Principal UX Design Lead

Rightworks offers the only intelligent cloud purpose-built for accounting firms and professionals. Backed by award-winning support, our fully managed IT and applications ensure customers have secure, reliable, on-demand access to their technology. We provide a curated software ecosystem that simplifies the complexity of running an accounting firm or small business, supported by a community of thought leaders, peer networks, and educational resources. Our success is made possible by leveraging decades of specialized experience in leading accounting firms, SMBs and technology companies. Thousands of Firms and SMBs count on us to run their business every day. 

We have a great team, we’re growing fast and have a winning culture based on innovation, teamwork, and mutual respect. 

Job Overview: 

We are looking for an experienced Principal UX Design Lead to focus on Product to Development prioritized outcomes, strategic alignment, and cross-functional collaboration. This role will understand the larger picture and shifting components, advocate for user-centric design, and elevate UX as a strategic partner in delivering transformative software solutions. The ideal candidate will bring a blend of leadership, strong stakeholder management, transparent communications, and hands-on UX Design Expertise within SaaS environments, prioritizing business impact and customer satisfaction over process-driven outputs. 

PLEASE NOTE: This is a hybrid position, with 3 days per week in our Nashua, NH headquarters. 

Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Vision: 

• Develop and champion a quarterly UX roadmap that aligns with Rightworks’ product vision, business goals, and customer insights. 

• Shift UX from a reactive, support-focused function to a proactive, leadership-driven discipline within the product development lifecycle (PDLC) and inside the software design lifecycle (SDLC). 

• Collaborate cross-functionally with Product and Development teams to embed UX insights early in product planning and strategy. 

Outcome-Driven Design: 

• Define and measure UX success through metrics and KPIs such as user adoption, engagement, and satisfaction, aligning OKRs with broader business and product objectives. 

• Leverage real-world user data (e.g., usage tracking, heatmaps, customer feedback) to inform design decisions, moving beyond traditional usability testing. 

Communication & Advocacy: 

• Present UX insights, key milestones, and strategic recommendations in leadership meetings, acting as a vocal advocate for user needs and design principles across all teams—not just UX. 

• Produce regular UX reports highlighting user research findings, strategy alignment with business goals, and usability improvements with measurable impact. 

• Propose UX-driven initiatives in Product and Development meetings to drive innovation and improvement. 

Process Integration: 

• Work within Rightworks’ established PDLC/SDLC Partnership framework to integrate UX into Delivery Teams. 

• Lead discovery and validation cycles using real customer feedback to ensure designs meet user and business needs. 

Skills & Atributes 

Outcome-driven mentality with a focus on measurable impacts (e.g., customer satisfaction, product success) rather than outputs (e.g., deliverables). 

• Strategic thinker with excellent cross-functional collaboration skills, capable of aligning UX with broader product and business goals. 

• Exceptional communication and advocacy skills, comfortable presenting to leadership and advocating for user needs across teams. 

• Familiarity with data-driven design, including real-world user analytics and customer feedback loops. 

Requirements: 

• 10+ years of experience 

• Bachelors or masters degree in a relevant design degree, graphic design, UX design, or industrial design and a strong portfolio and professional experience. 

• Ability to oversee and manage design from concepts to completion, creating the vision aligned with Product, ensuring that the end resulting product meets both business goals and user needs. 

• Experience defining UX metrics and OKRs tied to business outcomes. 

• Hands-on knowledge of tools like Pendo, heatmaps, or similar platforms for tracking user behavior, Developer and Designer toolchains inclusive of Figma, Storybook and a perspective from a Coder’s viewpoint is valuable. 

• Background in fostering UX advocacy programs or cross-functional design education initiatives. 

• Proven track record as a UX leader within SaaS development organizations, ideally in early-stage or transformative software products. 

• Extensive experience embedding UX within Agile product teams, with a preference for candidates from in-house product environments over agency-style backgrounds. 

• Demonstrated ability to shift UX from a support role to a strategic leadership function. 

Eligibility Requirements 

• This role is open to US Citizens or permanent residents authorized to work in the United States. Rightworks LLC is unable to offer visa sponsorship.

• Due to specific state regulations, we are unable to accept applications from residents of California, Hawaii, or Alaska.

• Relocation will not be offered for this position. 

Benefits 

To provide best-in-class solutions, we need a best-in-class team. We offer competitive salaries to recruit the best talent. We provide company paid short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance and a generous 401K match. We offer highly affordable medical, dental, vision coverage, and many other valuable benefits. We offer a generous PTO bank, and numerous paid holidays, affording you the time to be there for what is important in your life. We encourage giving back to our communities by providing paid volunteer time off. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer!