Design Director, Creative Brand

Summit K12; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Company-paid disability and life保险

401(k) retirement plan

10 paid holidays + 1 floating holiday

Job summary

Summit K12 is seeking a Design Lead to own user experience for a product area and co-steward the shared design system, while staying hands-on in Figma daily. This player-coach role partners with Product Managers to bridge design and product teams for cohesive, high-quality outcomes.

You'll ship confidently using AI tools, drive system adoption across teams, and translate platform strategy into consistent navigation and workflows.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in product/UX design, including owning a design system.
• Fluency in Figma and comfort using Jira for design work.
• Active use of AI tools in design workflow, and enthusiasm for operating as an AI‑leveraged, lean design function.
• Strong grounding in user-centered design, interaction design, and Universal Design for Learning.
• A track record of building design cohesion through cross-functional partnership — influence earned, not imposed.
• Comfort operating in a fast-moving environment: shipping without waiting for perfect data, with limited resources and tight timelines.
• Experience designing SaaS or platform-based products
• A single, consistently applied design system across all products
• Product Managers seek out design partnership because it makes their features better and faster to ship

Responsibilities

• Maintain and evolve the Summit K12 design system — components, patterns, typography, color, accessibility standards, and interaction behaviors
• Keep the system documented, versioned, and genuinely used, so teams move faster with it than without it
• Drive adoption — you and your fellow Design Leads share accountability for the system actually being used across teams, reducing UX fragmentation through enablement and reusable patterns rather than policing
• Decide, jointly with your fellow Design Leads, what enters the system and when projects in your area can deviate from it, escalating consequential additions, cross-product deviations, and any calls the leads can't align on.
• Act as a design consultant and force multiplier to Product Managers — in a world where a PM can spin up an AI prototype in an afternoon, you're the one who makes it shippable: coherent, accessible, and on-system
• Make the case for design through outcomes — demonstrate how strong UX reduces rework, support burden, and churn
• Be the Design Lead your teams trust for day-to-day design calls
• Spend real time in Figma — this is a shipping role, not a pure oversight role
• Translate platform experience strategy into concrete, consistent navigation, workflows, and interaction patterns across all user types
• Claude, v0, Figma AI) to accelerate design and development workflows
• Integrate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles into the design system so interaction patterns work for the full range of learner abilities
• Set clear expectations for quality, ownership, and accountability
• Run lean design workflows in Figma and Jira that support fast iteration and predictable delivery

Skills

Design system ownership

Figma proficiency

AI-assisted design

User-centered design

Cross-functional collaboration

SaaS/platform design

Jira usage

Tools

Jira

Job description

Job Description Description Summit K12 is building a lean, modern design function — and you'll be at the center of it. As a Design Lead , you own the user experience for your product area and co-steward our shared design system, while staying hands‑on in Figma every day. This is a player‑coach role: you will design, lead our design efforts, and partner closely with Product Managers as a trusted consultant, helping bridge the gap between our design and product teams to ensure cohesive, high-quality outcomes.

We're a customer-driven, growing company — many of us came from the classrooms and districts we serve, so deep user knowledge lives in-house. We're looking for someone who ships confidently without waiting for perfect data, uses AI tools to multiply their output, and earns influence through craft and judgment rather than title or process.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and evolve the Summit K12 design system — components, patterns, typography, color, accessibility standards, and interaction behaviors
• Keep the system documented, versioned, and genuinely used, so teams move faster with it than without it
• Drive adoption — you and your fellow Design Leads share accountability for the system actually being used across teams, reducing UX fragmentation through enablement and reusable patterns rather than policing
• Decide, jointly with your fellow Design Leads, what enters the system and when projects in your area can deviate from it, escalating consequential additions, cross-product deviations, and any calls the leads can't align on.
• Act as a design consultant and force multiplier to Product Managers — in a world where a PM can spin up an AI prototype in an afternoon, you're the one who makes it shippable: coherent, accessible, and on-system
• Make the case for design through outcomes — demonstrate how strong UX reduces rework, support burden, and churn
• Be the Design Lead your teams trust for day-to-day design calls
• Spend real time in Figma — this is a shipping role, not a pure oversight role
• Translate platform experience strategy into concrete, consistent navigation, workflows, and interaction patterns across all user types
• Claude, v0, Figma AI) to accelerate design and development workflows
• Integrate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles into the design system so interaction patterns work for the full range of learner abilities
• Set clear expectations for quality, ownership, and accountability
• Run lean design workflows in Figma and Jira that support fast iteration and predictable delivery

Qualifications

• 6+ years in product/UX design, including owning a design system
• ~ Fluency in Figma and comfort managing design work in Jira
• ~ Active use of AI tools in your design workflow, and enthusiasm for operating as an AI‑leveraged, lean design function
• ~ Strong grounding in user-centered design, interaction design, and Universal Design for Learning
• ~ A track record of building design cohesion through cross-functional partnership — influence earned, not imposed
• ~ Comfort operating in a fast-moving environment: shipping without waiting for perfect data, with limited resources and tight timelines
• Experience designing SaaS or platform-based products
• A single, consistently applied design system across all products
• Product Managers seek out design partnership because it makes their features better and faster to ship

Reduced UX inconsistency and rework during development

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with multiple plan options
• ~ Company-paid short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance
• ~401(k) retirement plan
• ~ 10 paid holidays plus 1 floating holiday annually

We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.