Senior UX Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior UX Designer

Company: Later

Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Product Design / User Experience

Date Posted: 2026-06-09T14:19:35

Experience Level: 6+ Years

Remote Status: Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the end-to-end design strategy and execution for core product areas within Later's marketing and social analytics platform, focusing on data-rich, modular user experiences.

• Translate complex business objectives, user needs, and technical constraints into scalable and intuitive design solutions for B2B users, creators, and internal stakeholders.

• Drive the evolution and maintenance of a robust design system within Figma, ensuring consistency, modularity, and development efficiency across the product suite.

• Act as a key thought partner in a fast-paced, agile environment, collaborating closely with Product Management, Engineering, Data Science, and Research to deliver high-impact, data-informed product enhancements.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a Senior UX Designer, indicating a need for strategic ownership and the ability to influence product direction. The emphasis on "data-rich," "modular design systems," and "B2B, data-intensive, or platform products" strongly suggests a focus on analytical tools, dashboards, and complex user interfaces, typical of operations-adjacent software.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own the UX strategy for designated product areas, translating business goals and user insights into clear design principles and actionable roadmaps.

• Design end-to-end user experiences for data-intensive B2B products, including dashboards, reporting tools, campaign workflows, and analytics interfaces.

• Translate complex data, metrics, and workflows into clear, intuitive, and actionable user experiences that empower users to understand and act on insights.

• Drive iterative, data-informed design decisions aligned with agile development cycles, ensuring a continuous feedback loop with development teams.

• Lead high-quality execution in Figma, building and maintaining component-based, implementation-ready designs utilizing auto-layout, tokens, and shared variables.

• Contribute to and evolve the design system to support modularity, consistency, and development efficiency across the product suite.

• Partner closely with front-end engineers to ensure seamless design-to-development handoff and high-fidelity implementation, validating designs through prototypes and user testing.

• Collaborate deeply with Product Managers, front-end developers, data scientists, and research partners to deliver cohesive, high-impact solutions.

• Act as a UX thought partner across initiatives, ensuring consistency and quality across shared surfaces and experiences, and providing guidance to other designers.

• Partner with research and data science teams to incorporate qualitative and quantitative user insights into design decisions, and stay current on social media trends, marketing workflows, and creator/influencer ecosystems.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a strong emphasis on the entire product development lifecycle, from strategy and discovery to execution and iteration. The focus on data visualization, B2B platforms, and agile environments is crucial for candidates with operations experience who understand how design impacts business efficiency and decision-making.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While not explicitly stated, a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field is typically expected for senior-level roles. Equivalent practical experience will also be highly valued.

Experience:

• 6+ years of experience in UX or Product Design, with a strong focus on B2B, data-rich, or platform products.

• Proven experience designing complex products and solving ambiguous, multi-dimensional usability challenges.

• Demonstrated ability to break down large, unclear problems into structured phases and drive them through to delivery.

• Strong track record of owning end-to-end UX for a product area, from discovery through execution and iteration.

• Experience designing and scaling dashboards, analytics, and reporting interfaces.

• Comfort working in fast-paced, agile product environments with shifting priorities. Required Skills:

• UX Design & Strategy: Deep understanding of user-centered design principles, UX strategy development, and translating business goals into user experiences.

• Figma Expertise: Advanced proficiency in Figma, with extensive experience in component-based design, auto-layout, design tokens, shared libraries, and design system management.

• Data-Rich Product Design: Proven ability to design intuitive interfaces for complex data, metrics, and analytics platforms.

• Agile Methodology: Experience working within agile development cycles, collaborating closely with product and engineering teams.

• Problem Solving: Ability to deconstruct complex, ambiguous problems into actionable design phases and deliver clear, structured solutions.

• Communication: Strong visual, verbal, and written communication skills, with the ability to clearly present and defend design decisions to diverse stakeholders.

Preferred Skills:

• Familiarity with marketing workflows, social analytics, and creator or influencer ecosystems.

• Experience with user research methodologies and data analysis to inform design decisions.

• Knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and ensuring inclusive design practices.

• Experience with prototyping tools beyond Figma for user testing and concept validation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "data-rich," "B2B," and "platform products" strongly suggests that candidates with experience in designing tools for business intelligence, analytics, CRM, or other operational software will be highly competitive. Proficiency in Figma and design systems is a critical technical requirement.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase end-to-end design projects, highlighting your strategic thinking, problem-solving process, and execution capabilities.

• Include case studies that demonstrate experience with complex, data-intensive B2B products, dashboards, or analytics interfaces.

• Clearly articulate the business goals, user needs, and technical constraints for each project.

• Detail your design process, including research, ideation, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing, and iteration.

• Emphasize your contributions to design systems, component libraries, and ensuring design consistency.

