Staff Product Designer - Hybrid NYC, Inclusive AI UX

Understood.org; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

Understood.org in New York City is seeking a Staff Product Designer reporting to the Director, Product Design. You will translate complex customer needs into clear digital experiences while advancing accessibility and inclusive design.

This hybrid role requires three days a week in our NYC office. The ideal candidate brings 7+ years of product design experience, strong systems thinking, and the ability to mentor designers and partner with senior stakeholders.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in product design or similar roles.
• Mentor junior designers and partner with senior stakeholders.
• Deep product design expertise with systems thinking to connect experiences to scalable patterns.
• Own projects end-to-end and translate team priorities into actionable plans.
• Use research and data to derive insights and drive decisions.
• Apply AI to improve design quality and speed of delivery.
• Strong communication and collaboration with cross-functional partners.

Responsibilities

• Make sense of complexity by synthesizing research, user behavior, subject matter expertise, and business needs into clear product opportunities.
• Design digital experiences that respond to different users, needs, and content types.
• Design for cognitive diversity, reducing unnecessary cognitive demands while preserving user agency.
• Think in systems to determine what should be unique, reused, standardized, or systematized across experiences.
• Explore concepts through detailed interaction design, prototypes, and testing to launch clarity.
• Use AI to expand your design practice and share learnings with the team.
• Drive clarity and alignment with facilitation and storytelling across projects.
• Raise design quality by identifying reusable patterns and providing strong product judgment.
• Lead through influence by partnering across teams and owning design decisions.

Skills

Systems thinking

Product design

User-centered design

Leadership mentoring

Job description

Understood.org in New York City is seeking a Staff Product Designer reporting to the Director, Product Design. You will translate complex customer needs into clear digital experiences while advancing accessibility and inclusive design.

This hybrid role requires three days a week in our NYC office. The ideal candidate brings 7+ years of product design experience, strong systems thinking, and the ability to mentor designers and partner with senior stakeholders.