Lead UI & UX Designer

UKG; Lowell (MA); On-site; USD 134,000 - 191,000; Full time

Job summary

UKG is seeking a Lead Experience Designer to take Frontline Worker Network from concept to launch and ongoing growth. You will translate evolving worker and business needs into useful, trusted experiences for frontline workers.

You will collaborate with Product, Engineering, Data, UX Research, and service teams to define opportunities, trade-offs, and priorities, balancing deskless work with accessibility and mobile-first design. This hands-on role requires strong craft and product judgment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in user experience, product design, or interaction design.
• Track record of delivering end-to-end design solutions for workflow-heavy or enterprise apps.
• Strong product judgment and systems thinking.
• Experience using research and product data to guide design decisions.
• Understanding of accessibility and inclusive product design.
• Experience contributing to shared patterns, reusable frameworks, or design systems.
• Experience designing AI-enabled, adaptive experiences with trust and transparency.
• A portfolio demonstrating product thinking and design craft.
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in HCI, design, CS, or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end design across discovery, journey mapping, workflow definition, prototyping, validation, execution, launch, and iteration.
• Design experiences for workers, employers, and service partners.
• Make services like financial wellness, health, and everyday essentials clear, accessible, and trustworthy.
• Design for frontline, deskless, hourly, and mobile-first workers across varied environments and schedules.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Data, UX Research, and service teams to define opportunities, requirements, trade-offs, and priorities.
• Use research and product analytics to validate concepts and shipped experiences and improve usability, adoption, engagement, and retention.
• Establish interaction patterns and design foundations that scale as the network grows.
• Design AI-supported experiences with transparency, feedback, user control, and limits.
• Raise the bar for interaction quality and visual craft through critique and mentorship.

Skills

UX design

Product design

Systems thinking

Research data

Accessible design

Design systems

AI-enabled design

Portfolio

Education

Bachelor or Master in HCI/Design/CS

Job description

Why UKG

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do.

Why UKG

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do. We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters—and so do you.

About The Team

UKG is building an AI-first suite that helps organizations become great places to work through HR, payroll, workforce management, and culture technology.

You’ll join the team developing Frontline Worker Network, a new UKG-owned network connecting shift and hourly employees with curated services—including financial wellness, health, and everyday essentials—through mobile experiences in the flow of work. You’ll collaborate with UX Research, Product, Engineering, Data, and service partners to shape a new multi-sided experience for workers, employers, and service providers.

About The Role

As a Lead Experience Designer, you’ll help take Frontline Worker Network from early concept through launch and continued growth. You’ll turn evolving customer needs and business opportunities into useful, trusted, and accessible experiences for frontline workers.

This is a hands-on design role requiring strong product judgment, systems thinking, and design craft. You’ll balance the needs of multiple audiences, design for the realities of deskless and hourly work, and help the team make thoughtful decisions in an evolving 0-to-1 environment.

In This Role, You Will

• Lead end-to-end design across discovery, journey mapping, workflow definition, prototyping, validation, execution, launch, and iteration.
• Design experiences that address the needs of workers, employers, and service partners.
• Make services such as financial wellness, health, and everyday essentials clear, accessible, and trustworthy.
• Design for frontline, deskless, hourly, and mobile-first workers across varied work environments, schedules, and levels of digital access.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Data, UX Research, and service teams to define opportunities, requirements, trade-offs, and priorities.
• Use research and product analytics to validate concepts and shipped experiences and improve usability, adoption, engagement, and retention.
• Establish interaction patterns and design foundations that can scale as the network adds users, services, and partner integrations.
• Design AI-supported experiences that provide transparency, feedback, user control, and clear system limits.
• Raise the bar for interaction quality, visual craft, accessibility, and consistency through critique, design reviews, shared patterns, and mentorship.
  

About You

Basic qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in user experience, product design, or interaction design, including work on complex enterprise products and/or mobile applications.
• Track record of delivering end-to-end design solutions and shaping direction for workflow-heavy or customer-facing experiences.
• Strong product judgment and systems thinking, with the ability to balance customer needs, business goals, and technical constraints.
• Experience using research and product data to guide design decisions and validate outcomes.
• Understanding of accessibility and inclusive product design.
• Experience contributing to shared patterns, reusable frameworks, or design systems.
• Experience designing AI-enabled, adaptive, or other experiences requiring trust, transparency, feedback, and user control.
• Demonstrated use of AI in the design process for exploration, synthesis, prototyping, or execution.
• Strong proficiency with design and prototyping tools, along with the ability to adopt new tools and techniques.
• Excellent storytelling, presentation, and facilitation skills, with the ability to communicate complex ideas and build alignment across disciplines and levels.
• A portfolio demonstrating product thinking, design craft, and influence on outcomes.
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in human-computer interaction (HCI), design, computer science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing mobile-first products for deskless, hourly, or frontline worker populations.
• Experience designing for multiple audiences or stakeholder groups, such as workers, employers, and service partners.
• Experience bringing new products, services, or major capabilities from early concepts toward launch, particularly within a 0-to-1 initiative.
• Experience with marketplace, e-commerce, or service-based products that connect users with third-party offerings.
• Experience in financial wellness, financial technology, health, workforce management, human resources, payroll, or related service areas.
• Familiarity with the needs and constraints of frontline work, including varied work environments, schedules, and levels of digital access.
• A portfolio featuring mobile experiences, multi-sided products, or work shaped by evolving user and partner needs.
  

Company Overview

UKG is the Workforce Operating Platform that puts workforce understanding to work. With the world's largest collection of workforce insights, and people-first AI, our ability to reveal unseen ways to build trust, amplify productivity, and empower talent, is unmatched. It's this expertise that equips our customers with the intelligence to solve any challenge in any industry — because great organizations know their workforce is their competitive edge. Learn more at ukg.com.

Equal Opportunity Employer

UKG is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, disability, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, and other legally protected categories.

View The EEO Know Your Rights poster

UKG participates in E-Verify. View the E-Verify posters here.

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Disability Accommodation in the Application and Interview Process

For individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email [e-mail].

The pay range for this position is $133,900 to $190,750. The actual base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job-related knowledge and work location. In addition to base pay, employees may be eligible to participate in a performance-based bonus plan and to receive restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation. Learn more about UKG’s benefits and rewards at https://www.ukg.com/about-us/careers/benefits