Senior Product Designer

BSD SUR - OHNS: Thirty Million Words - Communications The TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health at the University of Chicago develops, tests, and implements evidence-based interventions designed to promote very young children’s cognitive and social-emotional development. TMW Center interventions are designed to be embedded into existing health, education, and social service systems working at scale in a given community in order to meet families where they already are. The TMW Center has a robust research and development strategy that includes further development and testing of TMW interventions; harnessing technology to support behavior change, intervention engagement, and analysis; and furthering strategies to engage parents in the TMW Center’s interventions across the health, early learning, and social service sectors. The TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health (TMW Center) develops, tests, and implements evidence-based interventions designed to promote very young children’s cognitive and social-emotional development, with emerging technologies that enhance—rather than replace—the pivotal role that caregivers play in building healthy young brains. Although there is a rich body of research demonstrating the importance of the early language environment for maximizing early learning, there are very ways to assess the quality of those environments. As a result, when it comes to nurturing their children’s brains, parents often feel like they are in a maze without a map.

The TMW Center’s technological tools, like its evidence-based interventions, resources, and programs, provide parents and caregivers with information they need to engage in robust brain-building interactions — and help deepen caregiver-child connection.

The TMW Center is seeking a Senior Product Designer to lead the UX/UI design function of the TMW Center’s technology to ensure user experiences a) are engaging, enjoyable, and easy for users and b) meet the needs of the TMW Center team and vision. This individual will shape both the Center’s strategic design direction and the details to ensure the technology is exceptional, translating ambitious product roadmaps into intuitive, delightful user experiences. The role will work directly with Center leadership, engineers, and end users to understand problems deeply and create solutions that balance user needs with Center goals and technical constraints.

• Execute the design vision and strategy across multiple product lines, translating broad need statements from stakeholders and users into meaningful designs, while balancing usability with clinical relevance and technical considerations.
• Lead design projects, including: creating and refining user flows, wireframes, and interactive prototypes; defining new features and functionality based on user feedback; providing design solutions for bugs and usability issues as they arise.
• Build and manage a comprehensive design system and component library for the development team in alignment with brand guidelines.
• Partner closely with product, engineering, and quality assurance engineers, attending routine agile ceremonies, to ensure accurate execution of designs.
• Conduct and synthesize a wide range of user research, including exploratory interviews and task-based usability testing.
• Proactively manage prioritization challenges to ensure design focus areas are aligned with Center goals.
• Analyze user behavior data and app performance metrics using product analytics tools to identify areas for improvement.
• Advocate for user-centered design, balancing Center goals with end user value.
• Balance short-term experimentation with long-term scalability, ensuring solutions can extend across the product ecosystem.
• Designs new systems, features, and tools. Solves complex problems and identifies opportunities for technical improvement and performance optimization. Reviews and tests code to ensure appropriate standards are met.
• Utilizes technical knowledge of existing and emerging technologies, including public cloud offerings from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
• Acts as a technical consultant and resource for faculty research, teaching, and/or administrative projects.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field. Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 5-7 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

• Advanced Degree in related field, strongly preferred.

• Experience in product development, software development, agile methodologies, and other related fields.
• Strong proficiency in modern design tools (Figma, etc.) and familiarity with design systems.
• Experience conducting user research and translating insights into actionable design decisions.

• Ability to advocate for design decisions while remaining collaborative and open to feedback.
• Strong communication and storytelling skills, with ability to articulate design rationale to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration.
• Track record of shipping products and features that users love.
• Ability to multi-task and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Excellent organizational skills, including strong attention to detail.
• Proven ability to establish and stick to timelines.
• Initiative and independent judgment.
• Demonstrated ability to build diverse relationships and manage professional workload with minimal supervision.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and a collaborative mindset.

• Office Environment.

• Resume (required)
• Cover Letter (preferred)

Information Technology Individual Contributor 40 No No No Salary Exempt $100,000.00 - $140,000.00 Yes