UX/UI Designer - Direct Contract

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: UX/UI Designer - Direct Contract

Company: Cro Metrics

Location: Remote

Job Type: Contract (long-term fractional, with potential for full-time conversion)

Category: Design Operations / Production Design

Date Posted: 2026-05-11

Experience Level: 2-5 years

Remote Status: Remote Solely

🚀 Role Summary

• This role is a critical production-focused design position within an experiment-led growth marketing agency, emphasizing speed, accuracy, and craft in delivering high-quality design outputs.

• You will be responsible for translating strategic briefs, wireframes, and creative direction into polished, pixel-perfect UI/UX deliverables for a diverse client base across various channels.

• The position requires a strong command of Figma and a proactive, demonstrated ability to integrate AI design tools into daily workflows to accelerate production and enhance output.

• Success hinges on the ability to manage a high volume of concurrent projects, maintain visual consistency within established design systems, and ensure seamless handoffs to development teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is "UX/UI Designer," the description strongly emphasizes "Production & Execution" and "output of design deliverables." This indicates a focus on high-fidelity mockups and asset creation rather than pure UX research or strategy development. The "operations" aspect comes from the need for consistent, scalable, and efficient design production within an agency setting.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Produce high-fidelity mockups and design assets for A/B tests, landing pages, product pages, sales funnels, email/SMS campaigns, and paid media creative across multiple client accounts.

• Execute designs meticulously within established design systems and brand guidelines, ensuring visual consistency and integrity across all deliverables.

• Interpret written briefs, hypotheses, and requirements to independently develop and deliver production-ready designs in Figma, often working from descriptions rather than pre-made wireframes.

• Support rapid experimentation cycles by delivering test-ready design variations quickly and iterating based on performance results.

• Prepare and organize design files for clean handoff to developers, ensuring all specifications, assets, and annotations are clear and complete.

• Proactively manage workload across multiple concurrent projects, communicating effectively about capacity, potential timelines, and any identified blockers.

• Collaborate closely with strategists and engineers to ensure alignment on design intent, technical feasibility, and adherence to brand standards.

• Rapidly adapt to new client brands, learning their visual language, voice, and constraints to produce on-brand work from the outset.

• Contribute to and maintain component libraries and reusable templates to improve overall team efficiency and design scalability.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities clearly highlight a production-oriented role focused on execution and efficiency within a CRO and growth marketing context. The emphasis on "test-ready design variations," "rapid experimentation cycles," and "reusable templates" points to a need for operational excellence in design delivery.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: No specific degree is mentioned, implying that practical experience and demonstrated skills are prioritized over formal education.

Experience: 2–4 years of experience in UI/UX design, digital production design, or a similar executional design role. Experience at a CRO, experimentation, or growth marketing agency is essential.

Required Skills:

• Strong Figma proficiency: Fast, organized, and capable of building clean, well-structured files with proper components, auto-layout, and naming conventions.

• Portfolio demonstrating production-quality work across web, email, and/or paid media, showcasing craft, consistency, and range.

• Comfort working within existing brand systems and constraints, rather than solely designing from scratch.

• Experience with conversion-focused design, including landing pages, eCommerce flows, experiment variations, or similar.

• Ability to manage volume: Capable of handling multiple concurrent deliverables across different clients and channels while maintaining high quality.

• Strong attention to detail: Commitment to pixel-perfect output, consistent spacing, correct typography, and adherence to specifications.

• Clear communication skills: Ability to ask precise questions, flag issues early, and keep stakeholders informed proactively.

• Fluency with AI design tools: Actively use AI tools for ideation, asset generation, iteration, and other aspects of the design workflow.

• Self-directed and reliable: Excellent time management skills, consistent deadline adherence, and ability to work autonomously.

• Basic understanding of HTML/CSS and how designs translate to front-end development.

• Experience designing email templates for ESPs (Klaviyo, Braze, Iterable, or similar).

Preferred Skills:

• Familiarity with designing for A/B testing platforms (Optimizely, VWO, or similar).

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for AI tool fluency is explicitly stated as a "hard requirement," not a preference. This is a significant differentiator and indicates the company's strategic focus on leveraging AI for operational efficiency in design. The emphasis on existing brand systems and volume management also points to an operations-minded approach to design.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A comprehensive portfolio showcasing production-quality design work across web, email, and paid media channels.

• Demonstrations of craft, visual consistency, and range in design execution.

• Case studies or examples that highlight the ability to work within established design systems and brand guidelines.

• Evidence of conversion-focused design principles applied to landing pages, eCommerce flows, or A/B test variations.

