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Pearson

Senior UX Design Director

🇺🇸 San Francisco, CA

🕑 Full-Time

💰 TBD

💻 Product Development

🗓️ June 25th, 2025

UX/UI

Edtech.com's Summary

Pearson is hiring a Senior UX Design Director to lead and innovate in the development of transformative user experiences for their Higher Education product team. The role involves driving UX/UI strategies, managing design teams, and partnering with product and engineering teams to deliver complex, user-centric digital products across web, mobile, and emerging technologies like AI and VR/AR.

Highlights
  • Lead and manage design teams of 10+ UX/UI designers, driving innovation in B2C and B2B product suites.
  • Create multichannel UX/UI designs and scalable design systems focused on emerging technologies like voice, AI, VR, and AR.
  • Conduct qualitative and quantitative user research to shape customer-led product strategies and roadmaps.
  • Collaborate with product, engineering, and data teams using agile product delivery models.
  • Develop and advocate UX/UI toolkits, standards, and best practices to enhance product delivery and governance.
  • Design and prototype functional product pilots and full launches for platforms like My Lab Mastery and Pearson+.
  • Partner with executives and cross-functional teams to align on customer-centric product visions and design quality standards.
  • Facilitate cross-functional workshops and design thinking sessions.
  • 10+ years of UX/Interaction Design experience with 5+ years in leadership roles managing design managers or large teams.
  • Proficiency in current design and prototyping tools, with experience in AI-powered tools considered a bonus.

Senior UX Design Director Full Description

Senior UX Design Director

San Francisco, CA
  • Job: UX Design
  • Schedule: FULL_TIME
  • Req ID: 20259

Senior UX Design Director

Higher Education Product Team

Pearson
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.

As one of the key senior design leaders of MLM and Pearson+, you will be responsible for:
  • 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.

1152488
Job Family: PRODUCT