• Quantify the impact of your designs, where possible, using metrics related to user engagement, efficiency gains, or business outcomes. Process Documentation:

• For each portfolio project, clearly document the phases of your design process:

  • Discovery & Strategy: How you identified user needs, defined problem statements, and influenced product strategy.
  • Ideation & Design: Your approach to generating solutions, creating wireframes, and developing high-fidelity mockups within Figma.
  • Prototyping & Testing: How you used prototypes to validate designs and incorporate user feedback, including usability testing methodologies.
  • Implementation & Iteration: Your collaboration with engineering for handoff and any post-launch iterations or improvements.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a Senior UX role, the portfolio should demonstrate not just execution but also strategic thinking and the ability to manage complex projects from inception to delivery. Given the company's focus on data and analytics, case studies showcasing how designs improved data comprehension or operational efficiency will be highly valued.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $145,000 - $165,000 OTE (On Target Earnings) per year.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Benefits Plans: Details typically include health, dental, and vision insurance, retirement savings plans (e.g., 401k), and potentially life and disability insurance.

• Paid Time Off: Likely includes vacation days, sick leave, and paid holidays.

• Professional Development: Opportunities for learning and growth, potentially including conference attendance, training, or certifications.

• Other Potential Benefits: May include stock options, commuter benefits, wellness programs, or parental leave.

Working Hours: The role is listed as "Full-Time," and the "LI-Hybrid" tag suggests a standard work week, likely around 40 hours, with flexibility expected in a hybrid environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: The OTE (On Target Earnings) structure indicates that a portion of the compensation may be performance-based or commission-driven, which is common for roles influencing revenue or business outcomes, even in design. The salary range is competitive for a Senior UX Designer in a major metropolitan area like Chicago, especially within the tech industry.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Influencer Marketing Technology / Social Media Analytics / SaaS. Later operates in a dynamic and data-driven sector, providing intelligence and tools for brands to manage influencer campaigns and understand social media performance. This means the company culture likely values innovation, data analysis, and adaptability to fast-changing digital trends.

Company Size: Later is likely a mid-sized to large-sized company, given the presence of established offices in multiple cities and a structured approach to compensation and benefits. This size typically offers a balance between the agility of a startup and the stability and resources of a larger organization.

Founded: Later was founded over a decade ago, indicating a mature company with a proven track record and a solid understanding of its market. This history suggests a stable yet evolving organization that prioritizes long-term growth and product development.

Team Structure:

• The UX team likely consists of designers with various specializations (e.g., UX Research, Visual Design, Interaction Design) and potentially varying levels of seniority.

• This Senior UX Designer will report into a Design Lead or Head of Product Design, collaborating closely with Product Managers and Engineering leads for specific product squads or areas.

• Cross-functional collaboration is a core tenet, with designers working hand-in-hand with Product Management, Engineering, Data Scientists, and Research partners. Methodology:

• Data-Driven Design: Emphasis on using qualitative and quantitative user insights, performance metrics, and market trends to inform design decisions.

• Agile Development: Design processes are integrated into agile sprints, requiring close partnership with engineering for iterative development and feedback.

• Design Systems: A strong focus on building and maintaining scalable, component-based design systems to ensure consistency and efficiency.

• Solution-Oriented Approach: A mindset focused on solving business problems and user challenges through effective design.

Company Website: later.com

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's focus on "influencer marketing" and "social media analytics" means that an understanding of marketing operations, campaign performance tracking, and data visualization is highly relevant, even for a UX role. The "solution-driven mindset" and "data-rich" product focus align well with operations professionals' analytical and efficiency-oriented approaches.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is classified as "Senior UX Designer," signifying a mid-to-senior level position. It requires a strong foundation of experience (6+ years) and the ability to operate with significant autonomy. The responsibilities include owning UX strategy for a product area, influencing roadmaps, and mentoring junior designers, indicating a step towards leadership.

Reporting Structure: The Senior UX Designer will likely report to a Design Manager, Director of Design, or Head of Product. They will work within cross-functional product teams, collaborating closely with Product Managers and Engineering leads who may be at a similar or slightly higher level of seniority.

Operations Impact: While not a direct "operations" role, a Senior UX Designer in this context significantly impacts operational efficiency and effectiveness for Later's clients. By designing intuitive dashboards, reporting tools, and campaign management interfaces, this role directly influences how brands (Later's customers):

• Monitor campaign performance and ROI.

• Analyze social media data and trends.

• Make data-driven marketing decisions.

• Optimize their influencer marketing spend and strategies.

The design directly enables efficient workflows and clear insights, which are core to effective marketing operations.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership: Potential to move into a Lead UX Designer, Principal UX Designer, or Design Manager role, overseeing larger product areas or teams.

