehensive documentation to track decisions, strategies, and research efforts

Form and maintain solid relationships with project team members and stakeholders

Participate in and lead design meetings, workshops, activities, and other ceremonies

Knowledge share with other designers on best practices for effectively presenting and leading in meetings

Design, Implementation (40%)

Lead design strategy for BigFuture Student products, including information architecture, user journeys, wireframes, and prototypes

Mentor and develop a high-performing team of designers and researchers, fostering growth and vision

Coordinate with Product, Engineering, and Design teams to ensure timely delivery of design artifacts

Lead user testing and stakeholder reviews to validate the efficacy of your solutions and translate research findings into tangible designs

Partner with Design Research to explore new opportunities to help grow the BigFuture brand and suite of products

Support design education at the College Board and present at Design Lunch and Learns

Contribute to the overall UI strategy and design process to facilitate a unified experience across all products

About You

You have:

A portfolio of your work included in your application (we are unable to process your application without this)

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

7-10+ years of professional experience of relevant Design experience

Extensive experience in managing and mentoring designers, fostering their professional growth and leadership potential

Documented experience in designing for large content rich websites, and applications, proven solutions that meet users’ needs

Extensive experience in information design and user scenarios

Strong facilitation skills, experience leading workshops and ideation sessions (Lean UX experience is a plus)

Broad knowledge of digital interaction design patterns, web site architecture, user interfaces and navigation on various platforms (web, mobile, tablet)

Familiarity with user-centered research, such as usability testing, contextual inquiry, and field interviews

Understanding of the physical, cognitive, cultural, and social factors that affect design decisions

Familiarity with technical issues around web development and ability to work constructively with development teams (Familiarity with front-end coding technologies and data modeling is a big plus)

Persuasive communication skills and you possess an ability to demonstrate leadership and understanding with respect to project partners

Highly adaptable to the latest information, situations, or challenges and can work independently, and able to manage a variety of design initiatives across a portfolio

Like facing new challenges and uncovering opportunities to think creatively and produce fresh approaches to tough business and operational problems

Possess a ‘Product Design’ mindset, who owns the end-to-end design delivery: from strategy to comps

Must be proficient in all industry-standard software and applications, such as Figma, FigJam, Miro, Zeplin, Jira, Confluence, etc.
You are authorized to work in the USA.

About Our Benefits and Compensation

College Board offers a strong compensation and benefits package that attracts top talent looking to make a difference in education.

Our robust benefits package includes health, dental, and vision insurance, tuition assistance, paid time off, paid parental leave, retirement benefits with a generous matching program, and more.

We reward performance through annual bonuses and provide opportunities for salary growth over time through base compensation increases, merit raises and promotions.

We believe in compensating staff members fairly in relation to each other, their qualifications, and their impact. The salary range for a new employee in this position is $102,000 to $134,000. The salary offer of an individual candidate within this range is specific to their location and qualifications.

Each salary offer is determined carefully using internal and external benchmarking and adjusting for the candidate’s location. You will have an opportunity to discuss salary in more detail after you begin the application process.

As a self-sustaining non-profit organization with global impact, College Board offers a job that matters, a team that cares, and a place to learn, innovate and thrive!

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