Senior Product Designer (Contract)Remote

Role: Senior Product Designer (Creative team integated deeper into the tech teams and titles were redefined)

Mode: long term (tech teams extend twice a year: June/Dec)

Location: Remote

About the Team 

The team builds and maintains products for K-12 educators, students registering for the SAT, and for internal teams who support our educators and students. It is a small, close-knit group of product designers within the team who collaborate closely with product owners and our engineering teammates. The team also maintains a synergistic relationship with content and accessibility teams. 

About the Opportunity 

We are seeking a Product Designer to build and enhance products to support our Operations team and other internal stakeholders as they monitor and respond to test administration, scoring, and related processes. You will collaborate closely with product owners, engineers, and other product designers to iterate, test, and design solutions that will drive efficiency, eliminate complexity, and improve the experiences of internal and external users. 

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 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 roadmapping 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 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. 
• Artificial Intelligence. Experiment with generative AI tools to support ideation and prototyping. 
• Tools. Use tools like Figma, Miro, and Dovetail 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. 

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. 
• 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, Miro, and Dovetail. 
• Experience applying generative and evaluative research methods, along with facilitation skills to lead workshops and co-creation sessions. 
• 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. 
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with a user advocacy mindset and the ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams. 
• 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 company offices or on business (including but not limited to traveling to client/user sites to engage with stakeholders). 

Pay Rate Range: $65-$75 per hr (Depending on Experience)

nextSource is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, marital status, parental status, cultural background, organizational level, work styles, tenure, and life experiences or for any other reason.

nextSource is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at talent@nextSource.com.

What nextSource Provides:

• Healthcare Benefits including Medical, Prescription, Vision & Dental Coverage | United Healthcare
• Voluntary STD & LTD | New York Life
• 401(k) Retirement Planning | Fidelity
• Discount Program

*You are Eligible to participate in the benefits program if you are considered a full-time employee of nextSource, working at least 30 hours per week on a consistent basis. Your coverage will be effective on the 1st of the month following 60 days of employment.