Fast Facts
Join Penn Foster as a User Experience Designer, responsible for creating effective and engaging user experiences for online learning platforms, collaborating with cross-functional teams and leveraging user insights to innovate educational solutions.
Responsibilities: Develop end-to-end user experience strategies by applying design thinking, conducting user research, and collaborating with product teams to create wireframes, prototypes, and high-quality design implementations.
Skills: Expertise in user-centered design principles, strong communication and collaboration abilities, proficiency with design tools such as Figma and Adobe Creative Suite, and understanding of LMS and content systems.
Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in a design-related field or equivalent experience, with 1-2 years of professional experience in digital product design and a relevant portfolio demonstrating user-centered design processes.
Location: United States
Compensation: Not provided by employer. Typical compensation ranges for this position are between $70,000 - $90,000.
Position Summary:
The UX Designer is responsible for the end-to-end user experience process, from discovery and research translation to solution design, ensuring user insights are translated into effective experience strategies. This role works closely with product managers, UX research, and developers to create solutions that align with user needs, educational outcomes, and technical requirements. The UX Designer also supports continuous improvement by incorporating user feedback, research findings, and analytics to refine and optimize the learning experience over time.
Essential Job Functions:
- Apply design and systems thinking to define problems, form hypotheses, synthesize research, and develop experience principles that guide solution development, positioning design as a strategic function that shapes the problem space.
- Plan and facilitate co-creation sessions, workshops, and collaborative activities to support ideation, alignment, and shared understanding across teams.
- Communicate design concepts clearly through sketches, wireframes, prototypes, and presentations to stakeholders, and incorporate feedback to improve solutions.
- Collaborate effectively with cross-functional team members by sharing ideas, listening to feedback, and contributing to a culture of continuous improvement.
- Partner with engineering to define design specs, assess feasibility, support sprints, and perform design QA to ensure high-quality implementation aligned with design intent.
- Drive a systems-level experience vision, orchestrating cohesive multi-channel UX while applying visionary design thinking to ensure consistency, scalability, and user-centered outcomes across a complex ecosystem.
- Continuously develop professional skills by learning new tools, methodologies, and technologies, and staying current with UX trends and best practices.
- Adapt to changing project requirements, team needs, and organizational priorities while maintaining a user-centered approach to design.
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
- User-Centered Design: Expertise in applying user-centered design principles to create intuitive, engaging, and accessible learning experiences tailored to the needs and preferences of diverse learners.
- Research and Data-Driven Design: Strong skills in conducting and applying educational research, such as analyzing learner data and formative assessments, to inform and iterate on learning designs that enhance engagement and retention.
- Technology Proficiency: Understand LMS, CMS, and structured content systems, along with core engineering concepts (APIs, databases, dynamic systems) to support scalable, data-driven experience design.
- Design Tools: Proficiency in Figma and Adobe Creative Suite; strong foundation in color, typography, layout, composition, prototyping, and scalable design systems; familiarity with Jira and Confluence for workflow and documentation.
- Collaborative Development and Communication: Strong ability to collaborate with educators, cognitive scientists, and curriculum designers, communicating complex learning design concepts and ensuring alignment with pedagogical goals and organizational objectives.
- Process and Documentation: Ability to clearly communicate interaction design through detailed specifications (flows, states, edge cases) and guide engineering implementation to ensure accurate, high-quality execution.
Additional Requirements:
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in a design-related field or equivalent experience, with a portfolio demonstrating applied experience in modern UX and digital product design, supported by relevant training or certifications.
- Professional Experience: 1–2 years in digital product design, working within cross-functional teams; experience following design direction, creating prototypes, and applying data-driven design processes to inform decisions and iterations.
About Us: At Penn Foster Group, we are transforming online learning to help learners by bringing together Penn Foster, CareerStep, Ashworth College, James Madison High School, the New York Institute of Photography, the New York Institute of Art and Design, and other education platforms. Together, we create an accelerated path to greater economic mobility through real-world skills and knowledge that enable learners to achieve long-term success in the workplaces of the future. Our history dates back to 1890 when our founder, Thomas Foster, pioneered distance education by offering training by mail for coal miners to get the necessary skills for safer jobs. Today, with the partners who use our education and training programs, we continue that mission of providing accessible training and education for in-demand skills and are building a workforce that’s prepared for the future job market.
Equal Employment Opportunity: We strive toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Penn Foster Group by intentionally building diverse teams – in identities, lived experiences, and ideas to create a culture where people feel connected to each other and have a sense of belonging. We value diversity, equity, and inclusion because it is the foundation that enables us to achieve what we set out to do as an organization – from maximizing the number of learners who can reach their goals while giving them the kinds of experiences we want them to have, to becoming the type of company we want to work in.
What We Offer:We offer a robust benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, flexible spending, generous paid time off, sponsored volunteer opportunities, a 401K with a company match, and free access to our online programs.