• Specialization: Deepen expertise in specific areas such as design systems, data visualization, B2B SaaS design, or accessibility.

• Cross-functional Advancement: Opportunities to move into Product Management or other strategic roles within the product organization, leveraging design and user-centric thinking.

• Mentorship: Continued opportunities to mentor junior designers, enhancing leadership and communication skills.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Senior" title and the emphasis on strategy and ownership suggest this role is a key contributor to the product's success and offers clear pathways for career advancement within a growing tech company. Understanding how design supports business operations and client success is key.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The job is posted as "Hybrid," indicating a mix of on-site work at the Chicago office and remote work. This suggests a collaborative office environment designed to foster teamwork and idea-sharing, complemented by the flexibility of remote work.

Office Location(s): The primary location is Chicago, Illinois. Later also has offices in Boston, MA; Vancouver, BC; and Vancouver, WA, suggesting a geographically distributed but connected company.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The hybrid model implies that office days are utilized for team meetings, brainstorming sessions, and collaborative design work, fostering strong working relationships.

• Tools & Technology: Access to industry-standard design tools like Figma, likely with robust design system libraries, and collaboration platforms (e.g., Slack, Jira, Confluence).

• Interactions: Opportunities to interact with a diverse range of professionals including Product Managers, Engineers, Data Scientists, Researchers, and other designers, promoting cross-pollination of ideas and a holistic product development approach.

Work Schedule: A standard full-time work schedule is expected, likely around 40 hours per week. The hybrid nature provides flexibility on how and where work is performed, but core collaboration hours will be important.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid model is common in the tech industry and allows for focused deep work (often at home) and collaborative, strategic sessions (in the office). For a Senior UX Designer, this balance is crucial for both individual productivity and team alignment.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A brief call with a recruiter to assess basic qualifications, cultural fit, and interest in the role and company.

• Portfolio Review & Design Challenge: A session with hiring managers (likely Design Lead/Product Lead) to walk through portfolio case studies. This may include a take-home design challenge or an in-person/virtual whiteboarding session focused on a specific UX problem, often related to data interpretation or workflow design within their domain.

• Team Interviews: Meetings with cross-functional partners (Product Managers, Engineers, Data Scientists) to evaluate collaboration style, technical understanding, and problem-solving approach.

• Final Interview: A discussion with senior leadership to assess strategic thinking, leadership potential, and overall fit with Later's culture and vision.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Impact: Highlight how your designs solved real business problems and improved user outcomes. Quantify results whenever possible (e.g., "reduced task completion time by X%", "increased data comprehension by Y%").

• Showcase Process: Clearly articulate your thought process, from understanding the problem to iterating on solutions. Explain why you made certain design decisions.

• Highlight Figma & Design Systems: Demonstrate your advanced Figma skills, including mastery of auto-layout, components, tokens, and your contribution to scalable design systems.

• Data-Rich Examples: Prioritize case studies involving data visualization, analytics dashboards, or complex B2B platforms, as this aligns directly with Later's product suite.

• Storytelling: Present your projects as compelling narratives, guiding interviewers through the challenge, your approach, and the successful outcome.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Research Later's products, target audience (brands, creators), and the influencer marketing/social analytics landscape.

• Practice Data Interpretation: Be prepared to analyze hypothetical data sets or complex information and propose design solutions to make them accessible and actionable.

• System Thinking: Demonstrate your ability to think about how individual designs fit into a larger product ecosystem and design system.

• Communicate Effectively: Practice articulating your design rationale clearly and concisely, justifying your choices based on user needs, business goals, and best practices.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the "Senior" title and the company's focus on data, expect a rigorous portfolio review and a design challenge that tests your ability to handle complex data visualization and B2B product design within an agile framework. Demonstrating strategic thinking and system design is paramount.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: The core design tool for wireframing, prototyping, and high-fidelity design execution. Expertise in advanced features like auto-layout, components, tokens, and shared libraries is essential.

• Design Systems: Experience with building, maintaining, or contributing to robust, scalable design systems.

Analytics & Reporting:

• While not directly using these tools, an understanding of how data is collected, analyzed, and presented is crucial. This includes familiarity with:
  • Data Visualization Libraries/Tools: (e.g., D3.js concepts, Tableau, Power BI - for understanding best practices).
  • Analytics Platforms: (e.g., Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude - for understanding user behavior tracking).

CRM & Automation:

• Understanding of how CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce) and marketing automation platforms function is beneficial for context, as Later's clients use these tools extensively.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit mention of Figma, auto-layout, tokens, and design systems is critical. For a Senior UX Designer, proficiency here is non-negotiable. The emphasis on "data-rich," "dashboards," and "analytics" implies a need to understand the principles of effective data visualization and reporting interfaces, even if not directly using the analytics tools themselves.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Solution-Driven & Results-Oriented: A strong bias for action, focusing on delivering tangible outcomes that align with company goals and drive customer success.

