Stage Designer Jobs in Reston, VA (NOW HIRING)

Job Description
Role: Senior Product Designer (Creative team integrated deeper into the tech teams and titles were redefined)

• Experience understanding and digesting complex data systems
• Experience mapping this complexity
• Experience collaborating closely with engineers - and working with a user group that is not as experienced working with designers, so great "teaching"and "consultative"abilities

The Core Assessment Platform is a group of cross-functional teams responsible for building and evolving shared platform capabilities that support assessment-related systems used by institutions at scale. The work spans a range of assessment contexts, from routine evaluation to more complex, high-stakes environments, where accuracy, consistency, and trust are essential. Teams collaborate across engineering, product, design, data, and operations to build reliable capabilities that can be reused and adapted over time. What makes this group special is its focus on continuous learning, experimentation, and steady improvement, with success driven by thoughtful collaboration, iteration, and careful decision-making in environments where reliability and quality matter.
About the Opportunity
As a Senior Product Designer at the , you are a highly skilled, thoughtful, and user-centered practitioner with a passion for designing products and experiences that meet real user needs. You will facilitate product discovery, shape design strategy, and guide solutions from concept through delivery.
You will work across one or more cross-functional teams and products, helping to connect the dots between research, design, engineering, and organization mission. You are confident working independently on features, while also seeking feedback and alignment with teammates and design leadership. You are an advocate for users and inclusive design. As a creative problem solver, you identify patterns across large systems and balance the big picture with hands-on execution-bringing clarity to complex challenges while staying focused on impact.
Your responsibilities will span early-stage discovery, end-to-end product design, usability testing, accessibility, and the creation of design artifacts that support high-quality implementation.
In this role, your responsibilities include:
Product Discovery and Design Strategy (30%)
• Design Thinking. Apply design thinking within complex education ecosystems to deeply understand user needs, reframe complex problems, and drive the creation of intuitive, scalable, and human-centered product solutions.
• Research. Constantly conduct and synthesize generative, formative, and evaluative research, using methods such as user interviews, usability testing, and surveys.
• Design with Users. Facilitate workshops and co-creation sessions to align teams and uncover opportunities.
Data into Insights. Turn user, behavioral, and operational data into actionable insights.
• Prioritization. Influence prioritization and roadmapping efforts by connecting user needs with business goals and mission.
• User Advocacy. Champion human-centered and inclusive design principles.
• Storytelling. Use strategic storytelling to communicate vision, value, and direction.
Design Execution and Delivery (40%)
• Product Design. Work closely with product and engineering teams to translate concepts into detailed, production-ready designs, creating artifacts such as user flows, sitemaps, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity UI design.
• Design Systems. Apply and contribute to design systems, ensuring visual and functional consistency
• Plain Language. Write and test content using plain language for clarity and accessibility
• Testing. Conduct usability tests and A/B tests to validate design decisions.
• Accessibility. Perform accessibility audits to meet inclusive design standards.
• Responsive Design. Design for responsive, mobile-first experiences, and mobile apps.
• Artificial Intelligence. Experiment with generative AI tools to support ideation and prototyping.
• Tools. Use tools like Figma (preferred), Miro, and Dovetail to design, document, and test work.
Collaboration and Communication (30%)
• Collaborate . Rapidly iterate through daily partnership with product managers, engineers, researchers, leadership, and other stakeholders throughout the design and development process.
• Ceremonies . Participate in standups, sprint planning, design reviews and QA cycles.
• Specifications . Translate design decisions into clear specifications for implementation.
• Presenting . Present ideas, research findings, and designs with confidence and clarity.
• Design Operations . Contribute to organization-wide design efforts, including shared tools, systems, and templates.
About You
• A product design mindset and experience designing for complex, content-rich websites and applications, including strong skills in creating and communicating design artifacts, such as user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity UI designs.
• Proficiency in design thinking and human-centered methodologies, with the ability to reframe challenges and translate insights into actionable design direction.
• Strong skills in information design, user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity UI design, with fluency in tools like Figma (preferred), Miro, and Dovetail.
• Experience applying generative and evaluative research methods, along with facilitation skills to lead workshops and co-creation sessions.
• A strong understanding of design systems, responsive design, and accessibility standards, including designing for web and native mobile platforms.
• Comfortable discussing technical constraints and collaborating with engineers to ensure design feasibility (experience with front-end technologies is a plus).
• A commitment to inclusive, ethical, and user-centered design, with the ability to write and test content using plain language principles.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with a user advocacy mindset and the ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams.
• Curiosity and adaptability-you're self-motivated, continuously learning, and excited by emerging tools and trends, including generative AI.
• Self-managing, but also used to working within a team
• Highly adaptable to new information, situations, or challenges and can work independently.
Meet Your Recruiter
Sanjay Uniyal