Figma Designer Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

We believe in the power and joy of learning
At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping learners around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose - driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.
About the Role
Help shape product experiences that make learning easier, clearer, and more effective.
We're looking for a UX Designer to lead end-to-end design work within a product area, from early discovery through delivery. This role partners closely with product, engineering, research, content, and data to frame problems, explore solutions, test ideas, and deliver high-quality experiences for learners and instructors.
AI is part of the work, but not a replacement for design judgment. The right person will use AI tools and other emerging technologies to explore faster, compare more options, and improve the quality of design decisions.
Ready to turn complex problems into clear, useful experiences? We'd like to meet you!
What This Role Does
This role leads design for feature areas from concept through delivery. That includes framing problems, shaping hypotheses, participating in discovery, synthesizing research and data, and translating insights into clear design direction.
The UX Designer will create flows, prototypes, interaction patterns, and visual designs in Figma. The work includes communicating rationale, explaining tradeoffs, aligning with cross-functional partners, and iterating based on feedback, testing, data, and experimentation.
This role also contributes to accessibility and design system quality by considering flows, states, patterns, reusable components, and WCAG 2.2 guidance.
What Makes Someone Successful
Success in this role requires strong product design judgment, curiosity, and a practical approach to iteration. Strong candidates can move through ambiguity, ask useful questions, challenge assumptions constructively, and connect design decisions to user needs, product goals, and business outcomes.
This role is a good fit for someone who can balance discovery and delivery, use AI responsibly to expand exploration, and build trust with product teams through clear communication and thoughtful design work.
Experience and Skills

• 3-5+ years of experience in product design, UX design, or a closely related role
• Strong proficiency with Figma and modern product design workflows
• Experience working with cross-functional product teams
• Strong interaction design, visual design, and prototyping skills
• Ability to connect design decisions to user needs, product goals, and business outcomes
• Experience using research, data, feedback, or experimentation to improve design direction
• Comfort experimenting with AI tools and emerging technologies to improve speed, exploration, and quality
• Working knowledge of accessibility best practices, including WCAG 2.2

Portfolio
Please include a portfolio that shows how design work moves from problem to outcome. Strong case studies often include:

• End-to-end feature, product, or experience design work
• Problem framing, context, users, and constraints
• Discovery work, research, assumptions, validation, or learning loops
• Design tradeoffs, rationale, and iteration
• Use of Figma to communicate flows, states, interaction details, and system-level thinking
• Accessibility and inclusive design considerations

Bonus points for examples that show AI-supported exploration, influence on product direction, or a measurable connection between design work and outcomes.
Benefits and Growth
This role offers the opportunity to work on meaningful education products, partner with experienced cross-functional teams, and shape experiences used by learners and instructors. The team values strong craft, clear thinking, responsible use of emerging technology, and practical growth through feedback, experimentation, and collaboration.
Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.
Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at accommodations.ta@cengage.com.
About Cengage
Cengage, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.
Compensation
At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.
The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.
In this position, you will be eligible to participate in the company's discretionary incentive bonus program. This position's bonus target amount, which is not guaranteed and is dependent on individual performance and overall company results among other factors, is provided below.
5% Annual: Individual Target
$67,000.00 - $87,100.00 USD