Sr. User Experience Designer

AppFolio; Goleta (CA); Hybrid; USD 125,000 - 157,000; Full time

Job summary

AppFolio is seeking an experienced Senior UX Designer to own the identity and access management experience across our platform. You will shape sign-in, authentication, and role-based access while collaborating with product and engineering to align dependencies with business goals.

Reporting to the Director of Platform UX, you will impact systems-level design and mentor teammates. You will apply research-driven insights, design within security constraints, and contribute to the design system to

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in UX or product design.
• Experience designing for security-sensitive, trust-critical, or infrastructure-level product areas (identity, authentication, account management, or similar).
• Strong collaboration with product and engineering partners.
• Portfolio or work samples showing rigor in complex, constraint-heavy problem spaces.

Responsibilities

• Design the identity and permissions experiences across the platform, including login, passkeys, and social sign-in.
• Own end-to-end design across authentication, access management, and user roles.
• Collaborate with product and engineering to align dependencies with business goals.
• Apply research and data to guide design decisions and know when to surface more evidence.
• Deeply understand and contribute to the design system and its usage across products.
• Present work to audiences from team members to cross-functional stakeholders with clarity.
• Mentor teammates and share knowledge as a go-to resource.

Skills

UX design

Systems thinking

Security-conscious design

Cross-functional collaboration

AI-assisted design

Tools

Design system knowledge

Job description

AppFolio is more than a company. We’re a community of dreamers, big thinkers, problem solvers, active listeners, and multipliers. At every opportunity, we set the pace while delivering innovation built to carry real estate into the future. One in which every experience feels effortless, yet meaningful. Where customers are empowered to take on any opportunity. We show up as one team, connected by our values to be a force for good. Because together, we have the power to create extraordinary outcomes for our customers, our communities, and ourselves.

This Senior UX Designer owns the experience of identity and access management across AppFolio's platform, the sign-in and authentication flows that sit beneath nearly every product our customers touch, plus how customers manage roles and access for their own users. Platform design work is a different kind of craft: your job is the foundation and architecture other product and design teams build on, work that makes their user experiences possible in the first place. That means systems thinking and technical fluency matter as much as visual craft. Reporting to the Director of Platform UX, you'll have real ownership over a well-defined, high-impact area of the product.

Your impact

• Design the internal tools, documentation, and patterns other product teams rely on when they build on top of our identity and permissions platform, making that experience as considered as anything customer-facing
• Own the end-to-end design of authentication and account permissions experiences, including login, passkeys, and social sign-in
• Work across product development teams to resolve dependencies and align work to serve both users and business goals, building confidence in a direction with your product and engineering partners before acting
• Apply a strong foundation in research and data to guide design decisions, knowing when to gather more evidence versus when to make a call
• Understand our design system at a deep level, proactively contributing improvements and helping others apply it correctly
• Present your work with polish and confidence, tailoring your message to the audience, from your immediate team to cross-functional stakeholders
• Mentor and share knowledge with teammates as a trusted, go-to resource

Qualifications

• You care as much about internal-facing tools and developer experience as you do about customer-facing work, not something you tolerate but something you take pride in
• Strong systems thinking, comfortable designing within real constraints imposed by security, compliance, and technical architecture
• You're drawn to systems-level problems, architecture, and reusable foundations, the kind of work that makes other teams' user experiences possible
• Able to take on projects of increasing complexity, navigating multiple workstreams and cross-team dependencies with limited day-to-day oversight
• Skilled at translating complex technical or security constraints into experiences that feel simple and trustworthy
• Effective at giving and receiving design feedback, and comfortable navigating difficult conversations with stakeholders
• Actively uses AI tools in your design process and is energized by exploring new AI-native ways of working

Must have

• 4+ years of experience in UX or product design
• Demonstrated experience designing for security-sensitive, trust-critical, or infrastructure-level product areas (identity, authentication, account management, or similar)
• Strong collaboration skills with product and engineering partners
• Portfolio or work samples showing rigor in complex, constraint-heavy problem spaces

Location

Find out more about our locations by visiting our site.

All late-stage candidates complete an in-person meeting with an AppFolian as part of our hiring process.

Compensation & Benefits

The compensation that we reasonably expect to pay for this role is: $125,000 - $157,000 [base pay]. The actual compensation for this role will be determined by a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s skills, education, experience, and internal equity.

Please note that compensation is just one aspect of a comprehensive Total Rewards package. The compensation range listed here does not include additional benefits or any discretionary bonuses you may be eligible for based on your role and/or employment type.

Regular full-time employees are eligible for benefits - see here.

About AppFolio

AppFolio is the technology leader powering the future of the real estate industry. Our innovative platform and trusted partnership enable our customers to connect communities, increase operational efficiency, and grow their business. For more information about AppFolio, visit appfolio.com.

Why AppFolio

Grow

We enable a culture of high performance, where delivering results is recognized by opportunities for growth and compelling total rewards. Our challenging and meaningful work drive the growth of our business, and ourselves.

Learn

We partner with you to realize your potential by investing in you from the start. We're cultivating a team of big thinkers through coaching and mentorship with our best-in-class leaders, and giving you the time and tools to develop your skills.

Impact

We are creating a world where living in, investing in, managing, and supporting communities feels magical and effortless, freeing people to thrive. We do this by innovating with purpose while cultivating a culture of impact. We learn as much from each other as we do our customers and our communities.

Connect

We excel at hybrid work by fostering an environment that feels flexible, personal and connected, no matter where we are. We create space to fuel innovation and collaboration, and we come together to celebrate, connect, and succeed.

Paddle as One.

Learn more at appfolio.com/company/careers

Statement of Equal Opportunity

At AppFolio, we value diversity in backgrounds and perspectives and depend on it to drive our innovative culture. That’s why we’re a proud Equal Opportunity Employer, and we believe that our products, our teams, and our business are stronger because of it. This means that no matter what race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, or medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, veteran or military status, or any other characteristic protected by law, you’re always welcome at AppFolio.

We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible candidate experience. If you need a reasonable accommodation at any point in the application or interview process for a disability, pregnancy-related condition, or religious practice, please contact us at [e-mail] or [phone]. You do not need to use any particular wording.

Compensation Range: $125K - $157K