Product Designer, Higher Education

Cypress HCM; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 138,000 - 207,000; Full time

Job summary

The Education team at Cypress HCM is hiring a staff-level product designer to shape how students and educators engage with AI in higher education. You’ll work across core learning experiences and campus-wide tools, balancing safety, learning, and institutional needs with a strong craft bar.

You will partner with product, engineering, research, safety, policy, and design to define durable patterns for a space still being defined, translating emerging ideas into high-fidelity experiences that feel

Qualifications

• Exceptional interaction and visual design craft.
• Experience shaping high-trust educational software.
• Ability to translate complex safety and policy requirements into intuitive user experiences.

Responsibilities

• Establish an exceptionally high standard for craft across higher education experiences.
• Lead end-to-end design for products that help students, faculty, and campus staff use AI safely and productively.
• Design clear, trustworthy experiences for learning, course participation, and campus-wide use.
• Shape zero-to-one higher education experiences spanning colleges and universities, educators, courses, collaboration.
• Turn emerging ideas into concepts, prototypes, and high-fidelity product experiences.
• Partner with research, engineering, product, safety, policy, and design to balance user needs and technical capabilities.
• Conduct and apply research with relevant users and partners to understand needs of students, faculty, campus staff, and institutions.
• Develop reusable patterns and principles creating coherence across core learning, course, and campus-wide products.

Job description

The Education team is focused on making AI safe, useful, and empowering for students, faculty, and institutions. Our work spans core learning experiences, course-based tools, and campus-wide product solutions. We’re also exploring how our technology can support colleges and universities, educators, teaching and research, and collaborative learning.

About The Role

We’re looking for a staff-level product designer to shape how students and educators engage with AI and help define our emerging higher education experiences. You’ll work across immediate product needs and ambitious zero-to-one opportunities, from core learning and course experiences to campus-wide tools for teaching, research, and collaboration.

A high craft bar is imperative. You’ll be expected to pair exceptional interaction and visual design with deep product thinking—turning complex questions around safety, learning, and institutional needs into experiences that feel clear, trustworthy, and engaging.

This is a highly generative role for someone who can move from early exploration to concrete, high-fidelity product direction. You’ll partner closely with product, engineering, research, safety, policy, and design to establish durable patterns for a space that is still being defined.

In This Role You Will

• Establish an exceptionally high standard for craft across our higher education experiences.
• Lead end-to-end design for products that help students, faculty, and campus staff use AI safely, confidently, and productively.
• Design clear, trustworthy experiences for learning, course participation, and campus-wide use, including sensitive or high-trust interactions.
• Shape zero-to-one higher education experiences spanning colleges and universities, educators, courses, collaborative work, and builder-style workflows.
• Turn emerging ideas into compelling concepts, prototypes, and high-fidelity product experiences that teams can evaluate and build.
• Partner with research, engineering, product, safety, policy, and design to balance user needs, technical capabilities, and responsible deployment.
• Conduct and apply research with relevant users and partners to understand the needs of students, faculty, campus staff, and institutions.
• Develop reusable patterns and principles that create coherence across core learning, course, and campus-wide products as the area grows.

You Might Thrive In This Role If You

• Bring exceptional interaction and visual design craft and are motivated to raise the quality of design across our company.
• Are a highly generative designer who explores broadly, iterates deeply, and turns ideas into concrete, polished product direction.
• Pair strong craft with deep product and systems thinking.
• Have led substantial, ambiguous, or zero-to-one product areas and can help shape both vision and execution.
• Can design thoughtful experiences for sensitive, high-trust, or safety-critical contexts.
• Understand how to create products that are engaging and intuitive without compromising safety or clarity.
• Can navigate the needs of multiple audiences, including students, faculty, campus staff, administrators, and institutional partners.
• Communicate clearly, build alignment across disciplines, and remain hands-on throughout the product-development process.
• Are energized by the opportunity to define how AI can support learning while serving higher education communities responsibly.

Compensation: $100 - $150 per hour