Process Documentation:

• Examples of how you have prepared and organized design files for seamless handoff to developers, including specifications, assets, and annotations.

• Demonstrations of experience in supporting rapid experimentation cycles by delivering test-ready design variations quickly.

• Contribution to or maintenance of component libraries and reusable templates that have improved team efficiency.

• Evidence of adapting quickly to new client brands and learning their visual language and constraints.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio requirements are heavily skewed towards demonstrating executional excellence and operational efficiency in design. The emphasis is on the output and the process of creating that output consistently and at scale, which is a hallmark of operations-focused roles.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: As this is a contract role with potential for full-time conversion, a specific salary range is not provided. However, based on the 2-4 years of experience required for a "Direct Contract" UX/UI Designer role in a remote setting within the US, a typical hourly rate would range from $40 to $70 USD per hour, depending on the depth of AI integration skills and specific agency experience. For a full-time conversion, an annual salary could range from $70,000 to $95,000 USD.

Benefits:

• Long-term fractional contract work with potential for full-time conversion.

• Opportunity to work with mission-driven and high-growth companies.

• Exposure to an experiment-led growth marketing agency environment.

• Collaboration with a diverse, fully remote team of strategists, analysts, engineers, and designers.

• Paid evaluation period for the first 5–10 business days to ensure mutual fit.

• Opportunity to contribute to and maintain component libraries and reusable templates.

Working Hours: The role is described as "long-term fractional contractor role" with "part-time hours." The company states, "Most contractors stay on contract — the relationship is designed to be sustainable at part-time hours." While a specific number isn't given, this implies flexibility but also a need for consistent availability. The AI-generated default of 40 hours is likely a placeholder and should be clarified by the candidate.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary estimate is based on industry benchmarks for contract UX/UI designers with the specified experience level and a remote work arrangement in the US. The benefits listed are derived from the job description's emphasis on contract sustainability, growth opportunities, and team collaboration. The working hours are interpreted as flexible part-time with the potential to scale.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Digital Marketing / Growth Marketing Agency, focusing on Experimentation, CRO, Personalization, Paid Media, and Lifecycle Marketing.

Company Size: Cro Metrics is a growing agency, described as having a "strategic hiring plan" and a "fully remote team," suggesting a dynamic, scaling environment. Exact size is not specified but likely falls into the startup to mid-size agency category.

Founded: The founding date is not provided, but the company is actively scaling its integrated services, indicating a mature yet growing operational structure.

Team Structure:

• The Design team is expanding to meet rising demand.

• This role reports to the Director of Design.

• Designers collaborate closely with strategists, engineers, and analysts across the company.

Methodology:

• Experiment-led growth marketing agency model.

• Data-driven experimentation and personalization.

• Focus on AI integration to support and accelerate design workflows.

• Emphasis on autonomy, collaboration, and innovation.

• Structured production and execution processes to ensure consistency and speed.

Company Website: https://crometrics.com/careers/

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture appears to be fast-paced, data-driven, and collaborative, with a strong emphasis on execution and innovation, particularly through AI. The structure supports lean, agile teams working across multiple client engagements.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned as a "Designer: Production & Execution" with 2-4 years of experience. It's an individual contributor role focused on high-quality output and operational efficiency within the design function. It sits below senior design strategists or leads but is crucial for the agency's delivery capabilities.

Reporting Structure: The role reports directly to the Director of Design. This suggests a clear line of communication and oversight for production standards and quality.

Operations Impact: The designer is the "engine behind our design output," directly impacting the agency's ability to deliver growth marketing services to clients. Their speed, accuracy, and quality directly influence client satisfaction, experimentation velocity, and the overall success of client campaigns. Contribution to reusable assets also has a compounding operational efficiency impact.

Growth Opportunities:

• Conversion to Full-Time: A primary growth path is conversion to a full-time employee role based on business need and mutual interest, offering greater stability and potentially expanded responsibilities.

• Skill Specialization: Opportunity to deepen expertise in specific areas like conversion-focused design, advanced AI tool integration, or design systems management.

• Agency Growth Contribution: By contributing to reusable assets and efficient workflows, the designer can play a role in the agency's overall scaling and operational improvement.

• Cross-functional Exposure: Working with strategists, engineers, and analysts provides exposure to different facets of growth marketing, broadening overall understanding.

📝 Enhancement Note: The career path is explicitly defined: start as a fractional contractor with a clear evaluation period, with a defined route to potential full-time employment. Growth is also framed around contributing to operational efficiency and skill development in a specialized agency environment.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Fully remote.

Office Location(s): Remote, with no specific geographic limitations mentioned for contractors, though employment conversion might have location considerations.

Workspace Context:

• A fully remote, collaborative environment where team members work across different locations.

• Emphasis on asynchronous communication and self-management, supported by digital tools.

• Access to a modern technology stack, including Figma and AI design tools, is implied.

• Opportunities for interaction with strategists, engineers, and analysts, fostering a cross-functional learning environment.

Work Schedule: Described as "long-term fractional contractor role" and "sustainable at part-time hours." This indicates flexibility, but also requires consistent dedication to meet project demands and deadlines. Specific hours will need to be negotiated and managed by the individual.

📝 Enhancement Note: The remote, fractional nature of the role implies a need for strong self-discipline and proactive communication. The "workspace" is digital, with collaboration happening through online platforms and tools.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Likely includes a review of the application, resume, and portfolio, with a specific focus on AI tool integration and production design examples.

• Paid Evaluation Period: The first 5–10 business days involve doing real client work at the contractor rate. This is a crucial hands-on assessment of skills, speed, quality, and cultural fit.

• Case Study/Portfolio Review: Expect to present your portfolio, discuss your design process, and specifically demonstrate your AI tool workflows and how you integrate them into production.

• Technical/Skills Assessment: May involve a design challenge or a deep dive into Figma proficiency and understanding of HTML/CSS and A/B testing platforms.

• Team/Manager Interviews: Discussions with the Director of Design and potentially other team members to assess collaboration style, communication, and problem-solving approaches.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Highlight AI Integration: Clearly showcase specific examples of how you've used AI tools (e.g., Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, ChatGPT for design prompts, AI-powered design plugins) to accelerate your workflow, generate assets, or iterate on designs. Be ready to explain the process and impact.

• Demonstrate Production Quality: Focus on polished, pixel-perfect examples of web design, landing pages, email templates, or paid media assets. Show consistency in typography, spacing, and adherence to brand guidelines.

• Showcase Figma Mastery: Include examples that demonstrate your command of Figma features like components, auto-layout, variants, and well-organized file structures.

• Quantify Impact: If possible, provide metrics or context on how your designs contributed to conversion rate improvements, experimentation velocity, or client success.

• Explain Your Process: Walk through your approach to taking a brief or hypothesis and translating it into a final, production-ready design, detailing your steps, decision-making, and collaboration points.

Challenge Preparation:

• AI Workflow Demonstration: Be prepared to actively demonstrate or describe a concrete AI-integrated design workflow during the interview process.

• Figma Proficiency: Practice complex Figma tasks, component creation, and auto-layout usage to ensure speed and accuracy.

• Agency Context: Understand the demands of an agency environment – high volume, multiple clients, rapid iteration. Frame your experience and examples accordingly.

• Conversion Design Principles: Be ready to discuss your understanding of what makes a design effective for conversion on landing pages, emails, and ads.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on AI tools and the paid evaluation period are unique aspects of this hiring process. Candidates must be prepared to demonstrate practical, hands-on application of AI in their design workflow from the outset.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: The core design tool. Expect proficiency in creating well-structured files, components, auto-layout, and variants for efficient production and scalability.

• AI Design Tools: A hard requirement. This could include generative AI for ideation and asset creation (e.g., Midjourney, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion), AI-powered plugins within Figma, or AI assistants for workflow optimization. Candidates must be able to demonstrate practical application.

Analytics & Reporting:

CRM & Automation:

• Email Service Providers (ESPs): Experience designing email templates for platforms such as Klaviyo, Braze, or Iterable is required.

• A/B Testing Platforms: Familiarity with designing variations for platforms like Optimizely or VWO is a "must-have."

Other Relevant Technologies:

• Paid Media Platforms: Exposure to creative format specifications and best practices for Meta Ads, Google Ads, and LinkedIn Ads.

• HTML/CSS: Basic understanding is required to ensure designs are feasible for front-end development and to facilitate clean handoffs.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit mention of AI design tools as a "hard requirement" is critical. This indicates that proficiency and practical application of these tools are paramount for success in this role and will be heavily scrutinized during the hiring process.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Execution Excellence: A strong emphasis on delivering high-quality, pixel-perfect designs at pace.

• Efficiency & Speed: Valuing individuals who can manage high volumes and deliver rapidly, especially within experimentation cycles.

• Collaboration: Fostering teamwork among designers, strategists, engineers, and analysts to achieve client goals.

• Data-Driven Approach: Understanding that design decisions are informed by strategy, hypotheses, and performance data from experiments.

• Continuous Learning: Encouraging the adoption of new technologies like AI to enhance workflows and output.

