Senior UX Designer - Merchant Tools (Sam's Club)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior UX Designer - Merchant Tools (Sam's Club) Company: Walmart Location: Bentonville, AR Job Type: Full-Time Category: UX Design / Product Design (with a focus on internal tools) Date Posted: January 22, 2026 Experience Level: 5-10 Years Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the user experience design for critical merchant-facing platforms, focusing on buy planning, pricing, and item setup to empower data-driven merchandising decisions.
• Translate complex business logic and supply chain processes into intuitive, user-friendly digital tools that enhance merchant efficiency and confidence.
• Act as a subject-matter expert within cross-functional squads, deeply integrating UX principles with merchandising and platform strategy to drive product innovation.
• Champion design excellence and consistency by collaborating with the broader design team, ensuring a unified and scalable approach to merchant tools across the Sam's Club ecosystem.

📝 Enhancement Note: While this role is for a UX Designer, the focus on "Merchant Tools" and "complex workflows and data" strongly aligns with Revenue Operations and Sales Operations principles. The ability to translate complex business logic and drive efficiency through design is directly transferable to operational excellence. This role requires a deep understanding of business processes and how technology can optimize them, which is a core tenet of operations.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design Merchant-Facing Tools: Lead UX design initiatives for core merchandising and replenishment platforms, including buy planning, pricing, item setup, and inventory management with suppliers, ensuring user-centricity and operational efficiency.
• Translate Complexity Into Clarity: Partner directly with merchants to transform intricate merchandising, supply chain, and pricing decisions into intuitive, actionable, and efficient digital experiences.
• Champion Cross-Functional Collaboration: Operate as an embedded member of product, engineering, data, and business squads, actively contributing UX expertise from early ideation through delivery and iteration, ensuring alignment on operational goals.
• Break Down Silos & Foster Teamwork: Collaborate closely with the broader design team to ensure a shared vision, consistency, and design excellence across all merchant tools. Proactively coordinate with partners, vocalizing challenges, opportunities, and insights to facilitate alignment and knowledge-sharing between teams.
• Build Scalable, Connected Solutions: Apply platform thinking to design systems and workflows that integrate seamlessly across the Sam’s Club ecosystem, enabling reuse, flexibility, and long-term business agility for operational processes.
• Leverage Research & Data: Conduct and synthesize user research, behavioral analytics, competitor studies, and member insights to inform design decisions and influence product strategy, with a focus on improving operational workflows and ROI.
• Influence Stakeholders with Clarity: Communicate complex design and operational ideas simply, align diverse partners, and build consensus in ambiguous, high-impact contexts, demonstrating the business value of UX.
• Iterate Relentlessly: Prototype, test, and refine solutions to reduce friction, improve decision-making, and increase merchant efficiency and confidence in their operational tasks.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities emphasize translating complex business logic into user-friendly tools, which is a critical function in operations. The focus on collaboration within "squads" (product, engineering, data, business) highlights the cross-functional nature of operations roles. The emphasis on "platform thinking" and "scalable, connected solutions" speaks to building robust operational infrastructure.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• Option 1: Bachelor's degree in UI/UX design, graphic design, visual communication, product design, computer science, information technology, or a related area AND 3 years of experience in UI/UX, interactive and visual design, electronic arts, multimedia design, or a related area.
• Option 2: 5 years of experience in UI/UX, interactive and visual design, electronic arts, multimedia design, or a related area.
• Preferred: Master's degree in UI/UX Design, Interactive and Visual Design, Product Design, or a related area.
• Preferred: Design certification (e.g., IDEOU - Foundations in Design Thinking Certificate).

Experience:

• Senior-level UX experience designing complex enterprise or platform tools, ideally within retail, merchandising, supply chain, or other data-rich environments.
• Demonstrated expertise in interaction design, prototyping, usability testing, and visual systems—comfortable taking projects from discovery to execution.
• Strong domain curiosity or experience in merchandising, buy planning, pricing, assortment, and supplier/regional strategies.
• Proven strength in collaborating cross-functionally with product managers, engineers, merchants, and business leaders.
• Ability to synthesize complexity into clear, usable experiences.
• Confidence operating in ambiguity, anticipating risks, proposing solutions, and driving progress without perfect information.

