UX Designer (m/f/d)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: UX Designer (m/f/d)

Company: Aras Corporation

Location: Andover, Massachusetts, United States

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Product Design / User Experience

Date Posted: May 11, 2026

Experience Level: Mid-Level (3-5 years)

Remote Status: Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

• This hands-on role focuses on the execution and delivery of high-quality UI for an enterprise Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Digital Thread platform, emphasizing design system evolution and product UI consistency.

• The UX Designer will partner with a senior design lead to modernize the platform's user experience, translating product ideas into buildable UI specifications and assets for engineering teams.

• Key contributions will involve evolving and maintaining a growing design system (components, tokens, patterns) to ensure UI consistency across applications and services.

• The position requires a pragmatic, detail-oriented individual comfortable working with ambiguity and evolving requirements in a fast-paced, collaborative product environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is explicitly positioned as a "high-impact delivery role (not a pure strategy position)" focusing on UI execution and design system contributions. The emphasis on "turning product ideas into high-quality, buildable UI" and "equipping engineering teams with clear specifications and assets" suggests a strong focus on practical application and tangible deliverables rather than high-level conceptualization or research.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Actively contribute to and evolve the shared design system, including components, design tokens, and established patterns.

• Translate conceptual product direction and loosely defined problems into reusable, well-crafted UI structures and designs.

• Ensure a high degree of UI consistency across various applications and services within the Aras platform.

• Develop early design concepts into polished, high-fidelity UI outputs that accurately reflect real product use cases and user flows.

• Utilize visual design principles to influence product direction and elevate the overall user experience of the PLM platform.

• Provide UI support to multiple product teams, delivering necessary flows, components, and visual assets.

• Address specific design requests such as layouts, icons, and feature interfaces efficiently.

• Proactively manage execution and production workstreams to avoid design bottlenecks and enable engineering teams to proceed without delay.

• Convert strategic design direction into concrete UI deliverables and detailed technical specifications for implementation.

• Work autonomously on day-to-day design tasks while maintaining close alignment with the senior design lead.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities emphasize a blend of design system maintenance and hands-on UI creation, with a strong focus on efficiency and enabling engineering teams. The mention of "supporting multiple product teams" and "owning execution and production work streams" indicates a need for strong project management and prioritization skills within a dynamic product development cycle.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a background in Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), or a related field is implied by the nature of the role and the required experience.

Experience: 3-5 years of dedicated experience in product UX/UI design, with a strong emphasis on working within a product environment (not solely agency or consulting).

Required Skills:

• Proven experience in product UX/UI design.

• Strong UI execution capabilities and demonstrated experience working within or contributing to a design system.

• Solid understanding of visual design fundamentals, including layout, typography, spacing, and visual hierarchy.

• Experience operating within a product development environment, delivering designs for shipped or buildable features.

• Comfort and proficiency in navigating ambiguity and evolving requirements within a fast-paced setting.

• Pragmatic, detail-oriented approach to design execution.

Preferred Skills:

• Ability to transform loosely defined problems and requirements into actionable design solutions.

• Capacity to produce high-quality UI rapidly while managing multiple competing priorities.

• Working familiarity with frontend development fundamentals, including HTML, CSS (modern layout concepts like grid, responsive patterns), and basic JavaScript concepts.

• Awareness of how frontend frameworks such as React influence UI implementation and design constraints.

• Ability to design with practical implementation constraints in mind and assess feasibility within browser environments.

• Skill in applying and extending established design patterns, not solely creating new ones from scratch.

• Advanced proficiency in design tools such as Figma.

• Understanding of iterative development methodologies and effective collaboration with engineering teams.

• Interest in developing towards more advanced design or design-technology roles.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Desired Qualifications" strongly hint at a need for designers who can bridge the gap between design and development. Familiarity with frontend concepts and awareness of framework impacts suggests a preference for candidates who can produce "buildable" UI and understand implementation realities, facilitating smoother handoffs and reducing technical debt. The specific exclusion of "branding, marketing design, illustration-heavy portfolios, pure strategy/research-only roles, highly specialized AI/ML design roles, or starting work from a fully defined brief" helps refine the ideal candidate profile.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase real product UI work; conceptual or marketing pieces alone are insufficient.

• Demonstrate contributions to a design system, including component design, pattern application, or token management.

• Present UI execution for features that have been shipped or are demonstrably buildable.

Process Documentation:

• Case studies should clearly articulate the design process, from problem identification through to final UI delivery.

• Illustrate how design decisions were made, especially in the context of evolving requirements or technical constraints.

• Detail contributions to design system evolution, including the rationale behind component or pattern updates.

