Associate Director, User Experience Design

PUBLICIS GROUPE•Chicago, IL

31d•Hybrid

About The Position

As an Associate Director of Experience Design at Level Studios, you're a strong advocate for the customer and a key partner to the client. You're formally trained in design and passionate about customer-centric innovation. You take pride in your work. You obsess over details and insist on iterating until you've gotten it right. You see feedback as a good thing. You're a storyteller who is at ease presenting and discussing your work with clients and stakeholders. You challenge old ways of thinking and put the customer at the center of everything you do. User-Centered Design methodologies are second nature to you. Your craft: You take ownership of the UX artifacts for projects and work closely with other team members as well as other disciplines to create extraordinary digital experiences. You work directly with clients and serve as a design thinking resource across products/platforms and content/campaigns. You are skilled in all aspects of experience design including experience strategy, user testing, IA/content strategy, deep prototyping, and UI design/interaction design. Your sweet spot: You collaborate with all other disciplines and understand the dependencies that impact design and development throughout the project life cycle. Your tools: Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office Suite PLEASE NOTE: This is a hybrid role that can be based out of either our Chicago or New York office and will require onsite engagement an average of 3 days/week. All candidates should be local to the Chicago or NYC metro and willing to be in-office on a consistent basis.

Requirements

7+â¯years of user experience design, preferably within an advertising agency, media organization, in-house agency, or consultancy
Bachelor's degree in interaction design, human-computer interaction, industrial design, or a similar field preferred; experience may be substituted
Prior experience working within or alongside the telecommunications, connectivity, internet services, or technology industry preferred
Experience architecting and designing retail-oriented transactional and ecommerce experiences for web, responsive web, and native mobile
Proficient at creating key XD artifacts within design thinking methodology including user flows, sketches, storyboards, personas, sitemaps, prototypes, journey maps, low- and high-fidelity wireframes and mockups, and similar deliverables
Experience partnering directly with clients to lead conversations, confidently present work, articulate rationale for approach in the context of both business and user needs, and workshop and brainstorm iterative changes to ongoing projects
Experience working within and evolving existing design systems
Highly collaborative but independently capable
Experience working within a cross-functional, multi-disciplinary team on customer-focused products and services
Experience working in an agile delivery environment
Very strong Figma and Adobe Creative Suite skills
A commitment to accessibility in experience design and an understanding of the application and integration of accessibility best practices
A natural sense of urgency and an ability to work quickly, efficiently, and accurately within tight deadlines and constantly-evolving project parameters, scope, and goals
Flexible and adaptable with an ability to manage and prioritize multiple concurrent projects with constantly shifting parameters and targets
Assertive, confident communication skills and a willingness to ask questions and take initiative
Scrappy and entrepreneurial with a drive to evolve and innovate
A portfolio showcasing innovative, beautiful experience design is required and should be submitted at the time of application.

Responsibilities

Partner closely with other UX designers, visual designers, copywriters, design researchers, creative technologists, product owners, and developers to transform complex problems into elegant experiences
Ideate, concept, develop, iterate, and evolve innovative digital experiences for a wide range of web, responsive web, and native mobile digital touchpoints within an existing design system with an emphasis on transactional and ecommerce solutions
Create UX artifacts including sketches, wireframes, specifications, prototypes, scenarios, storyboards, sitemaps, user/screen flows, journey maps, and personas
Serve as a primary POC with the client for responsible workstreams, meeting regularly with them to present, review, and receive feedback on deliverables including brainstorming, justifying, or iterating on work as needed
Facilitate cross-disciplinary idea generation sessions and client reviews; communicate and present approach and rationale for concepts and designs to team members and directly to client
Prepare documentation for current and future state experiences
Participate in observational studies, usability testing, and other customer research to gain qualitative & quantitative data insights
Support and validate estimation of relevant deliverables based on project requirements, timelines and resources
Define and execute competitive reviews, heuristic evaluations, and immersive activities
Partner closely with development teams to ensure that design intent is achieved

Benefits

Paid Family Care for parents and caregivers for 12 weeks or more
Monetary assistance and support for Adoption, Surrogacy and Fertility
Monetary assistance and support for pet adoption
Employee Assistance Programs and Health/Wellness/Comfort reimbursements to help you invest in your future and work/life balance
Tuition Assistance
Paid time off that includes Flexible Time off Vacation, Annual Sick Days, Volunteer Days, Holiday and Identity days, and more
Matching Gifts programs
Flexible working arrangements
'Work Your World' Program encouraging employees to work from anywhere Publicis Groupe has an office for up to 6 weeks a year (based upon eligibility)
Business Resource Groups that support multiple affinities and alliances