User Interface/User Experience Lead Designer

CliftonLarsonAllen•Milwaukee, WI

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

CLA is a top 10 national professional services firm where our purpose is to create opportunities every day, for our clients, our people, and our communities through industry-focused wealth advisory, digital, audit, tax, consulting, and outsourcing services. Even with more than 8,500 people, 130 U.S. locations, and a global reach, we promise to know you and help you. CLA is dedicated to building a culture that invites different beliefs and perspectives to the table, so we can truly know and help our clients, communities, and each other. The position offers growth, flexibility and a collaborative work environment. In this position you should have the following; excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate at all levels. Strong problem solving and creative skills and the ability to exercise sound judgment. Most important, demonstrate a high level of integrity and dependability with a strong sense of urgency and results-orientation. The Lead Designer owns end-to-end design strategy and execution for a product domain within CLA’s digital portfolio, translating complex professional services workflows into intuitive, scalable, and outcome-driven experiences. As the senior design voice within cross-functional triads (Product, Engineering, UX), the Lead partners from problem definition through delivery and is accountable for business outcomes—not just deliverables. Design at this level functions as decision support, with outputs grounded in measurable business problems, validated user needs, and workflow adoption goals. The Lead challenges low-evidence work and elevates design as a strategic input to what gets built. This role holds full design accountability for an assigned domain or horizontal strategy, setting standards for quality, practice maturity, and user outcomes. As a strategic individual contributor, the Lead manages stakeholder relationships, drives cross-team alignment, and represents UX in broader product discussions. The Lead also stewards design system integrity within their product surface and models best practices in continuous discovery, evidence-based decision-making, and modern prototyping approaches. This role reports to the UX Manager and partners with peer Leads to ensure consistency across the UX organization.

Requirements

6+ years of experience in UX or product design within complex enterprise environments
Proven ownership of product domains or end-to-end workflows with measurable outcomes
Experience working in cross-functional product teams to shape direction and delivery
Strong portfolio demonstrating strategic thinking, decision-making, and impact
Experience leading discovery and translating ambiguous problems into clear direction
Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
Bachelor's degree or a combination of relevant experience and training may be considered in lieu of a degree.

Responsibilities

Own design strategy and prioritization for an assigned product domain
Connect design work to measurable business and user outcomes (e.g., efficiency, adoption, quality)
Generate and communicate trade-offs that inform domain-level decisions
Challenge or descale work when impact is unclear to protect team focus
Lead ongoing discovery to identify high-value problems before solutions are defined
Translate insights into clear, actionable product direction
Validate concepts through rapid testing, feedback, and available data
Apply modern tools (including AI-assisted methods) to accelerate learning and execution
Own end-to-end design of complex workflows across roles, systems, and dependencies
Decompose ambiguous processes into usable, scalable solutions
Design across product boundaries, considering data, rules, and operational impact
Balance long-term experience quality with practical delivery constraints
Partner with Product, Engineering, Research, and business stakeholders to shape direction
Communicate design rationale in business terms (outcomes, value, risk, trade-offs)
Represent UX in alignment and decision-making forums
Navigate ambiguity and organizational complexity to drive progress
Promote and apply design system standards within the domain
Contribute improvements to shared patterns and components with clear rationale
Deliver high-quality interaction and visual design
Apply accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA) and behavioral design principles
Mentor designers on craft, product thinking, and stakeholder engagement
Contribute to team practices, standards, and knowledge sharing
Support hiring, critique, and overall UX capability growth