Required Skills:

• Interaction Design: Proficient in designing intuitive user flows and interfaces for complex enterprise applications.
• Prototyping: Skilled in creating interactive prototypes to effectively communicate design concepts and gather feedback.
• Usability Testing: Experience planning and conducting usability tests to identify user pain points and validate design solutions.
• Visual Systems: Strong understanding of visual design principles and the ability to create consistent and appealing user interfaces.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Proven ability to work effectively with product managers, engineers, data analysts, and business stakeholders.
• User Research: Experience conducting user research to understand user needs, behaviors, and motivations.
• Communication & Influence: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex ideas and influence stakeholders.
• Platform Thinking: Ability to design scalable systems and understand how individual components integrate into a larger ecosystem.

Preferred Skills:

• Merchandising Domain Knowledge: Experience or strong interest in retail merchandising, buy planning, pricing strategies, or assortment planning.
• Supply Chain Understanding: Familiarity with supply chain processes, inventory management, and supplier relationships.
• Data Analysis & Synthesis: Ability to interpret data analytics and user insights to inform design decisions.
• Agile Methodologies: Experience working within agile development environments.
• Design Systems: Proficiency in creating or working with design systems for consistency and scalability.
• Accessibility Design: Knowledge of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards, assistive technologies, and inclusive design practices.
• Problem Solving: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a proactive approach to identifying and resolving challenges.
• Stakeholder Management: Experience managing expectations and building consensus with diverse stakeholder groups.

📝 Enhancement Note: The preferred skills, particularly in accessibility, data analysis, and domain knowledge (merchandising, supply chain), are highly relevant to operations roles. The ability to "synthesize complexity" and "operate in ambiguity" are core competencies for individuals in operational roles who must navigate intricate business processes and evolving requirements.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Case Studies of Complex System Design: Showcase 2-3 detailed case studies demonstrating your process for designing complex enterprise or platform tools, ideally from discovery through execution.
• Problem/Solution Articulation: Clearly articulate the business problem or operational challenge addressed, the user needs identified, and how your design solutions effectively solved them.
• Process Visualization: Include visual artifacts such as user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and final UI designs to illustrate your design journey and decision-making.
• Demonstration of Collaboration: Highlight instances where you collaborated with cross-functional teams (product, engineering, business stakeholders) and how this collaboration influenced the final design.
• Impact Metrics: Quantify the impact of your designs where possible, using metrics related to efficiency, user satisfaction, adoption rates, or reduction in errors/friction.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Mapping & Optimization: Demonstrate experience in mapping existing complex workflows and identifying opportunities for UX-driven optimization and efficiency gains.
• User Journey & Persona Development: Showcase how you develop user personas and map user journeys to understand the end-to-end experience of merchants interacting with these tools.
• Iterative Design & Testing: Provide evidence of your iterative design process, including user testing methodologies, feedback incorporation, and refinement cycles.
• System Integration Concepts: Illustrate your ability to design with a "platform mindset," showing how individual tools can integrate and function cohesively within a larger system.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "complex system design," "operational challenge," "process visualization," "impact metrics," "workflow mapping and optimization," and "system integration concepts" directly aligns with the expectations for operations professionals. A strong portfolio in this UX role will demonstrate similar analytical and problem-solving skills required in operations.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $90,000 - $180,000 per year Additional Compensation:

• Annual or quarterly performance bonuses.
• Potential for Regional Pay Zone (RPZ) adjustments based on location.

Benefits:

• Health Benefits: Medical, vision, and dental coverage.
• Financial Benefits: 401(k) plan, stock purchase options, and company-paid life insurance.
• Paid Time Off (PTO): PTO and/or PPTO for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes. Specific amounts depend on job classification and length of employment.
• Additional Paid Time Off: Parental leave, family care leave, bereavement leave, jury duty, and voting leave.
• Other Benefits: Short-term and long-term disability, company discounts, Military Leave Pay, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement.
• Education Benefit: Live Better U program offers company-paid education for full-time and part-time associates, covering high school completion, bachelor's degrees, English Language Learning, and short-form certificates (tuition, books, fees).

Working Hours: Approximately 40 hours per week.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is competitive for a Senior UX Designer role in Bentonville, AR. The benefits package is comprehensive, typical of a large retail corporation like Walmart, and includes aspects valuable to operations professionals such as financial planning (401k, stock purchase) and continued learning opportunities (Live Better U). The mention of "performance-based bonus awards" is also common in operations roles tied to efficiency and productivity gains.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Retail Company Size: Walmart is a global retail giant, employing millions worldwide. Sam's Club is a division focused on warehouse club retail. This scale implies complex operational systems and a need for highly efficient internal tools. Founded: Walmart was founded in 1962. Sam's Club was founded in 1983. This history suggests a company with established processes but a drive for innovation to maintain market leadership.

Team Structure:

• Cross-Functional Squads: The role is embedded within agile "squads" comprising product managers, engineers, data analysts, and business specialists, reflecting a modern product development and operational improvement approach.
• Embedded UX Expertise: UX designers are integrated directly into these squads, ensuring design thinking is central to problem-solving and development.
• Design Team Collaboration: While embedded, designers also collaborate with a broader design team to maintain consistency, share best practices, and foster collective growth.

Methodology:

• Agile Development: The emphasis on "squads" and iterative development points to an agile or similar iterative methodology for product and tool development.
• Data-Driven Decision Making: The role requires leveraging user research, behavioral analytics, and member insights, aligning with an operations-centric approach to using data for improvements.
• Human-Centered Design: While focused on internal tools, the core principle is translating complex business needs into intuitive, user-friendly experiences for merchants.

Company Website: https://www.walmart.com/, https://www.samsclub.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture at Walmart/Sam's Club, particularly within technology and product development, likely emphasizes efficiency, scale, and data-driven decision-making. The "squad" model is common in companies aiming for faster iteration and closer alignment between business and technology, which is crucial for effective operations. The scale of operations at Walmart presents unique challenges and opportunities for optimization.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a Senior UX Designer role, equivalent to a mid-to-senior level position within an operations or product development context. It requires independent contribution, strategic thinking, and the ability to mentor or guide less experienced designers. The focus on complex enterprise tools and platform strategy suggests a high level of responsibility.

Reporting Structure: The Senior UX Designer will be embedded within cross-functional squads, likely reporting functionally to a Design Lead or Director within the UX organization, while operationally working closely with a Product Manager or Squad Lead.

Operations Impact: This role directly impacts operational efficiency by simplifying complex merchant workflows. By creating better tools, the designer enables merchants to make faster, smarter decisions regarding product selection, pricing, and inventory, which has a direct positive effect on Sam's Club's revenue, profitability, and member satisfaction.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership in UX: Opportunity to lead major UX initiatives for critical merchant platforms, potentially mentoring junior designers and influencing design strategy for the entire merchant tools portfolio.
• Specialization: Deepen expertise in retail merchandising, supply chain UX, or platform design, becoming a recognized subject matter expert within the organization.
• Cross-Functional Advancement: Develop strong business acumen and stakeholder management skills, potentially leading to roles in Product Management, Operations Strategy, or broader leadership positions within the company.
• Continuous Learning: Access to benefits like Live Better U for formal education and opportunities to learn from domain experts in merchandising and data science.

📝 Enhancement Note: The growth trajectory for this role is significant, especially for someone interested in the operational aspects of retail. The ability to understand and improve complex business processes through design is a highly valued skill that can lead to leadership roles in operations, product, or strategy.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: This is an on-site role based at Sam's Club's Home Office in Bentonville, AR. The environment is likely a corporate office setting designed for collaboration. Office Location(s): 2101 Se Simple Savings Dr, Bentonville, AR 72712-4304, United States of America.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Hub: The office environment will foster collaboration with product managers, engineers, data scientists, and merchants through co-location and designed meeting spaces.
• Tool Accessibility: Access to necessary design and collaboration tools, likely including high-performance workstations and relevant software.
• Team Interaction: Opportunities for regular interaction with the core squad members and the broader UX design community within Walmart/Sam's Club.

Work Schedule: The standard 40-hour work week is expected, with potential for flexibility depending on team needs and project deadlines. The on-site nature encourages synchronous collaboration, which is often beneficial for complex operational projects.

📝 Enhancement Note: An on-site role in a corporate headquarters like Sam's Club offers direct access to key business stakeholders and a structured environment conducive to tackling complex operational challenges. The emphasis on collaboration is key for roles that bridge design and business operations.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Likely a recruiter screen to assess basic qualifications, experience, and cultural fit.
• Portfolio Review & Presentation: Candidates will be asked to present their portfolio, focusing on case studies that demonstrate their approach to complex enterprise tool design, problem-solving, and collaboration. Expect to discuss your design process, user research findings, and the impact of your work.
• Design Challenge/Exercise: A take-home assignment or an in-person/virtual whiteboard session simulating a design problem relevant to merchant tools, focusing on your ability to think critically and apply UX principles to business challenges.
• Stakeholder Interviews: Interviews with product managers, engineers, and potentially merchants to assess collaboration skills, domain understanding, and ability to influence.
• Final Interview: May involve senior leadership to discuss strategic thinking, leadership potential, and overall fit with the team and company values.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Impact: Prioritize case studies that showcase quantifiable outcomes or significant improvements in user efficiency, decision-making, or process simplification.
• Emphasize Process: Clearly outline your design process, from problem definition and research to ideation, prototyping, testing, and iteration. Highlight how you handled ambiguity and complex requirements.
• Showcase Collaboration: Detail how you worked with cross-functional teams, merchants, and stakeholders, and how their input shaped your designs.
• Tailor to Merchant Tools: Select projects that best demonstrate your ability to design for complex, data-rich, enterprise-level tools, ideally with some relevance to retail, supply chain, or business operations.
• Be Prepared to Discuss: Be ready to articulate your design decisions, trade-offs made, and lessons learned for each project.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Research Sam's Club merchandising, buy planning, pricing, and supply chain processes. Understand the typical challenges merchants face.
• Practice Problem Decomposition: Be ready to break down a complex problem into smaller, manageable parts.
• Articulate Trade-offs: Think about potential design solutions and be prepared to discuss the pros and cons of each, considering business constraints and user needs.
• Focus on Operational Efficiency: Frame your solutions in terms of how they improve merchant efficiency, reduce errors, or enhance decision-making.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process for this role is heavily geared towards evaluating practical UX skills, problem-solving abilities, and collaboration, all crucial for operations roles. The portfolio review specifically asks for evidence of tackling complex systems and demonstrating impact, which is directly analogous to the requirements for operations professionals showcasing their process improvements and ROI.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping Software: Proficiency in industry-standard tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, or similar platforms for wireframing, prototyping, and high-fidelity design. Figma is increasingly common for collaborative design systems.
• User Research Platforms: Experience with tools for conducting user interviews, usability testing, and surveys (e.g., UserTesting.com, Lookback, Qualtrics).
• Collaboration Tools: Familiarity with platforms like Jira, Confluence, Slack, Microsoft Teams for project management and team communication.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Analytics Platforms: Experience interpreting data from tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, or internal business intelligence dashboards to understand user behavior and identify areas for improvement.
• Data Visualization Tools: Familiarity with tools like Tableau or Power BI for understanding and presenting data insights.

CRM & Automation:

• While not a direct CRM role, understanding how UX designs integrate with underlying business systems (which may include CRM or ERP functionalities) is beneficial. The focus is on the user interface that merchants interact with to manage business processes.

📝 Enhancement Note: The tools listed are standard for UX design but also overlap with tools used in operations for data analysis, project management, and workflow visualization. For operations professionals, demonstrating familiarity with how UX designers use these tools can enhance understanding of cross-functional collaboration.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Customer Focus: While the primary users are internal merchants, the ultimate goal is serving the Sam's Club member. Designs should enable merchants to better serve members.
• Data-Driven: Decisions are informed by research, analytics, and performance metrics. A quantitative approach to measuring success is expected.
• Efficiency & Optimization: A continuous drive to simplify processes, reduce friction, and improve the speed and accuracy of merchant operations.
• Collaboration & Transparency: Working effectively across teams, sharing knowledge, and openly communicating challenges and successes.
• Innovation: A willingness to explore new approaches and technologies to solve complex business problems.

