Senior Web Designer

Madeostudio; Northern, New York (KY, NY); Hybrid; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Vision insurance

Dental insurance

401k matching (up to 5%)

Discretionary annual bonuses

Flexible vacation days

Remote work from home with occasional

Job summary

Madeo is an award-winning brand and web agency focused on social impact. We seek a Design Lead to shape user experiences and visual design for mission-driven organizations, including interactive report microsites and brand design systems.

You will collaborate with UX strategists, content strategists, designers, developers, and client teams to defend design decisions and translate research into engaging web solutions.

Qualifications

• Experience leading original web design for multiple clients.
• Experience actively participating in UX decision-making on website projects.
• Confidence presenting work, fielding feedback, and speaking on behalf of design decisions.
• Genuine interest in social impact and working with nonprofit organizations.
• Must be able to work 10am–6pm EST hours.
• Living and commuting distance to NYC is preferred but not required.

Responsibilities

• Lead design direction and UI/UX creation for high-caliber mission-driven websites and microsites.
• Collaborate with strategists, designers, developers, and client teams to shape projects.
• Create a UI kit and design system and ensure alignment with brand and content strategies.
• Work across research, discovery, wireframing, and visual design to deliver polished interfaces.
• Partner with frontend developers to execute designs and refine interactions.

Skills

Lead web design

UX decision-making

Client presentations

Social impact interest

EST hours

NYC proximity preferred

Job description

Madeo is an award winning brand and web agency with a focus on social impact. We are an inclusive and diverse team of designers, strategists, writers, project managers, and web developers. We value mission-driven work that relies on empathy, analytical thinking, and collaboration. Our clients tackle today's challenging issues. They invite us to partner on their brands, websites, digital products, and interactive campaigns - projects that inspire people to take meaningful actions.

About the Role

As a Design Lead at Madeo, you are a senior designer that is invited to play a leading role in shaping user experiences and visual design on high-caliber websites for remarkable mission-driven organizations. You will get to design interactive report microsites, editorial sites, large organizational websites, and get invited to improve brand design systems for the web.

Candidates for this role would bring experience across multiple client projects in an agency or team setting, along with a practiced ability to make and defend sound design and UX decisions. This role entails close collaboration with UX strategists, content strategists, other designers, web developers, and client teams. We are looking for a talented and confident designer who is equally interested in learning from survey results and wireframing as they are in polishing high-fidelity interactive UI designs.

We are looking for a designer with a focus on web design, but with deep appreciation for visual and brand design. We see websites as an expanded expression of brand and would welcome those interested in the intersection of web and brand design.

Minimum Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience leading original web design for multiple clients.
• Experience actively participating in UX decision-making on website projects, including evaluating options, identifying tradeoffs, and contributing informed recommendations alongside strategists.
• Confidence working directly with clients, presenting work, fielding feedback, and speaking on behalf of design decisions.
• Genuine interest in social impact and working with a wide range of progressive nonprofit organizations.
• Ability to work (10am-6pm) in EST hours is required.
• Living and working within commuting distance to NYC is preferred for occasional get togethers, but not a must.

Additional Relevant Experience

In addition to the minimum qualifications, demonstrated experience and interest in the following would be a plus:

• Interaction design and motion within web projects
• Information architecture and content strategy collaboration
• Graphic and brand identity design alongside web projects

Core Range of Responsibilities

• At any given point, you would typically be working on a larger client project, a smaller one, and a few ongoing engagements that invite smaller improvements each month. On some projects, you will have a peer designer working alongside you to advance collaboration.
• You would collaborate with one or two strategists, a creative director, motion and graphic designers, web developers, and members of the client team.
• Projects typically start with a research and discovery phase. For website redesigns, this would include understanding the existing site, user needs and behaviors, insights from stakeholder interviews, and independently researching peer sites to identify opportunities. You would participate in auditing the existing site and share recommendations across UX, UI, visual design, and content.
• Based on discovery insights, we move into collaborative design direction and wireframing in partnership with the content and UX strategist. Your ability to actively evaluate UX options and make grounded recommendations is central to this phase.
• As designs become more defined, you would work on establishing the overall creative and UX/UI direction in collaboration with the broader team and the creative director.
• You would be responsible for producing a UI Kit and the overall design system for the website, defining interactions and transitions, and collaborating directly with front-end developers on execution.
• Starting salary $85,000 to $120,000; this range accounts for different levels of experience and living locations
• Medical, vision, and dental insurance benefits offered
• 401k matching of up to 5% of your salary towards your retirement
• Discretionary annual bonuses, both regular and to your 401k
• Flexible vacation days in addition to national holidays and team-wide vacations
• 100% remote work from home supported with occasional retreats and events
• If you're in NYC: in-person design day workshops, team dinners, design talks
• 1 to 2 team-wide retreats per year
• A work culture that prioritizes collaboration, learning, and growth

Other Design Roles at Madeo

If this role resonates with you but you are looking for a part-time or contract arrangement rather than a full-time role, we'd still love to hear from you. Madeo is currently hiring Senior Designers on a part-time contract basis. You can find more information on our careers page .