• Strategic & Forward-Thinking: Balancing immediate project needs with long-term product vision and scalable design solutions.

• Curiosity & Continuous Learning: Staying abreast of industry trends in influencer marketing, social media, and UX best practices, and applying new knowledge to product design.

• Adaptable & Resourceful: Navigating shifting priorities effectively, managing time efficiently, and problem-solving creatively in a dynamic environment.

• Collaborative & Empathetic: Building trust and strong relationships through open communication, emotional intelligence, and a supportive approach to teamwork.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional Integration: Working closely with Product Management, Engineering, Data Science, and Research as integral members of product teams.

• Process Improvement Culture: Openness to feedback, iterative design processes, and continuous refinement of workflows and product experiences.

• Knowledge Sharing: Proactively sharing insights, design patterns, and learnings to elevate the collective understanding and capabilities of the team.

• Data-Informed Decision Making: A shared commitment to using data and user feedback to guide design choices and product strategy.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company values emphasize a proactive, collaborative, and data-informed approach, which resonates strongly with the mindset of effective operations professionals. The focus on "adding value" and "driving results" is a key cultural indicator.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Designing for Complexity: Translating intricate data, multi-faceted marketing workflows, and sophisticated analytics into user-friendly interfaces.

• Balancing Short-Term Delivery with Long-Term Vision: Meeting immediate product roadmap needs while ensuring design decisions contribute to a scalable and future-proof product.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Effectively communicating and aligning diverse stakeholder needs and technical constraints to achieve cohesive product solutions.

• Staying Ahead of Trends: Keeping pace with rapid changes in social media, influencer marketing, and UX/design technology to ensure product relevance and innovation.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Industry Expertise: Gaining deep knowledge of the influencer marketing and social media analytics landscape, directly impacting product strategy.

• Design System Mastery: Advanced opportunities to contribute to and lead the development of sophisticated design systems.

• Leadership Development: Potential to mentor junior designers, lead design initiatives, and influence product direction, paving a path towards leadership roles.

• Exposure to Data Science: Working closely with data scientists offers insights into advanced analytics and data interpretation techniques, enhancing skills in designing for data-driven products.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are typical for senior roles in complex SaaS environments. The growth opportunities highlight the potential for significant professional development, both in design specialization and broader product leadership, which is attractive to ambitious professionals.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you approach defining the UX strategy for a new reporting dashboard that needs to surface key influencer campaign ROI metrics?" (Focus on problem decomposition, user segmentation, and metric prioritization.)

• "Describe a time you had to balance conflicting requirements from Product, Engineering, and User Research. How did you reach a consensus and ensure a good outcome?" (Highlight communication, negotiation, and data-driven decision-making.)

• "How would you design a system to allow users to easily compare performance across multiple influencer campaigns, considering various data points and timeframes?" (Focus on information architecture, modular design, and clear data visualization.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "What do you know about Later and the influencer marketing industry? What excites you about our mission?" (Research Later's website, news, and competitors.)

• "Our culture values being 'Solution-Driven' and 'Curious.' How do these values manifest in your work?" (Provide specific examples from your experience.)

• "How do you ensure your designs are not only user-friendly but also contribute to business objectives and operational efficiency for our clients?" (Connect UX decisions to business impact.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Case Studies: Use a clear narrative: Problem -> Your Role -> Process -> Solution -> Impact.

• Emphasize Figma & Design Systems: Dedicate specific slides or time to showcase your Figma proficiency, component usage, and design system contributions.

• Data Visualization Examples: If possible, include projects where you designed for data-heavy interfaces, explaining how you simplified complexity.

• Quantify Results: Use metrics to demonstrate the success of your designs. If direct metrics aren't available, use user feedback or observed improvements in workflow.

• Be Prepared for Deep Dives: Anticipate detailed questions about your design choices, the trade-offs you made, and how you collaborated with others.

📝 Enhancement Note: Preparation should focus on demonstrating strategic thinking, deep technical expertise in Figma and design systems, and an understanding of how design impacts business operations and data interpretation, especially within the context of marketing analytics.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior UX Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Greenhouse.

• Tailor your resume: Highlight experience with B2B, data-rich platforms, design systems, and Figma. Quantify achievements wherever possible.

• Curate your portfolio: Select 2-3 strong case studies that best showcase your experience with complex data, dashboards, and end-to-end product design. Ensure clear articulation of your process and impact.

• Prepare for the interview: Research Later, its products, and the influencer marketing industry. Practice articulating your design process and strategic thinking, especially for data-driven challenges.

• Be ready to discuss your Figma and design system expertise in detail.

⚠️ 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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