Lead UX Designer

Zoro Tools; Lake Forest (IL); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Grainger is seeking a Lead UX Designer to lead the design of intuitive, user-centered experiences for customer- and employee-facing products. You will translate user, customer, and business needs into scalable digital solutions and collaborate closely with product, engineering, and research teams to influence product strategy in a hybrid onsite role based in Lake Forest or Chicago.

The role expects leadership across multiple initiatives, mentoring junior designers, evolving the design system,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Human-Centered Design, HCI, Product Design, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience designing user experiences within an Agile product team.
• 1+ year of experience designing B2B digital products or enterprise applications preferred.
• Strong expertise in UX design principles including information architecture, usability, and accessibility.
• Experience designing complex, data-intensive digital applications for responsive web or mobile platforms.
• Experience working with and contributing to design systems and reusable UI patterns.
• Strong communication, facilitation, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate design rationale and influence stakeholders.
• Experience working in lean product development or continuous delivery environments.
• Portfolio demonstrating the ability to simplify complex problems and balance user, business, and technical needs.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Product Managers, Engineers, Data Scientists, and UX Researchers to design intuitive digital experiences for Grainger's customer- and employee-facing products.
• Create strategic design artifacts including user journeys, service concepts, and experience frameworks to align stakeholders around future product experiences.
• Produce detailed interaction designs including user flows, annotated wireframes, and prototypes that guide product development.
• Contribute to and evolve the design system by aligning with existing UI patterns and introducing reusable components and interaction patterns.
• Lead multiple design initiatives of varying complexity with minimal direction while ensuring alignment with product strategy and business objectives.
• Evaluate existing experiences using user testing, research insights, and behavioral data to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Communicate design decisions and rationale effectively to cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
• Mentor and collaborate with UX and UI designers to strengthen design quality and consistency across the organization.

Skills

UX design principles

Information architecture

Usability

Accessibility

Design leadership

Communication

Mentoring

Portfolio development

Lean/Agile environments

Education

Bachelor's degree in Human-Centered Design, HCI, Product Design, or related field

Job description

Overview

The Lead UX Designer is responsible for leading the design of intuitive, user-centered digital experiences for Grainger's customer- and employee-facing products. This role applies advanced design thinking and UX practices to translate user, customer, and business needs into scalable digital solutions. The Lead User Experience Designer collaborates closely with product, engineering, and research teams to deliver high-quality interaction design and influence product strategy.

This is a hybrid position that is based onsite in Lake Forest or Chicago 2-3 days a week.

You Will

• Partner with Product Managers, Engineers, Data Scientists, and UX Researchers to design intuitive digital experiences for Grainger's customer- and employee-facing products.
• Create strategic design artifacts including user journeys, service concepts, and experience frameworks to align stakeholders around future product experiences.
• Produce detailed interaction designs including user flows, annotated wireframes, and prototypes that guide product development.
• Contribute to and evolve the design system by aligning with existing UI patterns and introducing reusable components and interaction patterns.
• Lead multiple design initiatives of varying complexity with minimal direction while ensuring alignment with product strategy and business objectives.
• Evaluate existing experiences using user testing, research insights, and behavioral data to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Communicate design decisions and rationale effectively to cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
• Mentor and collaborate with UX and UI designers to strengthen design quality and consistency across the organization.

You Have

• Bachelor's degree in Human-Centered Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Product Design, or a related field, or equivalent experience required.
• 5+ years of experience designing user experiences within an Agile product team required.
• 1+ year of experience designing B2B digital products or enterprise applications preferred.
• Strong expertise in UX design principles including information architecture, usability, and accessibility.
• Experience designing complex, data-intensive digital applications for responsive web or mobile platforms.
• Experience working with and contributing to design systems and reusable UI patterns.
• Strong communication, facilitation, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate design rationale and influence stakeholders.
• Experience working in lean product development or continuous delivery environments.
• Portfolio demonstrating the ability to simplify complex problems and balance user, business, and technical needs.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

We are committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible work environment that includes providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the application and hiring process as well as throughout employment. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application and selection process, please advise us so that we can provide appropriate assistance.