Collaboration Style:

• Embedded Teamwork: Working as an integral part of agile squads, fostering close working relationships with product, engineering, and business counterparts.
• Inclusive Design Practices: Commitment to creating accessible experiences, ensuring all merchants, regardless of ability, can use the tools effectively.
• Knowledge Sharing: Actively participating in design critiques, sharing learnings, and contributing to the collective growth of the design team.
• Feedback Integration: Openness to receiving and providing constructive feedback to drive continuous improvement in both product and processes.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values of "Data-Driven," "Efficiency & Optimization," and "Collaboration" are paramount in operations. The emphasis on translating these values into daily work and decision-making is a strong indicator of the operational mindset expected, even within a design role.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Complexity of Domain: Navigating the intricate and often legacy processes within merchandising, pricing, and supply chain requires significant learning and adaptation.
• Balancing Stakeholder Needs: Aligning the diverse requirements and priorities of merchants, product managers, engineers, and business leaders can be challenging.
• Operating in Ambiguity: Driving progress on projects with incomplete information or evolving requirements is a common challenge in large organizations.
• Driving Adoption of New Tools: Ensuring merchants effectively adopt and utilize new digital tools requires not just good design but also change management and user enablement.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deep Domain Expertise: Opportunity to become a subject matter expert in retail merchandising, supply chain, and operational strategy through hands-on experience.
• Platform Design Skills: Develop advanced skills in designing scalable, integrated systems and design languages.
• Leadership & Influence: Grow leadership capabilities through leading design initiatives, mentoring, and influencing product strategy.
• Formal Education: Access to the Live Better U program for continued academic learning and certifications.
• Industry Exposure: Potential to learn from and contribute to best practices within a leading retail organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges outlined are very common in operations roles. The ability to overcome these through strong analytical skills, communication, and a structured approach to problem-solving is key. The growth opportunities highlight the potential for career advancement into operational leadership.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your process for designing a complex enterprise tool from scratch. How do you ensure it meets both user needs and business objectives?" (Focus on your structured approach, research, and stakeholder alignment).
• "How have you translated complex business logic or data into an intuitive user interface in a previous role?" (Prepare a specific case study emphasizing this translation).
• "Tell me about a time you had to influence stakeholders with differing opinions on a design direction. What was your strategy, and what was the outcome?" (Highlight communication, data-driven arguments, and compromise).
• "How do you approach designing for scalability and integration within a larger product ecosystem?" (Discuss your understanding of platform thinking and design systems).

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Sam's Club and specifically about designing tools for merchants?" (Show research into Sam's Club's business and the importance of merchant operations).
• "How do you approach collaboration within a cross-functional 'squad' or team?" (Emphasize your role in fostering communication and shared understanding).
• "How do you ensure your designs are accessible and inclusive?" (Discuss your knowledge of WCAG and commitment to inclusive design).

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, clearly define the problem, your role, the process you followed, the solutions you designed, and the impact achieved.
• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, use metrics to demonstrate the success of your designs (e.g., "reduced task completion time by X%", "increased user satisfaction scores by Y%", "decreased error rates by Z%").
• Highlight Process & Rationale: Explain why you made certain design decisions, referencing user research, business goals, or technical constraints.
• Showcase Collaboration: Explicitly mention how you worked with product managers, engineers, and business stakeholders throughout the project.
• Be Ready for Deep Dives: Anticipate detailed questions about your design choices, research methods, and problem-solving approaches.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview preparation advice strongly mirrors what would be expected for a senior operations role: understanding business objectives, demonstrating process, quantifying impact, and strong stakeholder management. The emphasis on "complex enterprise tool design" and "operational efficiency" are key themes.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior UX Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on the Walmart careers portal.
• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your most impactful case studies that best demonstrate your experience with complex enterprise tools, problem-solving, and collaboration. Tailor your presentation to highlight how you translate complex business logic into efficient user experiences.
• Optimize Your Resume: Ensure your resume clearly outlines your experience in UX design, interaction design, prototyping, and usability testing. Highlight achievements relevant to enterprise software, cross-functional collaboration, and any experience in retail or supply chain operations. Use keywords from the job description.
• Prepare Your Presentation: Practice walking through your portfolio case studies, focusing on articulating your process, the challenges you overcame, and the measurable impact of your designs. Be ready to discuss your approach to ambiguity and stakeholder management.
• Research Sam's Club: Understand Sam's Club's business model, its position in the retail market, and the importance of efficient merchant operations. This research will help you tailor your answers and demonstrate genuine interest.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.