Lead Designer

athenahealth • Austin, TX

2d

About The Position

The Lead Designer is an individual-contributor role on athenahealth’s Experience Design team, based in Austin, Texas. The role shapes electronic health record and physician practice management products by designing solutions that simplify complex healthcare workflows, with a significant focus on scheduling and administrative experiences. The Lead Designer partners with Product Management and Engineering to translate research insights, user needs, and product strategy into clear workflows, interaction models, and design solutions, from discovery through delivery.

The Experience Design team develops user-centered solutions that reduce complexity across clinical and operational healthcare workflows and improve the daily experience of healthcare professionals. The team collaborates with Product Management, Engineering, research, and design system teams throughout product discovery and implementation. Designers draw on user research, behavioral data, product analytics, design systems, prototyping tools, and AI-assisted workflows, and contribute to AI-enabled capabilities supporting clinical productivity, scheduling efficiency, and decision-making.

The role also contributes to cross-functional discovery and design practices, mentors less experienced designers, and helps improve the team’s processes, tools, and operating models. It reports to a Senior Manager or Director, Experience Design and requires approximately 5% annual travel.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Psychology, Computer Science, Business, or a related discipline.
• At least 5 years of experience in UX or product design.
• Experience designing complex workflow systems within enterprise or SaaS products.
• Experience with UX design practices, including interaction design, prototyping, visual communication, and translating UX concepts into clear workflows, interaction models, or behavioral specifications.
• Experience facilitating user research, synthesizing findings, and applying insights to product and design decisions.
• Experience collaborating with Product Management and Engineering teams in modern software development and delivery environments.
• Experience designing within established design systems and contributing feedback to improve shared components and patterns.
• Familiarity with modern design tools and AI-assisted design or research workflows.
• Ability to communicate clearly and influence project direction across functions without direct authority.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and changing priorities, apply systems thinking, evaluate alternatives, and connect user needs with business and technical requirements.

Responsibilities

• Lead problem framing and solution development for complex clinical, scheduling, and operational workflow challenges from discovery through delivery.
• Design efficient, safe, and intuitive workflows coordinating patients, providers, and operational staff across healthcare environments.
• Create design artifacts, including early concepts, detailed interaction flows, prototypes, and behavioral specifications, to guide product development.
• Translate UX concepts into clear workflows and interaction specifications that support scalable software development and implementation.
• Partner with Product Management and Engineering throughout planning, design, and development to translate product strategy into clear experiences and ensure delivered solutions meet design intent.
• Plan and conduct user, client, and domain research; use research insights, behavioral data, and product analytics to inform design decisions and evaluate product success.
• Apply established design system patterns and collaborate with design system teams to evolve components and interaction patterns based on emerging product needs.
• Ensure product experiences meet UX quality standards for workflow design, interaction design, accessibility, and product content.
• Use AI-assisted tools for research synthesis, design exploration, and prototyping, and contribute to AI-enabled product capabilities supporting clinical productivity, scheduling efficiency, and decision-making.
• Travel approximately 5% annually.
• Facilitate discovery, problem-framing, and solution workshops with cross-functional teams.
• Partner with Product Management and Engineering to establish and support product and business goals.
• Draft UX workflows and interaction models that guide detailed software design and development.
• Mentor and coach less experienced designers through design reviews and coaching.
• Promote effective design practices, including systems thinking, design-to-engineering alignment, and data-informed product design.
• Contribute to team-wide initiatives to improve design processes, tools, and operating models.
• Build understanding of healthcare users and their operational environments across Product Management and Engineering teams.

Benefits

• Health and financial benefits.
• Commuter support.
• Employee assistance programs.
• Tuition assistance.
• Employee resource groups.
• Collaborative workspaces; some offices welcome dogs.
• Flexible work arrangements to support work-life balance.
• Company events, including book clubs, external speakers, and hackathons.
• Learning opportunities, support from an engaged team, and an inclusive work environment.
• Annual discretionary bonus plan, variable compensation plan, and equity plans, depending on role eligibility.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior