Sr. UX Designer- HYBRID

Location: Chicago Area (Hybrid - In-office Tuesday-Thursday)

Aquent Studios is seeking an experienced and strategic Lead UX Designer to support a leading enterprise client in the financial services industry. In this role, you'll own the end-to-end user experience design process-from understanding customer needs and business objectives through design execution, validation, and post-launch optimization.

You'll collaborate closely with cross-functional partners including Product Management, Engineering, Marketing, Content Strategy, and Research to create intuitive, user-centered digital experiences. This role requires a balance of strategic thinking and hands-on design execution, with the ability to influence stakeholders, navigate ambiguity, and advocate for the user while aligning with business goals.

As part of your day-to-day work, you'll lead discovery activities, facilitate design workshops, conduct user research, develop journey maps, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs, while contributing to and evolving scalable design systems. You'll also leverage AI thoughtfully to improve research, design workflows, and team efficiency while maintaining a strong human-centered design approach.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with Product, Engineering, Marketing, and cross-functional stakeholders to define UX strategies that support business objectives and product roadmaps.
• Lead UX initiatives from discovery through delivery, ensuring high-quality user experiences across digital products and platforms.
• Evaluate incoming design requests, providing thoughtful recommendations around prioritization, feasibility, user impact, and business value.
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders, confidently influencing decisions while balancing customer needs, technical constraints, and business priorities.
• Plan and conduct user research, including competitive analysis, heuristic evaluations, stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiry, and usability testing.
• Translate research insights into customer journey maps, service blueprints, personas, user flows, and actionable design recommendations.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define problem statements, business requirements, KPIs, and success metrics.
• Design intuitive user experiences using Figma, producing everything from low-fidelity wireframes to polished, interactive prototypes.
• Contribute to and maintain scalable design systems, ensuring consistency, accessibility, and usability across products.
• Partner with UX Writers, Researchers, Product Managers, and Engineering teams to deliver cohesive end-to-end customer experiences.
• Leverage AI tools where appropriate to enhance research, ideation, design exploration, documentation, and workflow efficiency while exercising sound judgment around responsible use.
• Participate in design critiques, mentor peers, and contribute to the continued evolution of team processes and best practices.
• Adapt quickly to changing priorities and incorporate feedback from legal, product, engineering, marketing, and business stakeholders.
• Stay current on emerging UX methodologies, accessibility standards, design technologies, and AI capabilities.

Required Experience

• 7+ years of UX/UI design experience with demonstrated success delivering customer-centered digital products.
• Expertise across the full UX lifecycle, from research and strategy through interaction design, visual design, testing, and implementation.
• Advanced proficiency with Figma, including component libraries, prototyping, and scalable design systems.
• Strong understanding of user-centered design principles, information architecture, interaction design, and accessibility best practices.
• Experience conducting qualitative and quantitative UX research and translating insights into actionable design solutions.
• Proven ability to thrive in Agile product development environments while partnering with Product and Engineering teams.
• Experience using analytics and user behavior tools (such as Hotjar, FullStory, or similar platforms) to inform design decisions.
• Strong communication, facilitation, presentation, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence without direct authority.
• Experience mentoring designers, leading design initiatives, or serving as a senior contributor on cross-functional teams.
• Familiarity with front-end development concepts, design documentation, and tools such as Storybook, Chromatic, or similar design system technologies.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting enterprise-scale digital products or complex customer experiences.
• Financial services, fintech, banking, or other highly regulated industry experience is preferred.
• Curiosity and practical experience leveraging AI to improve design processes, research, collaboration, and productivity.
• Ability to work a hybrid schedule in the Chicago area (Tuesday-Thursday in-office).

Why Aquent Studios

At Aquent Studios, you'll join a collaborative team of strategists, designers, and creative problem-solvers delivering innovative work for world-class enterprise clients. We value curiosity, continuous learning, thoughtful collaboration, and human-centered design, empowering our teams to create meaningful customer experiences while driving measurable business outcomes.

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