• Reliability & Autonomy: Expecting self-directed individuals who manage their time effectively and meet deadlines consistently.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional Integration: Designers are integral team members working alongside strategists and engineers, requiring clear communication and alignment.

• Feedback Loops: Openness to receiving and acting on feedback from strategists, engineers, and potentially clients to refine designs and iterate quickly.

• Knowledge Sharing: Contributing to shared resources like component libraries and templates to improve team efficiency and consistency.

• Proactive Communication: Encouraging team members to flag issues, ask clarifying questions, and communicate capacity openly to ensure smooth project flow.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values are strongly aligned with an agency's operational needs: delivering for clients efficiently, collaborating effectively across disciplines, and embracing new technologies to drive performance.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• High Volume Production: Consistently producing a large quantity of high-quality design deliverables across multiple clients without burnout or quality degradation.

• AI Integration Mastery: Actively integrating and demonstrating advanced AI tool usage in a practical, workflow-enhancing manner, rather than just superficial application.

• Rapid Iteration & Feedback: Adapting quickly to feedback and iterating on designs within tight experiment timelines.

• Navigating Diverse Brands: Rapidly learning and consistently applying varied brand guidelines and constraints for different clients.

• Remote Collaboration: Maintaining effective communication and collaboration within a fully remote team environment.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Advanced AI Tool Proficiency: Deepening expertise in generative AI and AI-assisted design tools to become a leader in this emerging area.

• CRO & Experimentation Design: Gaining deeper insights into conversion rate optimization strategies and how design directly influences experimental outcomes.

• Design Systems Management: Contributing to and potentially leading the development of reusable design components and templates, enhancing scalability.

• Cross-functional Skill Exposure: Learning from strategists, analysts, and engineers to gain a more holistic understanding of growth marketing.

• Path to Full-Time Employment: A clear opportunity for career progression into a stable, full-time role within a growing agency.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are inherent to a production-focused role in a fast-paced agency. The growth opportunities are tied to mastering critical contemporary skills (AI) and excelling in the agency's core methodologies (CRO, experimentation).

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your process for taking a strategic brief or hypothesis and translating it into a high-fidelity, production-ready design for an A/B test or landing page." (Focus on your workflow, decision-making, and how you ensure brand consistency.)

• "How do you prioritize and manage a high volume of design tasks across multiple concurrent client projects? Provide an example." (Highlight your organizational skills, time management, and communication strategies.)

• "Walk us through a specific instance where you used AI tools to significantly accelerate your design process or improve the quality of your output. What tools did you use, and what was the outcome?" (Be ready to demonstrate this practically.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Cro Metrics and our experiment-led growth marketing approach?" (Research the company's mission, values, and client types.)

• "How do you approach collaboration with strategists and engineers, particularly in a remote setting?" (Discuss your communication style and experience with cross-functional teams.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• AI Workflow Showcase: Dedicate a significant portion of your presentation to demonstrating your AI tool integration. Have live examples or clear case studies ready.

• Production Quality Focus: Select your strongest examples of polished web, email, or paid media designs that highlight your craft, attention to detail, and ability to work within constraints.

• Figma Organization: Be prepared to open your Figma files to showcase your file structure, component usage, and auto-layout implementation.

• Quantifiable Results: If possible, present designs that led to measurable outcomes (e.g., improved conversion rates, higher engagement). Frame your contributions clearly.

• Concise Storytelling: For each piece in your portfolio, briefly explain the objective, your role, your process (including AI use), and the outcome. Keep it focused and impactful.

• Ask Insightful Questions: Prepare questions about team processes, AI adoption, client engagement models, and growth opportunities.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview preparation heavily emphasizes the practical application of AI design tools and the demonstration of production-level skills within an agency context. Candidates must be prepared for a hands-on assessment of their capabilities.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this operations position:

• Submit your application through the application link on the Cro Metrics careers page.

• Portfolio Customization: Ensure your portfolio prominently features examples of production-quality design work, with a dedicated section or clear annotations showcasing your practical application of AI design tools. Tailor your presentation to highlight speed, accuracy, and consistency.

• Resume Optimization: Update your resume to emphasize your experience with Figma, AI design tools, conversion-focused design, and working within design systems. Quantify achievements where possible, especially related to efficiency or quality in production.

• Interview Preparation: Practice presenting your portfolio, specifically detailing your AI workflows and how you manage high-volume production. Prepare to discuss your understanding of CRO and growth marketing principles.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research Cro Metrics, their services, client types, and their stated values around experimentation and AI integration. Understand their operational model as an agency.

⚠️ 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.