Senior UX Design Director Job at Pearson in San Francisco

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Pearson is an ed tech company whose mission is to have a direct relationship with millions of lifelong learners.

As the world’s learning company with more than 18,000 employees operating in 70 countries, we provide content, assessment, and digital services to learners, educational institutions, employers, governments and other partners globally.

We are committed to helping equip learners with the skills they need to enhance their world of opportunities.

We believe that wherever learning flourishes so do people.

Higher Education Product Team

Pearson is an ed tech company whose mission is to have a direct relationship with millions of lifelong learners.

As the world’s learning company with more than 18,000 employees operating in 70 countries, we provide content, assessment, and digital services to learners, educational institutions, employers, governments and other partners globally.

We are committed to helping equip learners with the skills they need to enhance their world of opportunities.

We believe that wherever learning flourishes so do people.

At Pearson you will be challenged in an organization that values vision, execution, and persistence.

You will take ownership of our product by solving complex problems in simple, elegant ways.

Product Designers at Pearson are embedded within product teams that are deeply collaborative, and each member is directly responsible for the team’s success.

Senior UX Design Director

We are looking for a strategic and hands-on Sr. UX Design Director with a UX/UI product portfolio, rooted in innovation and growth.

You need experience in shipping complex digital products in large-scale B2C and B2B ecosystems.

You’ll have chartered transformative product strategies with user value and product market fit and designed user-centric experiences across cutting-edge modalities (e.g, web, mobile, voice, AI, VR/AR).

As a tenured UX manager and valued practioner, you have always set a high bar and institutionalized best practices for UX/UI principles, data-backed customer research, and UI craftsmanship for your immediate product team and broader design org.

Please present 2-3 case studies that showcase your strategic product impact and design thinking practices.

Work Experience

• 10+ years of relevant and demonstrable expertise in UX/Interaction Design
• 5+ years leading design managers (2+) or larger design teams (10+)
• 5+ years driving innovation or growth programs that ship complex product suites for B2C or B2B companies
• Focus in producing multichannel UX/UI, compelling visions/prototypes around emerging tech (e.g., voice, VR, AR, AI), and scalable design systems.
• Experience in conducting qualitative and quantitative user research, facilitating workshops and creating prioritization frameworks to drive customer-led product strategies and roadmap priorities.
• Proficiency in collaborating with product, data, and eng partners, using agile product delivery model
• Impact in creating UX/UI toolkits and standards and advocating best practices in smoother product delivery and governance
• Proficiency in the latest design and prototyping tools (AI-powered tools are a bonus)

About The Role

• This position reports into the SVP of Design, and will partner with their VP of design of Higher Education across its keystone digital products:
• My Lab Mastery’s (MLM) is the university instructor teaching platform, which includes AI-generated lesson planning, adaptive homework, advanced courseware tools, and gradebooks.
• Pearson+ is the student learning platform, which include eTextbooks, study videos, AI chatbots, robust learning tools like homework, simulators, and quizzes in both desktop and mobile applications.

Responsibilities

• Partnering with Product/Eng/Program to bring customer-centric product strategies and northstar visions to life.
• Transitioning from compelling MVP prototypes to functional product pilots and real product launches in the market.
• Building trust-based relationships to influence your product, engineering, data, commercial and marketing counterparts, as well as with the other executive stakeholders.
• Advocating for customer-centric design practices and upleveling UX/UI quality standards for the global design organization.
• Facilitates cross-functional workshops and design thinking activities.
• Executing on UI designs via user flows, wireframes, high-fidelity prototypes, and design systems with the support of multiple UX/UI designers teams.
• Leading concept testing of journeys and features and usability testing of product delivery.
• Involving specialists as needed for UX research, motion graphics/animation, illustration/iconography, design systems, etc.

About The Team

• As part of the Higher Ed product team, you will have a 4-in-a-box squad of product, engineering, design, and program leads.
  
  Beyond your product team, you have a SWAT team of learning science experts, AI experts, sales team, and support team.
• Within the Higher Education product org, you’ll be paired with tenured learning science experts to collaborate with you, support alongside your team, and mentor you along your own learning journey.
• Within the global UX design team, you’ll be staffed with talented designers with interactive, conversational, and immersive expertise to pave our product UX northstar.

Compensation at Pearson is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and specific location.

As required by the California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York State, New York City, Vermont, Washington State, and Washington DC laws, the pay range for this position is as follows:

The minimum full-time salary range is between $220,000 - $275,000 - This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive program, and information on benefits offered is here.

Applications will be accepted through until the 8 th August 2025.

This window may be extended depending on business needs.

Who We Are

At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to help people realize the life they imagine through learning.

We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough.

We are the world's lifelong learning company.

For us, learning isn't just what we do.

It's who we are.

Pearson is an Equal Opportunity Employer and a member of E-Verify.

Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit and business need.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status or any other group protected by law.

We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.

If you are an individual with a disability and are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our career site as a result of your disability, you may request reasonable accommodations by emailing TalentExperienceGlobalTeam@grp.pearson.com.