Lead Product Designer, Bluebook Platform

College Board

3d•$123,000 - $170,000•Remote

About The Position

As a Lead Product Designer at the College Board, you are a strategic thinker, collaborative leader, and experienced practitioner who drives the design of meaningful and scalable digital experiences. You combine a deep understanding of user needs with a strong grasp of business goals, product strategy, and implementation realities. You will lead design across one or more products or initiatives, partnering closely with Product Managers/Owners, Engineering Leads, other product designers, data scientists, and key stakeholders. You will guide design from discovery through delivery—connecting dots across teams, facilitating alignment, and elevating the quality and impact of our design work. You are a systems thinker who thrives in ambiguity, shaping product direction while ensuring the user experience is inclusive, intuitive, and grounded in real needs. You also play a key role in fostering design culture: mentoring other designers, championing design excellence, and contributing to the growth of our design practice.

Requirements

A portfolio showcasing your ability to lead complex product design efforts from strategy through implementation.
7+ years of experience in product design, with 2+ years in a leadership or mentorship role.
Experience designing for complex, content-rich web and mobile applications in cross-functional product environments.
Mastery of user-centered design, with strength in systems thinking, design strategy, and problem framing.
Excellent skills in research planning, synthesis, and facilitation, with a strong ability to turn insights into strategic direction.
Strong visual and interaction design skills, with fluency in tools like Figma, Miro, and Dovetail.
A deep understanding of design systems, accessibility standards, and responsive design practices.
Ability to navigate technical conversations, collaborating with engineers to deliver high-quality, feasible solutions.
Excellent storytelling and communication skills, with the ability to influence across disciplines and levels.
A passion for inclusive, ethical, and accessible design, and a commitment to design's role in educational equity.
A growth mindset—you’re self-motivated, curious, and always looking to improve your craft and impact.
Willingness to travel 3–5 times per year to College Board offices or user sites.
Authorization to work in the United States.

Responsibilities

Product Discovery & Design Strategy (30%) Design Thinking. Lead product discovery using design thinking to frame complex problems and uncover opportunities in education ecosystems.
Systems Thinking. Use systems thinking to connect user experiences across products, teams, and services.
Research Leadership. Plan and conduct generative, formative, and evaluative research to shape product vision and direction, employing methods such as user interviews, contextual inquiry, usability testing, and surveys as appropriate.
Workshop Facilitation. Facilitate cross-functional workshops and co-creation sessions to build alignment and uncover user insights.
Insight Synthesis. Translate qualitative and quantitative data into actionable insights.
Prioritization. Influence roadmap decisions by connecting user needs with business goals and organizational mission.
User Advocacy. Champion user-centered, ethical, and inclusive design throughout the product development lifecycle.
Strategic Storytelling. Use storytelling and design communication to build understanding and support across stakeholders.
Design Execution & Craft Leadership (30%) Product Design. Work closely with product and engineering teams and oversee the translation of concepts into detailed, production-ready designs, creating artifacts such as user flows, sitemaps, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity UI design.
Design Systems. Ensure consistency and scalability across the design team through the thoughtful application and contribution to design systems.
Responsive Design. Design for responsive, mobile-first environments across web and native mobile platforms.
Testing and Validation. Lead usability testing, A/B tests, and QA reviews to validate and improve user experiences.
Accessibility. Ensure experiences meet accessibility standards and inclusive design best practices.
Plain Language. Write and test content using plain language to improve clarity and comprehension.
Emerging Tools. Explore new tools, including generative AI, to support ideation and prototyping, and facilitate their adoption.
Collaboration & Influence (25%) Cross-Functional Leadership. Serve as the design lead on cross-functional teams, aligning product, engineering, and research.
Multi-product Influence. Identify patterns across product teams and align experience strategy at the platform or ecosystem level.
Specifications. Translate design decisions into detailed specs and collaborate on implementation with developers.
Strategic Input. Contribute to product planning, roadmap development, and prioritization with a design perspective.
Communication. Present research, concepts, and design work clearly and persuasively to peers and stakeholders.
Design Ops. Partner with design leadership to evolve team practices, tooling, and ways of working.
Design Culture & Team Growth (15%) Thought Leadership. Contribute to the evolution of College Board’s design standards, practices, and design system components.
Mentorship. Provide design direction and feedback to peers to elevate the quality, coherence, and impact of design work across teams.
Learning & Development. Stay current with tools, trends, and design practices—and share knowledge with the team.
Community Engagement. Support design culture through critiques, lunch & learns, and internal community-building.
Team Hiring. Participate in hiring and onboarding to help grow a diverse and collaborative design team.