• Showcase collaboration with engineering teams and how design specifications were communicated and implemented.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio requirements are highly specific and geared towards a role focused on practical UI delivery and design system contribution. The emphasis on "real product UI," "shipped or buildable features," and "design system contributions" means candidates must present work that demonstrates immediate applicability and understanding of production environments, rather than purely theoretical or conceptual projects.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: The expected base salary range is $110,000 - $125,000 USD per year.

Benefits:

• Flexible paid time off (PTO) for personal rejuvenation.

• Company-paid holidays.

• Dedicated Global Wellness Day.

• 401(k) retirement savings plan with a company match.

• Comprehensive health coverage including medical, dental, and vision insurance, with strong premium contributions and deductible reimbursement.

• Company-paid life insurance.

• Short-term and long-term disability coverage.

Working Hours: The role is full-time, implying approximately 40 hours per week. While not explicitly stated, the hybrid nature suggests a degree of flexibility in structuring workdays, balanced with in-office collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is specific and falls within the mid-level to senior mid-level range for UX Designers in the Massachusetts area, particularly for roles involving enterprise software and design systems. The benefits package is robust and typical for a US-based technology company, offering comprehensive support for employee well-being and financial security.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Aras operates in the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Digital Thread solutions sector, serving critical industries like automotive, industrial/heavy equipment, aerospace and defense, and high-tech electronics. This context means the user experience needs to cater to complex enterprise workflows and demanding professional users.

Company Size: Aras is described as one of the fastest-growing PLM companies, with a significant investment in Design and a Product Culture transformation. The design team consists of 7+ designers, indicating a growing, yet still relatively intimate, design function within a larger organization.

Founded: Aras was founded to reinvent software for engineering and manufacturing, enabling flexibility and innovation. This history suggests a company with a strong technical foundation and a forward-looking approach to product development, now prioritizing user experience.

Team Structure:

• The UX Designer will join a growing team of 7+ Product/UX Designers.

• The role reports to a senior design lead, indicating a clear reporting structure and mentorship path.

Methodology:

• The company is undergoing a major "Product Culture transformation" with significant investment in Design.

• The product is evolving towards AI-enabled experiences, modern UI architecture, and scalable design systems.

• The design team's methodology likely emphasizes rapid iteration, design system-driven development, and close collaboration with engineering to deliver buildable UI.

Company Website: https://aras.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's focus on PLM and Digital Thread solutions implies a need for UX designers who can grasp complex technical domains and translate them into intuitive interfaces for professional users. The ongoing product culture transformation and investment in design highlight a positive and evolving environment for designers, with a clear strategic direction towards AI and modern architecture.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned as a Mid-Level UX Designer, specifically focused on UI execution and design system contributions. It's a hands-on delivery role, not purely strategic or research-focused. The experience level (3-5 years) aligns with this mid-career stage.

Reporting Structure: The UX Designer will partner with and report to a senior design lead. This structure provides mentorship and guidance, particularly for evolving design system contributions and UI execution.

Operations Impact: The UX Designer's impact is directly tied to increasing design throughput, improving UI consistency across the enterprise PLM platform, and removing day-to-day bottlenecks for engineering teams. This role plays a crucial part in the modernization of Aras's product experience, directly influencing how users interact with critical manufacturing and engineering software.

Growth Opportunities:

• Skill Advancement: Opportunity to deepen expertise in design systems, UI execution, and potentially gain exposure to modern UI architecture and AI-enabled experiences.

• Career Progression: Potential to grow into a Senior UX Designer role, taking on more complex projects or leading specific areas of the design system. There's also an explicit mention of growing towards more advanced design or design-technology roles.

• Cross-functional Learning: Exposure to product management, engineering teams, and the intricacies of PLM and digital thread solutions within complex industries.

📝 Enhancement Note: The growth path appears to be focused on deepening technical design skills, expanding responsibilities within the design system, and potentially moving into more senior or specialized design-technology roles, rather than a purely management track. The emphasis on "buildable UI" and "design system contributions" suggests a focus on becoming a highly proficient and impactful individual contributor in the product design space.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The role is based in Andover, Massachusetts, and is designated as Hybrid. This suggests a blend of remote work and in-office collaboration.

Office Location(s): The primary office location is Andover, Massachusetts.

Workspace Context:

• The environment is described as "high-collaboration" and "fast-moving," requiring designers to be adaptable and communicative.

• Designers will work closely with a senior design lead, product managers, and multiple engineering teams, fostering a cross-functional and integrated workflow.

• Access to design tools like Figma is expected, facilitating efficient design creation and asset handover.

