Lead UX Designer

At Early Warning, we've powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze℠, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

The role requires a hands-on lean-in in designing experiences, researching, and iterating. The Lead User Experience Designer builds intuitive, essential, and delightful experiences for our Consumer, B2B, and B2B2C products in collaboration with cross-functional teams such as Engineering, Product, Analytics, and Senior Management. The Lead User Experience Designer will develop, present and communicate design ideas in a large team environment. The incumbent should possess extraordinary visual and user interface design skills and user-centered design principles. The incumbent will have an affinity for consistency, color use, typography, and a keen eye for subtle details. While exercising a good eye for aesthetics, you can grasp and distill highly complex issues and translate them into clean, focused, understandable solutions.

User experience is at the forefront of how we create intuitive, innovative, and beautiful products that people love. We strive to learn and understand our users' needs, behaviors, and emotions to gather insights that inform product strategy and design. Our UX teams include designers, researchers, and content strategists, who are passionate about quality, usability, and simplicity.

Essential Functions

As part of the UX Design and Research team, partner with our Product teams to identify and explore new opportunities to help define product roadmaps, vision, and strategy. Lead the synthesis of customer needs to translate them into new products and services. Define and communicate best in class digital payments and identity design.

Experiment with new capabilities to expand the design offering across the company

Own relationship with our partner banks in designing new products and services.

Develop and maintain a deep understanding of our own products, our customer needs and competitive landscape.

Prioritize customer-first outcomes in decision making conversations.

Create and present compelling deliverables to a range of audiences and forums

Shape the methodology and culture within cross-functional teams, promote design culture; help guide teams in design planning, activities and reporting.

Share work routinely with leaders to advance the role of design across our organization and those of our partner banks.

Proactively address situations of ambiguity to keep teammates inspired and productive.

Consistently use and help teams apply the appropriate strategic design lenses (customer, business, competitive, social, etc.) for solving problems.

Lead workshops that advance the application of design across our organization and those of our partner banks.

Experiment with, design, and implement systems to improve planning & outcomes across the company

Develop a unique voice and presence in promoting the role of design across the company

Support the company's commitment to risk management and protecting the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data.

Lead with customer obsession, guide towards high-craft user experience and strategically leverage user research.

Be a key member of the Product team and responsible for its operating structure and team culture.

Work closely with design, technology, and product teams, to establish an experience framework for our products and services.

Frame problems through a strategic lens to inform solutions.

Explore divergent perspectives to inform design decisions.

Create mockups and prototypes, from discovery through execution.

Participate in and occasionally lead user research sessions.

Guide teams in distilling customer feedback into product ideas and refinements.

Minimum qualifications

Education and / or experience typically obtained through completion of a bachelor's degree in UX / UI Design, Research or related fields.

8+ years of work experience with a focus on product design and UI across a variety of platforms, including web, and mobile.

Demonstrable success as a designer with complex, data-intensive products and services with a strong online design portfolio

A command of visual and communication design principles

Experience in designing mobile app experiences from start to finish as a product designer with familiarity of mobile development.

Enthusiasm for an iterative design process inspired by group critique.

A great eye for detail, demonstrate creative and innovative problem-solving.

Ability to contribute to detailed product requirements

Highly skilled in design tools (Figma, Sketch, Photoshop)

Able to clearly communicate concepts and designs through sketches, wireframes, high fidelity comps, and prototypes.

Able to function independently and in a team environment with solid collaboration skills.

Strong communication skills and the ability to stay highly organized are critical Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills.

A passion for Payment and Commerce is needed.

Ability to Have fun and build a culture of belonging, wellness, diversity, inclusion, and career growth for the product design organization

Ability to balance working directly on design and guiding the quality of work from others on your team.

You should be a self-starter, self-motivated, and able to work independently and perform multiple tasks under minimal supervision.

Experience presenting to and collaborating with senior-level stakeholders.

Experience leading design critiques with remote team members.

Background and drug screen.

Preferred Qualifications

Previous experience working in e-commerce & financial tech environment is a plus but not a requirement.

Experience participating in generative and evaluative research activities.

Physical Requirements

Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and / or negligible amount of force frequently. Requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare, and manipulate documents and office equipment including personal computers. Requires the ability to communicate with internal and / or external customers.

Employee must be able to perform essential functions and physical requirements of position with or without reasonable accommodation.

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position.

The base pay scale for this position in :

Phoenix, AZ / Chicago, IL in USD per year is : $116,000 - $145,000.

New York, NY / San Francisco, CA in USD per year is : $139,000 - $174,000.

Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits.

This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate's education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness

Healthcare Coverage - Competitive medical (PPO / HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.

401(k) Retirement Plan - Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.

Paid Time Off - Unlimited Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.

12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave

Maven Family Planning - provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process!

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Early Warning Services, LLC ("Early Warning") considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees.