Lead Specialist, UX Designer

Lead Specialist, UX Designer

Location: Hoboken (Hybrid)

The Role

We're looking for a Lead Specialist, UX Designer with deep expertise in user-centered design to lead the creation of impactful experiences for our higher education products. You're someone who operates with strategic vision, exceptional craft, and strong influence-driving design excellence while mentoring others and shaping product direction that serves millions of learners.

You'll partner closely with content, product, research, and engineering teams and be responsible for:

• Leading design for major product areas, full user journeys, and platform-level initiatives across web and mobile, from discovery through launch and iteration
• Creating high-fidelity, pixel-perfect designs including comprehensive user flows, interactive prototypes, and detailed specifications that enable seamless engineering handoff
• Defining and evolving design patterns and components for our design system used across multiple product teams, with consideration for scalability, accessibility, and long-term consistency
• Leading user research initiatives: planning studies, facilitating sessions, synthesizing insights, and translating findings into actionable design improvements and strategic product recommendations
• Presenting design work to senior stakeholders and cross-functional partners, building conviction for design decisions that shape product strategy
• Mentoring junior and mid-level designers through design crits, pair designing, and thoughtful feedback that accelerates their growth and career development

You will be challenged in an organization that values vision, execution, and persistence. You will take ownership of complex design challenges by demonstrating systems thinking, connecting user needs, business goals, and technical architecture to create solutions that extend beyond individual features to holistic product experiences. UX Designers at Pearson are embedded within product teams that are deeply collaborative, and each member is directly responsible for the team's success.

What You'll Own

As a critical partner on our team, you will lead design for major product areas, full user journeys, and platform-level initiatives. You'll collaborate with content, product, research, and engineering teams throughout the product development process to advocate for user needs and shape experiences that drive learning outcomes.

• Lead design for complex, end-to-end user experiences across multiple platforms and surfaces, from initial discovery through launch and iteration
• Partner with product managers to define and frame design problems, identify opportunities, and establish clear success metrics before jumping into solutions
• Create high-fidelity, pixel-perfect designs including user flows and interactive prototypes with exceptional craft and attention to detail
• Define and evolve reusable components and patterns for the design system used across multiple product teams, with comprehensive documentation covering scalability, accessibility, and cross-platform consistency
• Lead user research initiatives (or co-lead with researchers) including study planning, facilitation, and synthesis, translating insights into actionable design iterations and strategic product recommendations
• Present design work and strategic recommendations to senior leadership, building conviction for design decisions that influence product direction and roadmap priorities
• Facilitate design workshops and collaborative sessions that build shared understanding of user needs and drive alignment across cross-functional stakeholders with competing priorities
• Partner with product and engineering to scope design work, define realistic timelines, and establish success criteria for initiatives
• Leverage data and analytics to validate design decisions and iteratively improve experiences through A/B testing, experimentation, and performance monitoring
• Mentor junior and mid-level designers through design critiques, pair designing, and thoughtful feedback that accelerates their growth and career development
• Design for AI-driven teaching and learning experiences in collaboration with learning scientists, considering ethical implications, pedagogical effectiveness, and responsible AI principles

About You

You bring 7-10 years of product design experience with a portfolio that demonstrates craft excellence, strategic thinking, and measurable impact on product metrics, user satisfaction, and business outcomes. Your work shows experience leading design for major features or product areas affecting millions of users. Experience designing AI-powered experiences is critical. You're someone who leads through exceptional design, cross-functional influence, and user advocacy. Additionally, you are:

• A strategic thinker who brings exceptional judgment to complex decisions, leading user research, advocating for design quality, navigating technical constraints and competing priorities, you excel at making thoughtful tradeoffs, reducing ambiguity, and defining clear paths forward through strong problem-framing and stakeholder communication
• Equally comfortable designing pixel-perfect interfaces and defining scalable design systems used across multiple teams, always grounding your work in the intersection of user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility
• Able to thrive in cross-functional environments where collaboration and influence are essential, partnering seamlessly with content strategists, product managers, researchers, engineers, and senior stakeholders to solve complex problems, build consensus, and ship high-quality experiences
• An experienced mentor who elevates the craft and strategic thinking of junior and mid-level designers through thoughtful feedback, design crits, and knowledge sharing
• Confident presenting your work to senior leadership and influencing product strategy through compelling storytelling and clear design rationale

What You'll Get

Pearson is on a mission to build a direct, lifelong relationship with millions of learners around the world. As the world's leading learning company, with 18,000+ employees across 70 countries, we reach learners at critical moments of growth, through content, assessment, and digital experiences that shape education, careers, and opportunity at a global scale.

Now, Higher Education is entering its next chapter. We're in the midst of a deep digital and AI transformation...reimagining learning as agentic, adaptive, and human-centered. Our teams are designing intelligent learning products that don't just deliver information, but actively coach, challenge, and partner with learners, grounded in Socratic principles, critical thinking, and pedagogical rigor.

This is a rare moment to shape the future of learning. Designers at Pearson are helping define how AI shows up in education with intention, ethics, and craft. We are creating experiences that evolve alongside tomorrow's students, instructors, and institutions. From agentic study companions to AI-powered course creation tools, we're building systems that amplify curiosity, agency, and impact at global scale.

If you believe great design can unlock human potential and AI should deepen learning, then this is where you can do the most meaningful work of your career. Because when learning flourishes, people do too.

Ready to make an Impact?

Apply now and help shape the future of learning.

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 $160,000 - $195,000.

This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive program, and information on benefits offered is here.

Applications will be accepted through 8th May. 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. To learn more: We are Pearson.

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

Job: UX Design

Job Family: PRODUCT

Organization: Higher Education

Schedule: FULL_TIME

Workplace Type: Hybrid

Req ID: 23853