Senior Product Designer - Contractor Role

The Organization

What if K-12 education were designed to help all students develop lives of meaning and purpose? Wayfinder was founded at the Stanford d.school to answer this question. Our goal is to double our impact each year for the coming years. Our vision is to become the preeminent future-readiness curriculum company in the world — leading the global movement of purpose, meaning, and belonging-based education worldwide.

What We Value

In this contract work, you’ll be supporting a team of incredibly motivated and dedicated staff members committed to living our organization's values. We work collaboratively across teams, and we feel and act like a purpose-driven organization. To the best of our abilities, each person’s role aligns with their own sense of purpose, which feeds into Wayfinder’s larger sense of purpose.

We value equal access, inclusive community, and belonging, and these values are represented in our product, our team, and our school partners.

Product: We develop our learning tools using human-centered design principles. We work with grade-level experts to ensure our curriculum is developmentally appropriate and engaging at all levels. Every Wayfinder lesson is supported by relevant research, prototyped in classrooms, and vetted by teachers over rounds of feedback and iteration. We use Universal Design for Learning principles to give every student an equal opportunity to succeed.

Team: Our team is composed of people from all different backgrounds and walks of life. We intentionally recruit, hire, and work with people of all identities + experiences. We focus on belonging: being connected, accepted, and valued by the people around us.

School Partners: We intentionally target a wide array of educational partners, from traditional to non-traditional, that work with a range of students from different socioeconomic groups. We’ve taught our curriculum in high-need schools in the Bronx, independent schools in Silicon Valley, and after-school programs in San Antonio.

The Role

Wayfinder is seeking a Senior Product Designer contractor to help shape the future of our web platform by designing new and evolving features that support students, educators, and school communities.

The ideal candidate has 5–7 years of experience designing digital products in the education space and is comfortable owning the full design lifecycle, from research and concepting through delivery. They have a strong understanding of the needs of students, teachers, and administrators, and know how to translate those insights into thoughtful, usable product experiences. The role reports to the Principal Product Designer.

Please note that this is a seasonal, contractor opportunity with an anticipated 3-month timeframe of work needed. If you are interested in full-time employment with Wayfinder, please see currently open opportunities on our Careers page. No agreement for full-time employment is indicated through your acceptance of this contracted position.

We strongly encourage people from traditionally underrepresented populations in tech - such as women, People of Color, People with Disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people, etc - to apply!

Responsibilities

• Understand student, teacher, and admin needs through direct engagement and product analytics.
• Translate concepts and technical requirements for new features into sketches, user flows, wireframes, and prototypes that prioritize intuitive user experience and business goals.
• Define, manage, and execute research and prototyping needs related to product development.
• Document and communicate research findings to internal stakeholders.
• Design modern, delightful, and intuitive user interfaces that align to existing brand guidelines, design systems, and design patterns.
• Collaborate with educators, designers, and engineers from discovery to delivery.
• Contribute to the maintenance and standardization of our component library.

Essential experience

• Minimum of 5-7 years of demonstrated experience with UI and UX design.
• A strong portfolio of case studies and relevant work samples.
• Proficiency with Figma.
• A track record of working with educators, designers, and engineers to create coherent and intuitive user experiences.
• Ability to work independently with general supervision and willing to receive feedback/guidance.
• Experience supporting design research projects, usability studies, and customer engagements.
• Experience working directly with customers/stakeholders and interpreting their feedback.
• Outstanding time-management skills and experience/comfort working efficiently in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills. A demonstrated ability to articulate ideas verbally as well as through written analysis, sketches, and prototypes.
• An entrepreneurial mindset and a bias towards action.
• Fluency in written and spoken English.

Preferred experience

• An undergraduate degree or equivalent in product design, interaction design, software engineering, user experience, or a related discipline.
• Experience designing features for AI-enabled workflows, and leveraging AI to streamline user experience.
• Experience with fast-moving, startup environments.

Compensation

Hourly rate between $45-70/hr, commensurate with experience.

Location

Remote work. Wayfinders’ regular operating hours are Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.