Lead Specialist, UX Designer
Description: This role aligns to industry level titles such as Senior UX Designer or Senior User Experience Designer.
Location: Hoboken - Hybrid
The Role
We're looking for a Lead Specialist, UX Designer with deep expertise in user-centered design to lead the creation of impactful experiences for our higher education products. You're someone who operates with strategic vision, exceptional craft, and strong influence—driving design excellence while mentoring others and shaping product direction that serves millions of learners.
You'll partner closely with content, product, research, and engineering teams and be responsible for:
Leading design for major product areas, full user journeys, and platform-level initiatives across web and mobile, from discovery through launch and iteration
Creating high-fidelity, pixel-perfect designs including comprehensive user flows, interactive prototypes, and detailed specifications that enable seamless engineering handoff
Defining and evolving design patterns and components for our design system used across multiple product teams, with consideration for scalability, accessibility, and long-term consistency
Leading user research initiatives: planning studies, facilitating sessions, synthesizing insights, and translating findings into actionable design improvements and strategic product recommendations
Presenting design work to senior stakeholders and cross-functional partners, building conviction for design decisions that shape product strategy
Mentoring junior and mid-level designers through design crits, pair designing, and thoughtful feedback that accelerates their growth and career development
You will be challenged in an organization that values vision, execution, and persistence. You will take ownership of complex design challenges by demonstrating systems thinking, connecting user needs, business goals, and technical architecture to create solutions that extend beyond individual features to holistic product experiences. UX Designers at Pearson are embedded within product teams that are deeply collaborative, and each member is directly responsible for the team's success.
What You'll Own
As a critical partner on our team, you will lead design for major product areas, full user journeys, and platform-level initiatives. You'll collaborate with content, product, research, and engineering teams throughout the product development process to advocate for user needs and shape experiences that drive learning outcomes.
Lead design for complex, end-to-end user experiences across multiple platforms and surfaces, from initial discovery through launch and iteration
Partner with product managers to define and frame design problems, identify opportunities, and establish clear success metrics before jumping into solutions
Create high-fidelity, pixel-perfect designs including user flows and interactive prototypes with exceptional craft and attention to detail
Define and evolve reusable components and patterns for the design system used across multiple product teams, with comprehensive documentation covering scalability, accessibility, and cross-platform consistency
Lead user research initiatives (or co-lead with researchers) including study planning, facilitation, and synthesis, translating insights into actionable design iterations and strategic product recommendations
Present design work and strategic recommendations to senior leadership, building conviction for design decisions that influence product direction and roadmap priorities
Facilitate design workshops and collaborative sessions that build shared understanding of user needs and drive alignment across cross-functional stakeholders with competing priorities
Partner with product and engineering to scope design work, define realistic timelines, and establish success criteria for initiatives
Leverage data and analytics to validate design decisions and iteratively improve experiences through A/B testing, experimentation, and performance monitoring
Mentor junior and mid-level designers through design critiques, pair designing, and thoughtful feedback that accelerates their growth and career development
Design for AI-driven teaching and learning experiences in collaboration with learning scientists, considering ethical implications, pedagogical effectiveness, and responsible AI principles
About You
You bring 7-10 years of product design experience with a portfolio that demonstrates craft excellence, strategic thinking, and measurable impact on product metrics, user satisfaction, and business outcomes. Your work shows experience leading design for major features or product areas affecting millions of users. Experience designing AI-powered experiences is critical. You're someone who leads through exceptional design, cross-functional influence, and user advocacy. Additionally, you are:
A strategic thinker who brings exceptional judgment to complex decisions, leading user research, advocating for design quality, navigating technical constraints and competing priorities, you excel at making thoughtful tradeoffs, reducing ambiguity, and defining clear paths forward through strong problem-framing and stakeholder communication
Equally comfortable designing pixel-perfect interfaces and defining scalable design systems used across multiple teams, always grounding your work in the intersection of user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility
Able to thrive in cross-functional environments where collaboration and influence are essential, partnering seamlessly with content strategists, product managers, researchers, engineers, and senior stakeholders to solve complex problems, build consensus, and ship high-quality experiences
An experienced mentor who elevates the craft and strategic thinking of junior and mid-level designers through thoughtful feedback, design crits, and knowledge sharing
Confident presenting your work to senior leadership and influencing product strategy through compelling storytelling and clear design rationale
What You'll Get
Pearson is on a mission to build a direct, lifelong relationship with millions of learners around the world. As the world’s leading learning company, with 18,000+ employees across 70 countries, we reach learners at critical moments of growth, through content, assessment, and digital experiences that shape education, careers, and opportunity at a global scale.
Now, Higher Education is entering its next chapter. We’re in the midst of a deep digital and AI transformation...reimagining learning as agentic, adaptive, and human-centered. Our teams are designing intelligent learning products that don’t just deliver information, but actively coach, challenge, and partner with learners, grounded in Socratic principles, critical thinking, and pedagogical rigor.
This is a rare moment to shape the future of learning. Designers at Pearson are helping define how AI shows up in education with intention, ethics, and craft. We are creating experiences that evolve alongside tomorrow’s students, instructors, and institutions. From agentic study companions to AI-powered course creation tools, we’re building systems that amplify curiosity, agency, and impact at global scale.
If you believe great design can unlock human potential and AI should deepen learning, then this is where you can do the most meaningful work of your career. Because when learning flourishes, people do too.
Ready to make an Impact?
Apply now and help shape the future of learning.
Compensation at Pearson is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and specific location. As required by the California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York State, New York City, Vermont, Washington State, and Washington DC laws, the pay range for this position is as follows:
The minimum full-time salary range is between $150,000 - $175,000.
This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive program, and information on benefits offered is here.
Applications will be accepted through 26th June. This window may be extended depending on business needs.
Skills Required
- 7-10 years of product design experience
- Portfolio demonstrating craft excellence and measurable impact
- Experience leading design for major features or product areas affecting millions of users
- Experience designing AI-powered/AI-driven experiences
- Experience defining and evolving design systems, reusable components, and patterns
- High-fidelity design and prototyping skills (pixel-perfect UI, interactive prototypes)
- Experience planning, facilitating, and synthesizing user research
- Experience leveraging data and analytics, including A/B testing and experimentation
- Ability to present to and influence senior leadership and cross-functional partners
- Experience mentoring junior and mid-level designers
- Knowledge of accessibility best practices and designing for scalability
- Proven cross-functional collaboration with product, engineering, content, and research teams
What We Do
We are the world’s learning company with more than 22,500 employees operating in 70 countries. We provide content, assessment and digital services to learners, educational institutions, employers, governments and other partners globally. We are committed to helping equip learners with the skills they need to enhance their employability prospects and to succeed in the changing world of work. We believe that wherever learning flourishes so do people.
