Senior Product Designer

Summary

Join NPR as a Senior Product Designer and be involved in all design stages, from concept to launch. Collaborate with researchers, product managers, and developers on multidisciplinary teams to shape product vision and enhance digital experiences for millions of users. This role requires strong design skills, including interaction and product design, prototyping, and the ability to explain design decisions effectively. You will create design systems, conduct user research, define design direction, and work closely with developers. Mentorship of junior designers is also expected. This is a full-time, exempt position with a remote option based out of Washington, DC, offering a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits.

Requirements

• At least seven (7) years of Product Design experience, including mobile applications and mobile-friendly websites
• Experience designing membership or subscription-based platforms, with a strong grasp of user motivations, paywall strategy, benefits communication, and conversion optimization across digital touchpoints
• Skilled at communicating value through design, with an ability to simplify complex offerings (e.g., premium benefits, donor tiers, or station-member integrations) into intuitive, emotionally resonant experiences
• Comfort working in mission-driven or member-supported organizations, where balancing organizational sustainability with user trust, equity, and transparency is central to design success
• Expertise in working with interface design tools like Sketch or Figma
• Working knowledge of modern HTML and CSS standards
• Understanding of accessibility best practices
• Experience working in an agile project methodology
• Remote Permitted: This is a remote permitted role. This role is based out of our Washington, DC office but the employee may choose to work on a remote basis from a location that NPR approves
• This is a full time, exempt position

Responsibilities

• Strong ability to explain design decisions and elicit specific, useful feedback
• Create elegant and useful design systems that define the digital experience across platforms
• Effectively collaborates with adjacent disciplines to define vision for products or campaigns
• Strong understanding of and proficiency with established and emergent industry standards, tools and best practices
• Strong understanding of visual design elements and principles
• Recommend and execute user research for new and existing products and make recommendations for change
• Define design direction for highest-priority products
• Apply established and emergent industry standards and best practices
• Actively participates in design critiques and user research studies
• Understand intended audience(s) and how they might be impacted by design decisions
• Act on guidance and feedback effectively
• Consume and act upon specific design goals and incorporate relevant research
• Work closely with developers to help build prototypes and refine working products
• Facilitate design thinking and co-creation sessions with relevant partners
• Mentors designers with less experience
• Conceptualize and direct end-to-end design experiences, qualitative studies, design systems/standards, campaigns, and/or collateral
• Demonstrate an ability to balance innovation with pragmatism/ ability to accurately scope own work
• Gather business requirements and translate them to audience-focused product or campaign goals
• Identify cross-system dependencies and potential conflicts
• Effectively work across multiple, related teams, systems, or projects

Benefits

• Salary Range: The U.S. based anticipated salary range for this opportunity is $125,646.49 - 133,298.36 plus benefits
• Benefits include access to health and wellness, paid time off, and financial well-being
• Plan options include medical, dental, vision, life/ accidental death and dismemberment, long-term disability, short-term disability, and voluntary retirement savings to all eligible NPR employees