Principal UX Designer
About the role
Position Summary:
The Principal UX Designer owns the university’s web design system and is accountable for the designworkthatshapeshowaudiencesexperiencetheuniversityonline,directingasmallteam of two freelance designers to deliver it.
Reporting to the Web Engineering and Ops Lead, the Principal UX Designer maintains and evolves the design system currently built in Figma, advancing it toward a tokenized, scalable foundation that the web development team can build against efficiently. This role partners closelywithwebdevelopmenttoresolveexistingusabilityissuesandtokeepthedesignsystem and the live product in sync as both continue to mature.
Beyond the design system, the Principal UX Designer plans usability testing, contributes to journey mapping and conversion rate optimization, and brings AI-assisted design tools into the team’s workflow to expand capacity and speed. Design work runs in agile sprints alongside the web development team, and the Principal UX Designer directs freelance designers, setting priorities, delegating production, and reviewing output to ensure consistency and quality. The role calls for steady, iterative delivery: making sound design decisions with incomplete information,workingwithintheestablisheddesignsystem,brand,andtechnicalconstraints,and moving work through short sprint cycles.
About the Work Unit:
The Communications and Marketing team at Vanderbilt University is a dynamic and deeply collaborative group. The division serves as the institution-wide center of excellence for communications and marketing, developing and executing strategies that inform, engage, and inspireotherstotakepartintheUniversity’sglobalacademicandresearchmission.Thedivision is a strategic adviser and partner to other divisions, providing comprehensive plans and thoughtful analysis on messaging opportunities and constraints, and it continuously seeks innovative solutions to emerging challenges in order to deliver results at scale.
Key Duties and Responsibities:
Design System Ownership and Evolution
Owntheuniversity’swebdesignsysteminFigma,includingcomponents,patterns,usage
guidelines,anddocumentation.
Leadthetokenizationofthedesignsystemtocreateascalable,consistentfoundation across products and platforms.
Partnerwiththewebdevelopmentteamtocontinuouslyevolvethedesignsystemandkeep design and production in sync.
- Identifyandresolveexistingusabilityissuesacrosstheuniversity’sweb properties.
Ensurethedesignsystemandallwebexperiencesmeetaccessibilitystandards,including WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA/Section 508 requirements.
Usability Testing and Research
- Plan,run,andsynthesizeusabilitytestingusingtoolssuchasUserlytics.
- Translateresearchfindingsintoclear,prioritizeddesignrecommendations.
- Establishlightweight,repeatabletestingpracticesthatinformongoingdesigndecisions.
Journey Mapping and Conversion Optimization
Contributetoaudiencejourneymappinginpartnershipwithmarketingteams.
- Supportconversionrateoptimizationeffortsthroughdesign,testing,anditeration.
- Helptranslateaudienceneedsandbehaviorintoimproveddigitalexperiences.
Tooling, AI Enablement, and Efficiency
- EvaluateandintroduceAI-assisteddesigntoolsandothertechnologiesthatincreasethe
team’scapacityandspeed.
- Buildefficient,repeatabledesignworkflowsthatexpandtheteam’scapacityandspeed.
- Championpracticaladoptionofnewtoolsandapproachesacrosstheweb team.
Freelance Team Leadership and Collaboration
Directandremainaccountablefortheworkoffreelancedesigners,includingdelegation, prioritization, and quality review.
Planandmanagedesignworkinagilesprintsincoordinationwiththewebdevelopment team.
Collaboratecloselywithwebdevelopment,marketing,andcontentpartnerstodeliver cohesive experiences.
- Maintaindesignconsistencyandqualityacrossallcontributorsand channels
Supervisory Relationships:
ReportingtotheWebEngineeringandOpsLead,thispositiondirectstheworkoffreelance designers and is accountable for their output. The role works in close, cross-functional partnership with the web development team through a shared agile process.
Qualifications
Bachelor’sdegreeinUXdesign,human-computerinteraction,interactiondesign,orarelated field, or commensurate experience, is necessary.
Aminimumof7yearsofexperienceinUXorproductdesign,includinghands-onownership of a design system.
DemonstratedexperiencebuildingandmaintainingdesignsystemsinFigma,including component libraries and tokenization.
- ExperienceplanningandrunningusabilitytestingusingtoolssuchasUserlytics.
- Workingknowledgeofjourneymappingandconversionrateoptimization.
Strongunderstandingofwebaccessibilitystandards,includingWCAG2.1AAand ADA/Section 508.
ExperienceadoptingAI-assisteddesigntoolsandothertechnologiestoimproveefficiency and output.
Experiencecollaboratingcloselywithwebdevelopmentteamstomovedesignsinto production.
Experiencedirectinganddelegatingtofreelanceorcontractdesigners,withaccountability for team output.
- Experienceworkinginagilesprintsinclosepartnershipwithdevelopmentteams.
Strongcommunicationandcollaborationskillsacrossdesign,development,andmarketing partners.
Comfortablemakingsounddesigndecisionswithincompleteinformationandshipping iteratively.
Thrivesworkingwithinanestablisheddesignsystem,brand,andtechnicalconstraints,and moving work forward at a steady, dependable pace.
- Abilitytobalancehands-ondesignexecutionwithsystem-levelthinkingandprioritization.
