Senior UX Designer - Design System Lead & AI Tools

Vanderbilt University; Nashville (TN); On-site; USD 110,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanderbilt University seeks a Principal UX Designer to own the university’s web design system in Figma and lead a small team of two freelance designers. You will ensure the system meets accessibility standards while collaborating with web development to keep experiences in sync.

You will plan usability testing, contribute to journey mapping and conversion optimization, and introduce AI-assisted design tools to expand capacity and speed in agile sprints.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in UX design or commensurate experience.
• 7+ years of UX or product design experience with ownership of a design system.
• Experience building and maintaining design systems in Figma with components and tokenization.
• Experience planning and running usability testing with tools such as Userlytics.
• Knowledge of journey mapping and conversion rate optimization.
• Strong understanding of WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA/Section 508 accessibility.
• Experience adopting AI-assisted design tools to improve efficiency.
• Experience collaborating with web development to move designs into production.

Responsibilities

• Own the university’s web design system in Figma, including components and guidelines.
• Lead tokenization to create a scalable, consistent foundation across products.
• Partner with web development to evolve the design system and keep design in sync.
• Identify and resolve usability issues across university web properties.
• Ensure accessibility standards are met across experiences.

Skills

UX design

Design systems

Figma

Usability testing

Journey mapping

Accessibility

AI-enabled design

Agile/sprints

Freelance leadership

Communication

Collaboration

System thinking

Decision making

Education

Bachelor’s degree in UX design or commensurate experience

Tools

Figma

Userlytics

Job description

Vanderbilt University seeks a Principal UX Designer to own the university’s web design system in Figma and lead a small team of two freelance designers. You will ensure the system meets accessibility standards while collaborating with web development to keep experiences in sync.

You will plan usability testing, contribute to journey mapping and conversion optimization, and introduce AI-assisted design tools to expand capacity and speed in agile sprints.