Lead UX Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead UX Designer

Company: Neighborly Software

Location: United States

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: User Experience (UX) Design / Product Design

Date Posted: 2026-08-18

Experience Level: 5-10 years

Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• Spearhead the establishment and evolution of Neighborly Software's design practice as the first dedicated UX Lead, focusing on building a robust design system and component library.

• Drive the simplification and enhancement of complex, workflow-heavy applications, aiming to reduce user friction, clicks, and cognitive load across government and nonprofit program administration.

• Champion user-centric design principles by developing and maintaining personas, user journeys, and conducting direct user research to inform platform improvements.

• Lead through influence by setting design standards and guiding product, engineering, and QA teams toward a cohesive, accessible, and responsive user experience.

• Implement and utilize product analytics to measure the impact of design changes, identify friction points, and validate the effectiveness of UX improvements.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is described as a "founding, individual-contributor role with no direct reports" and emphasizes "leading through influence." This indicates a high degree of autonomy and the expectation that the successful candidate will proactively build and define the UX function within the organization. The focus on "friction removed" and "simpler, lower-friction experience" suggests a strong emphasis on process optimization and efficiency through design.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design System & Standards Development: Build, own, and maintain a comprehensive design system, including a reusable component library, interaction patterns, and clear usage guidelines for product, engineering, and QA.

• Style Guide & Brand Consistency: Establish and enforce a style guide to ensure consistent branding and visual identity across the platform, aligning with Neighborly Software's positioning and messaging.

• Accessibility & Responsive Design: Define and implement organizational norms for accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA) and responsive design, ensuring the platform is usable and predictable across all devices and for users with disabilities.

• Workflow Redesign & Simplification: Identify and redesign core workflows to significantly reduce friction, decrease the number of clicks, clarify user paths, and provide meaningful status updates and feedback.

• User Experience Solutioning: Address known user pain points and translate recurring customer feedback into well-designed, validated solutions that enhance the platform's usability and effectiveness.

• Persona & User Journey Creation: Develop, document, and maintain personas and user journeys to serve as a shared reference for product, engineering, marketing, and sales teams, grounding design decisions in user needs.

• User Research & Customer Advocacy: Conduct user research, participate in client calls and discovery sessions, and lead workshops (discovery, journey mapping, design reviews) to gather firsthand feedback and advocate for the user's perspective.

• Prototyping & Cross-Functional Partnership: Establish prototyping norms and a shared framework with the product team for concept testing, and guide engineering and QA on implementation fidelity and front-end quality.

• Performance & Observability: Partner with engineering to improve front-end performance and implement observability practices, considering perceived speed as a critical design component.

• Analytics & Metrics Tracking: Utilize product analytics tools (e.g., Pendo) to understand user behavior, identify friction, validate design changes, and define/track key experience metrics (task completion, time on task, error rates).

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a "build it from the ground up" mentality for the UX function. This implies the need for strong self-direction, process definition, and the ability to evangelize UX best practices across the organization. The emphasis on specific tools like Pendo suggests a data-driven approach to UX validation.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Experience:

• 5+ years of user experience and user interface design experience, with a significant portion spent as the lead or senior-most designer on a product or platform.

• Demonstrated experience in building a design system and component library from inception and successfully driving its adoption across technical and product teams.

• Proven track record of designing and delivering responsive interfaces across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.

• Experience conducting user research, synthesizing findings into actionable insights, and translating them into personas, user journeys, and design decisions.

• Experience facilitating workshops, design reviews, and prioritization exercises with cross-functional teams and external customers.

• Experience using product analytics tools to inform design decisions and measure impact.

• Familiarity with modern design and prototyping tools (e.g., Figma), including advanced features like component libraries and design tokens.

• Working knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA or later) and practical experience in designing and validating accessible interfaces.

• Experience leading as an individual contributor, effectively influencing engineering, QA, and product partners without direct reporting lines.

• Proficiency in explaining design rationale clearly to diverse audiences, including executives, engineers, and customers.

• Sufficient understanding of HTML, CSS, and component-based front-end frameworks to facilitate productive technical discussions with engineers.

• Working fluency with AI tools applied to design and research processes (synthesis, content drafting, concept generation). Required Skills:

• User Experience (UX) Design

• User Interface (UI) Design

• Design Systems & Component Libraries

• Accessibility Standards (WCAG)

• Responsive Design Principles

• User Research Methodologies

• Prototyping Tools (e.g., Figma)

• Product Analytics & Data Interpretation

• Workshop Facilitation & Design Thinking

• Stakeholder Influence & Communication

• HTML/CSS Fundamentals Preferred Skills:

• Experience as the first or founding UX hire, establishing a design practice.

• Background in govtech, public sector, or grant management software.

• Experience designing for complex B2B SaaS platforms with administrative features.

• Familiarity with performance monitoring and observability tools (e.g., New Relic).

• Accessibility certifications (e.g., CPACC, WAS).

• Tech startup environment experience.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for a portfolio demonstrating "end-to-end ownership of complex, workflow-heavy applications" is critical. Candidates should prepare to showcase projects that highlight their ability to solve intricate user problems within enterprise or B2B contexts, rather than solely consumer-facing apps or marketing websites. The emphasis on influencing without authority is a key differentiator for this role.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• End-to-End Ownership: Showcase at least two complex, workflow-heavy applications where you demonstrated full ownership from initial research and concept to final design and implementation oversight. Focus on B2B or enterprise software, not just consumer apps or marketing sites.

• Design System Development: Include a case study detailing the creation, documentation, and adoption process of a design system or component library you built from scratch, highlighting its impact on consistency and efficiency.

• Friction Reduction Case Studies: Present specific examples of workflows you redesigned to measurably reduce friction, decrease clicks, or improve task completion rates. Quantify the impact using data where possible.

• Accessibility & Responsiveness: Demonstrate how you integrated accessibility (WCAG standards) and responsive design principles into your design process and deliverables, ideally with examples of how these were tested and validated.

• User Research Integration: Provide evidence of how user research directly informed your design decisions, including examples of personas, user journeys, or research synthesis that led to tangible product improvements.

Process Documentation:

• Design System Documentation: Ensure your portfolio includes examples of well-documented design system components, their usage guidelines, and interaction patterns.

• Workflow Optimization Documentation: Clearly articulate the "before" and "after" of redesigned workflows, detailing the pain points, proposed solutions, and the process followed to implement them.

• Research Synthesis & Reporting: Showcase how you synthesized user research findings into actionable insights and how these insights were communicated to cross-functional teams.

• Accessibility Validation Process: Outline the steps taken to ensure designs met accessibility standards and how compliance was validated.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on a "portfolio demonstrating end-to-end ownership of complex, workflow-heavy applications" is crucial. Candidates should prepare to discuss the full lifecycle of their design work, focusing on problem definition, solutioning, collaboration, and impact measurement. The "First-Year Outcomes" section provides excellent clues for what types of projects and deliverables will be most impactful in a portfolio.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Estimated Range: $120,000 - $160,000 annually.

• Methodology: This estimate is based on industry benchmarks for Lead UX Designer roles in the United States with 5-10 years of experience, considering the fully remote nature of the position and the company's focus on B2B SaaS in the govtech sector. Factors such as the founding nature of the role, the responsibility for building a design practice, and the required influence without direct reports also contribute to positioning this towards the mid-to-upper end of typical ranges. Specific compensation will depend on candidate experience and qualifications.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, Dental, and Vision plan options to support employee well-being.

• Income Protection: Company-paid Short-Term Disability and Life Insurance policies.

• Retirement Savings: Generous employer match on 401K contributions with immediate vesting, facilitating long-term financial planning.

• Generous Paid Time Off: 5 weeks of PTO annually, providing ample opportunity for rest and rejuvenation.

• Holidays: 9 paid holidays throughout the year.

• Community Engagement: 3 days of paid volunteer time off annually, encouraging employees to contribute to their communities.

Working Hours:

• Standard full-time hours are expected, approximately 40 hours per week.

• The remote nature of the role offers flexibility in structuring workdays, but consistent availability for collaboration with teams across US time zones (particularly Central Time) will be necessary.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is an estimate. Candidates should be prepared to discuss their salary expectations and research market rates for similar roles in their specific location or broadly across the US for remote positions. The benefits package is robust, emphasizing work-life balance and financial security.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology - Software (Govtech, Public Sector, Community Development, Housing Programs)

Company Size: While not explicitly stated, the description of this being the "first dedicated user experience role" and a "founding, individual-contributor role" suggests a growing startup or a company in a scaling phase, likely in the small to medium-sized business (SMB) range. This often implies a dynamic, agile environment.

Founded: Neighborly Software was founded with a mission to "Helping Communities, Help People," indicating a strong social impact orientation. The company offers a cloud-based platform for administering government funds for various social programs.

Team Structure:

• Design Team: Currently, this is an individual contributor role, meaning the UX Lead will build the design practice from the ground up. They will collaborate closely with Product Management and Engineering.

• Reporting Structure: The reporting structure is not explicitly defined, but as an individual contributor leading through influence, the role likely reports to a Director or VP of Product or Engineering.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: The role is designed to foster strong partnerships with Product Managers, Engineers, and QA professionals. Collaboration will also extend to Sales and Marketing through the creation of shared user artifacts like personas and journeys.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Design: Emphasis on using product analytics (e.g., Pendo) to understand user behavior, identify friction points, and validate design outcomes.

• Systems Thinking & Reusability: Focus on identifying reusable patterns to build a design system and component library, promoting consistency and efficiency.

• Agile & Incremental Improvement: The "Pragmatic builder" attribute suggests an approach of shipping improvements incrementally rather than pursuing large, all-at-once redesigns.

• User-Centricity: A core value is to be the "Voice of the customer," grounding design decisions in user research and feedback.

Company Website: https://neighborlysoftware.com

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's mission provides a strong sense of purpose. The "founding UX role" aspect means the culture will be heavily influenced by the successful candidate's ability to establish processes and advocate for design. Expect a collaborative environment where clear communication and influence are key.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This position is a "Lead" role, signifying a senior individual contributor position. It's the first dedicated UX role, meaning the individual will be responsible for establishing and shaping the UX practice, setting standards, and building foundational design assets like a design system. This is a high-impact role with significant autonomy.

Reporting Structure: As an individual contributor, the Lead UX Designer will likely report to a Director or VP of Product/Engineering. They will work closely with Product Managers and Engineers, influencing their work through design direction and standards rather than direct management.

Operations Impact: The UX Lead's primary impact will be on the usability, efficiency, and user satisfaction of Neighborly Software's platform. By reducing friction, improving clarity, and ensuring accessibility, they will directly contribute to:

• Increased User Adoption and Retention: A better user experience makes the platform more valuable and easier to use, leading to higher adoption rates among government agencies and nonprofits.

• Reduced Support Costs: Simpler, more intuitive interfaces can decrease the volume of support tickets and training needs.

• Enhanced Program Effectiveness: By making it easier for users to administer complex government funds, the platform can better serve low-income families and vulnerable populations, aligning with the company's mission.

• Improved Cross-Functional Efficiency: A well-defined design system and clear user journeys streamline product development and QA processes.

Growth Opportunities:

• Building a Design Practice: The opportunity to define and build the UX function from the ground up, establishing processes, tools, and culture.

• Leadership through Influence: Developing strong leadership skills by influencing product direction, engineering implementation, and organizational standards without direct reports.

• Deep Domain Expertise: Gaining specialized knowledge in govtech, public sector software, and the intricacies of grant management and community development programs.

• Mentorship: As the design practice grows, opportunities may arise to mentor junior designers.

• Strategic Impact: Directly shaping the future of a critical B2B SaaS platform that serves a vital social mission.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers a unique opportunity for an experienced UX professional to build a design function from scratch in a mission-driven company. The growth path is less about traditional hierarchical advancement and more about expanding influence, expertise, and strategic impact within the organization.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Fully Remote. This means the work environment is digital and distributed, requiring strong self-discipline, asynchronous communication skills, and effective use of collaboration tools.

Office Location(s): The company is headquartered in Atlanta, GA, but the role is entirely remote within the United States. This implies that while the company has a physical presence, the UX team will operate virtually.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: Expect a highly collaborative digital environment. The UX Lead will need to actively engage with Product Managers, Engineers, and QA through video conferencing, messaging platforms, and shared digital workspaces.

• Tools & Technology: Access to and proficiency with modern design and collaboration tools (e.g., Figma, Pendo, video conferencing software, project management tools) will be essential.

• Operations Team Interaction: Opportunities for interaction will be through scheduled meetings, design reviews, workshops, and ad-hoc digital communication. Building rapport and trust virtually will be key.

Work Schedule:

• Standard full-time work hours (approx. 40 hours/week) are expected.

• While remote, maintaining availability and responsiveness during core business hours for collaboration with teams across various US time zones will be crucial. Flexibility exists in how the workday is structured, but synchronous collaboration for key meetings and design sessions will be necessary.

📝 Enhancement Note: The fully remote nature requires candidates to be proactive in communication and engagement. While flexibility exists, maintaining consistent availability for cross-functional collaboration, especially with teams in different time zones, is paramount for success in this role.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

1. Initial Screening: A recruiter or hiring manager will likely conduct an initial call to assess basic qualifications, experience, and cultural fit. Be prepared to briefly discuss your background and interest in Neighborly Software's mission.

2. Portfolio Review & Design Deep Dive: This will be a critical stage where you present your portfolio, focusing on case studies that demonstrate end-to-end ownership, design system creation, and friction reduction. Expect in-depth discussions about your design process, decision-making, and problem-solving approaches.

3. Cross-Functional Interviews: You will likely meet with Product Managers and Engineering leads. These interviews will assess your ability to collaborate, influence, and communicate technical design concepts effectively. Expect questions about how you handle disagreements and drive consensus.

4. Founder/Leadership Interview: A final interview with a company leader (potentially a founder or executive) to gauge strategic thinking, alignment with company values, and long-term vision for the UX practice.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate for Relevance: Select 3-4 projects that best showcase your ability to handle complex, workflow-heavy applications, build design systems, and reduce user friction. Prioritize B2B SaaS or enterprise software examples.

• Structure Your Case Studies: For each project, clearly articulate the problem, your role and responsibilities, your process (research, ideation, design, testing, collaboration), the solutions you implemented, and the measurable outcomes or impact. Use visuals effectively.

• Highlight "Building from Scratch" Experience: Emphasize any experience you have in establishing design processes, tools, or practices where they didn't exist before, as this is a core requirement for this role.

• Demonstrate Influence: Be ready to talk about how you influenced stakeholders (product, engineering, QA) and drove adoption of your design solutions and standards.

• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, use metrics to demonstrate the success of your designs (e.g., reduction in clicks, time on task, error rates, increased adoption).

Challenge Preparation:

• Design Exercise: Be prepared for a design exercise, which could involve evaluating an existing workflow, proposing improvements, or designing a new feature. Focus on demonstrating your systematic approach, user advocacy, and ability to simplify complexity.

• System Thinking: Practice articulating how you would approach building a design system and setting standards from scratch. Consider documentation, component structure, and adoption strategies.

• Accessibility & Responsiveness: Be ready to discuss how you ensure designs meet WCAG standards and are responsive across devices, potentially through a quick critique or discussion.

• AI Tool Application: Think about how you would leverage AI tools in your daily UX workflow for research synthesis, content generation, or rapid concepting.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is designed to assess not just design skills but also the ability to build a function, influence others, and operate effectively as a remote, individual contributor. A strong portfolio that clearly articulates the "why" and "how" behind your design decisions, along with quantifiable results, will be crucial.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (explicitly mentioned), including proficiency with component libraries, design tokens, and interactive prototypes.

• Product Analytics: Pendo (explicitly mentioned) for understanding user behavior, identifying friction, and validating design impact.

• AI Design Tools: Working fluency with AI tools for synthesis, content drafting, and rapid concept generation.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Performance Monitoring: Familiarity with tools like New Relic is preferred, suggesting an interest in front-end performance as a design concern.

• General Analytics: Experience with other product analytics or user behavior tracking tools is likely beneficial.

CRM & Automation:

• While not directly specified for UX, familiarity with the company's primary CRM (likely Salesforce or similar, common in B2B SaaS) and automation tools may be helpful for understanding the broader ecosystem and user context. Collaboration & Communication:

• Standard suite of remote collaboration tools: Video conferencing (e.g., Zoom, Google Meet), instant messaging (e.g., Slack), and project management/documentation tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Asana).

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in Figma and Pendo are key technical requirements. Candidates should be prepared to discuss their experience with these tools and how they integrate them into their workflow. The mention of AI tools indicates a forward-looking approach to design technology.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Ownership: Treating the platform experience as a personal responsibility, holding high standards even when it's difficult.

• Systems Thinking: Identifying reusable patterns to build scalable solutions rather than addressing one-off requests.

• Simplification: Instinctively removing unnecessary steps, clicks, and cognitive load for users.

• Customer Advocacy: Acting as the "Voice of the customer," grounding decisions in research and user needs.

• Influence & Collaboration: Leading through credibility and clear communication, earning influence with product, engineering, and QA partners.

• Pragmatism: Delivering improvements incrementally and pragmatically, focusing on shipping value rather than waiting for perfection.

• Mission-Driven: A strong commitment to the company's mission of "Helping Communities, Help People," translating into a desire to create impactful software.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: The role demands close collaboration with product management and engineering to ensure design vision is aligned with technical feasibility and product strategy.

• Influence-Based Leadership: Working effectively with teams that do not report directly, by building trust, providing clear rationale, and demonstrating the value of UX.

• Data-Informed Discussions: Using analytics and user research findings as the basis for discussions and decision-making.

• Workshop Facilitation: Proactively leading workshops to foster shared understanding and drive alignment on design solutions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture seems to value proactivity, a strong work ethic, and a commitment to both user needs and business objectives. The emphasis on "leading without a team" means strong interpersonal and influencing skills are as important as technical UX expertise.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Building a Design Practice from Scratch: Establishing processes, documentation, and a design system where none previously existed requires significant initiative, strategic thinking, and change management skills.

• Leading Through Influence: Effectively guiding and influencing product, engineering, and QA teams without direct reporting lines requires strong communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills.

• Balancing Vision with Pragmatism: The need to develop a long-term design vision while delivering incremental improvements in a growing company environment.

• Domain Complexity: Navigating the complexities of government fund administration software, which can have intricate workflows and diverse user needs.

• Remote Collaboration: Maintaining strong team cohesion and effective communication in a fully remote setting.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Establishing UX Practice: Unparalleled opportunity to define and build a UX function, developing skills in organizational design, process creation, and UX evangelism.

• Leadership & Influence: Honing leadership skills through influencing cross-functional teams and driving organizational change.

• Domain Expertise: Deepening knowledge in the govtech and public sector software domain, understanding the unique challenges and opportunities in this space.

• Strategic Design Impact: Contributing significantly to the strategic direction and user experience of a platform with a direct social impact.

• Continuous Learning: Staying abreast of evolving UX best practices, AI tools in design, and accessibility standards.

📝 Enhancement Note: The primary challenge is also the primary growth opportunity: building something from the ground up. Candidates who thrive in ambiguity and enjoy defining their own path will find this role incredibly rewarding.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you approach building a design system and component library from scratch at Neighborly Software?" (Focus on phased rollout, documentation, adoption strategies, and collaboration with engineering.)

• "Describe a time you had to influence engineering or product teams to adopt a design direction they were initially resistant to. What was your strategy?" (Highlight your approach to communication, data-driven arguments, and building consensus.)

• "Given our mission to 'Help Communities, Help People,' how would you ensure our platform's design directly supports this mission and reduces friction for users administering critical programs?" (Connect design decisions to user impact and company mission.)

• "How do you prioritize competing design requests or features when resources are limited?" (Discuss frameworks for prioritization, stakeholder alignment, and data-informed decision-making.)

• "What are your thoughts on using AI tools in UX design and research? How might you integrate them at Neighborly Software?" (Show awareness of AI's potential and practical applications in your workflow.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you most about Neighborly Software's mission and our work in the govtech space?" (Research the company's impact and tailor your answer to show genuine interest.)

• "How do you foster collaboration and maintain strong relationships with remote product and engineering teams?" (Discuss your communication strategies, preferred tools, and proactive engagement methods.)

• "Describe your experience working in a startup or a company where you were the first in your discipline. What were the challenges and rewards?" (Showcase your adaptability, self-starting nature, and ability to build processes.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Storytelling: Frame each case study as a narrative: the problem, your journey through it, your solutions, and the impact.

• Focus on Process & Rationale: Don't just show final screens; explain why you made certain design decisions, what research informed them, and how you collaborated.

• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, present metrics that demonstrate the success of your designs (e.g., % reduction in task time, % increase in completion rate, reduction in support tickets).

• Highlight "Lead" Responsibilities: Emphasize instances where you took ownership, set standards, influenced others, and managed the end-to-end design process.

• Be Ready for Deep Dives: Anticipate detailed questions about specific design choices, technical constraints, and your collaboration process.

Challenge Preparation:

• Design Critique: Be prepared to critique a given workflow or feature, identifying pain points and proposing solutions with a focus on simplification and user experience.

• Design System Concept: You might be asked to outline key components or principles for a design system relevant to Neighborly's platform.

• Accessibility Check: You could be asked to identify accessibility issues in a provided UI mockup or discuss how you would ensure WCAG compliance.

📝 Enhancement Note: Preparation should focus on demonstrating not only design expertise but also the strategic thinking, influence, and proactive approach required for a founding role. Be ready to articulate your vision for UX at Neighborly Software.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Lead UX Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Ashby.

• Tailor your Resume: Highlight keywords related to UX Design, UI Design, Design Systems, Accessibility, Responsive Design, User Research, Figma, and experience with B2B SaaS or complex workflows. Quantify achievements where possible.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Ensure your portfolio prominently features case studies demonstrating end-to-end ownership of complex applications, design system development, and measurable friction reduction. Prioritize projects that align with Neighborly's mission and user base.

• Prepare Your Narrative: Be ready to articulate your passion for Neighborly Software's mission and your vision for building a strong UX practice within the company. Practice presenting your portfolio case studies, focusing on your process, rationale, and impact.

• Research Neighborly Software: Understand their product, target users (government agencies, nonprofits), and company mission. Familiarize yourself with their existing platform if possible.

⚠️ 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.

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