Senior Designer UX/UI, Customer Experience

About the position

As a Senior UX/UI Designer at Sallie Mae, you will play an essential role in designing digital experiences that support students throughout their entire education journey. This includes planning for college, applying for financial aid, managing finances during school, and achieving success after graduation. You will be responsible for creating user-centered experiences across various consumer-facing digital touchpoints, including web, mobile, tablet, and app experiences. You will collaborate closely with business stakeholders, content strategists, copywriters, researchers, and development teams to bring innovative solutions to life.

Responsibilities

• Lead design efforts on projects from concept to implementation, taking full ownership of work throughout the process.
• Create user-centered experiences grounded in research insights, competitive analysis, and UX best practices.
• Develop design artifacts including journey maps, wireframes, user flows, interactive prototypes, and high-fidelity mockups.
• Deliver detailed design specifications and documentation for development teams.
• Work closely with developers to ensure designs are implemented according to specifications.
• Provide a voice for customers within the Sallie Mae team, advocating for user needs.
• Contribute to and enhance our internal design system library within Figma.
• Help maintain design consistency across products and experiences.
• Document patterns and component guidelines for team use.
• Conduct competitive analysis and stay updated on industry best practices.
• Identify opportunities to improve customer/consumer experiences.
• Support heuristic evaluations, A/B testing, and design validation.
• Collaborate with our research team to implement insights into design solutions.
• Partner with content strategists and copywriters to create cohesive experiences.
• Present design solutions to stakeholders and executives with clear rationale.
• Communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience.
• 5+ years of experience in user experience design, interaction design, UI design, and/or digital product design.
• Proficiency in Figma and Adobe Creative Suite.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating experience designing complex systems across multiple platforms.
• Excellence in visual design with an understanding of design principles and accessibility standards.
• Experience documenting and annotating complex interactions for development teams.
• Excellent written, presentation, and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively across disciplines and organizational levels.
• Self-starter with strong project management skills who delivers work on time.
• Growth mindset with a willingness to learn new tools and approaches.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in financial services or education technology.
• Knowledge of design thinking methodologies.
• Understanding of agile development processes.
• Background in conversion optimization and/or e-commerce.

Benefits

• Healthcare Benefits: medical, dental, vision plans.
• Financial Well-being: 401K company match, Employee Stock purchase plan, and basic life insurance.
• Work-life Balance: Generous paid time off, time off to volunteer, tuition reimbursement.
• Family Support: After 6 months of employment, primary caregivers receive 12 weeks of fully paid time off, and secondary caregivers receive 4 weeks for birth or adoption.
• Wellness Programs: Fitness center, gym subsidies, free Fitbits with step challenges, and wellness education.
• Competitive base salaries.
• Bonus incentives.
• Generous PTO, Floating Holidays and 12 Federal Holidays observed.
• Support for financial-well-being and retirement 401k with employer match.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, hospital indemnity, critical illness, pet insurance and more.
• Employer paid short-term/long-term disability and basic life insurance.
• Flexible hybrid working arrangements.
• Paid parental leave and adoption reimbursement programs.
• Free access to on-site staffed fitness centers (in Delaware) and gym subsidy (for locations outside Delaware).
• Confidential counseling support (EAP), Health Advocacy services and Wellness program with financial incentives.
• Tuition Reimbursement and Family Scholarship Programs.