Director of UX Design

CoStar•Boston, MA

1d•$214,000 - $250,000•Onsite

About The Position

We are looking for a Director of UX Design to lead design across our origination, underwriting, and asset management platform. This is a senior individual-contributor-plus-leadership role: you will be a hands-on designer and a strategic voice in how we build and evolve our product. On the origination side, you will shape how loan officers navigate a live deal pipeline, how underwriters interact with complex cash flow projections and multi-tranche capital stacks, how analysts interrogate sponsor and collateral relationships, and how the system surfaces AI-driven sourcing intelligence. On the asset management side, you will lead a careful, high-stakes modernization: bringing a mature product forward without disrupting the workflows that experienced users have built their practices around. These two challenges require different design muscles and we need someone who can hold both simultaneously. The ability to move fluidly between greenfield innovation and disciplined, user-anchored modernization is the defining skill of this role. This position reports to product leadership and works in close collaboration with engineers, architects, and domain experts in CRE lending. It is onsite in Boston, MA.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree from an accredited, in-person not-for-profit university or college
8+ years of UX/product design experience, with at least 3 years in a senior or lead role
3+ years managing designers or a design function
Demonstrated experience designing complex enterprise applications with high information density
Demonstrated experience modernizing or evolving a mature product with an established user base
Strong systems thinking: ability to design components that work individually and compose coherently across a large, multi-product surface
Expert proficiency in Figma for wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, interactive prototypes, and design systems
Exceptional communication skills; can articulate design decisions to engineering teams and to C-suite stakeholders with equal clarity
Track record of commitment to prior employers
Portfolio required: must include examples of data-dense enterprise design and at least one legacy product modernization

Nice To Haves

Experience designing financial, lending, investment management, or risk analytics applications
Familiarity with commercial real estate concepts: cap rates, DSCR, LTV, loan structures, capital stacks, or portfolio surveillance
Comfort working closely with data models and understanding how underlying data structure influences UI architecture and navigation patterns
Experience designing for AI or ML-powered products, particularly in professional or analytical contexts
Proficiency with data visualization tools and charting libraries (Recharts, D3, Chart.js, or equivalent)
Experience with workflow design: staged processes, approval gates, audit trails, and state management patterns
Working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and React component architecture; enough to collaborate fluently with engineers and understand implementation constraints
Experience with user research, usability testing, and analytics tools
Familiarity with design token systems and theming (dark/light mode, multi-tenant visual identity)
Experience developing and socializing design principles for managing change in products with entrenched, expert user bases

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end design for the origination platform and the asset management product, from origination and underwriting through portfolio surveillance and risk reporting
Lead the strategic modernization of the existing AM product: feature auditing, design system migration, and coherence planning across old and new surfaces
Develop and maintain a shared design system that serves both products, with clear principles for when components are shared and when they are product-specific
Lead design for complex data visualization challenges: capital stacks, underwriting waterfalls, portfolio dashboards, stress testing surfaces, and geographic intelligence
Translate complex, relationship-rich data models into intuitive, navigable UI patterns that reflect real domain complexity without recreating it
Partner with product managers and engineers to define requirements, challenge assumptions, and drive toward solutions that are both technically achievable and genuinely usable
Communicate design decisions and rationale to executive stakeholders, grounding recommendations in user research, domain understanding, and measured continuity risk
Manage and mentor a small team of designers, setting standards for craft, process, and documentation
Define and track design quality metrics in partnership with product analytics, including adoption signals during the AM modernization

Benefits

Comprehensive healthcare coverage: Medical / Vision / Dental / Prescription Drug
Life, legal, and supplementary insurance
Virtual and in person mental health counseling services for individuals and family
Commuter and parking benefits
401(K) retirement plan with matching contributions
Employee stock purchase plan
Paid time off
Tuition reimbursement
On-site fitness center and/or reimbursed fitness center membership costs (location dependent)
Access to CoStar Group’s Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Employee Resource Groups
Complimentary gourmet coffee, tea, hot chocolate, fresh fruit, and other healthy snacks