Work Schedule: As a full-time position, a standard work schedule of approximately 40 hours per week is expected. The hybrid arrangement provides some flexibility in daily scheduling, balanced with the need for collaborative in-office time.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid model in Andover, MA, implies a need for local candidates or those willing to relocate, who can commute to the office for designated days. The emphasis on "high-collaboration" suggests that in-office days will likely be focused on teamwork, brainstorming, and alignment sessions.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process: While not explicitly detailed, a typical process for this role would likely involve:

• Initial Screening: HR or recruiter call to assess basic qualifications and cultural fit.

• Portfolio Review & Design Exercise: A deep dive into the candidate's portfolio, focusing on design system contributions and UI execution. This may include a take-home design challenge or a live design exercise focused on translating requirements into UI.

• Technical/Team Interviews: Discussions with the senior design lead and potentially other designers or product managers to assess technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and collaboration style.

• Final Interview: Potentially with a hiring manager or senior leadership to discuss overall fit and career aspirations.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Highlight Design System Work: Clearly present your contributions to design systems, detailing your role in creating or maintaining components, patterns, or tokens.

• Showcase UI Execution: Prioritize projects where you've taken concepts and developed them into detailed, high-fidelity UI, especially for shipped products or features.

• Demonstrate Ambiguity Navigation: Include case studies that illustrate how you handled loosely defined problems, evolving requirements, and delivered actionable UI solutions.

• Focus on Deliverables: Emphasize tangible outputs like UI specifications, assets, and buildable designs, rather than just conceptual explorations.

• Explain Your Process: For each project, articulate your thought process, the challenges faced, and how you leveraged design principles and tools like Figma to achieve results.

Challenge Preparation:

• Be prepared to discuss how you would approach evolving or contributing to an existing design system.

• Practice translating vague requirements into concrete UI elements and user flows, considering implementation constraints.

• Be ready to articulate your understanding of frontend development principles (HTML, CSS, JS) and how they inform your design decisions.

• Prepare to discuss your experience with iterative development and collaboration with engineering teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "design system contributions" and "UI execution for shipped or buildable features" means candidates should curate their portfolios to specifically showcase these aspects. Avoid portfolios that are heavily focused on branding, marketing, or pure research. The interview process will likely probe how well candidates can translate abstract ideas into concrete, implementable designs within a structured framework.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: Advanced proficiency is desired for UI design, prototyping, and collaboration. This will be the primary tool for creating UI deliverables and design system assets.

Analytics & Reporting: Not explicitly mentioned, but typically enterprise software roles may involve reviewing usage analytics to inform design decisions.

CRM & Automation: Not directly applicable to the UX Designer role itself, but the product is an enterprise PLM platform, which interacts with complex business processes.

📝 Enhancement Note: While Figma is the only tool explicitly mentioned, a working familiarity with frontend fundamentals (HTML, CSS, basic JavaScript) and awareness of frameworks like React are highly valued. This suggests that designers are expected to have an understanding of how their designs will be implemented and potentially contribute to design system documentation that bridges design and code.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Product Culture Transformation: A commitment to improving product development processes and user experience through significant investment in Design.

• Innovation: Driving the evolution of PLM and digital thread solutions, including towards AI-enabled experiences and modern UI architecture.

• Collaboration: A high-collaboration environment where designers work closely with product management and engineering teams.

• Efficiency: Focus on increasing design throughput, removing bottlenecks, and delivering buildable UI quickly.

• Pragmatism & Detail-Orientation: A focus on producing practical, high-quality designs that are ready for implementation.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional Integration: Close partnership with product management and engineering teams is essential for translating ideas into actionable UI.

• Design System Centricity: A collaborative approach to building and maintaining a shared design system, ensuring consistency and efficiency.

• Iterative Feedback: Working within an iterative development cycle implies a culture of continuous feedback and refinement with stakeholders.

📝 Enhancement Note: The culture emphasizes a results-oriented, collaborative approach to product design, where individual contributions directly impact engineering velocity and product quality. The "high-collaboration, fast-moving environment" suggests a culture that values proactive communication and teamwork.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Navigating Ambiguity: Translating loosely defined problems and evolving requirements into concrete, buildable UI designs without perfect briefs.

• Balancing Speed and Quality: Producing high-quality UI rapidly while managing multiple requests and priorities across different product teams.

• Design System Evolution: Contributing to and evolving a comprehensive design system for a complex enterprise platform.

• Bridging Design and Development: Effectively communicating design specifications and understanding implementation constraints to ensure seamless handoffs to engineering.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deepen Design System Expertise: Gain advanced skills in creating, managing, and scaling design systems.

• Exposure to Modern Architectures: Learn about modern UI architecture and its impact on design practices.

• AI-Enabled Experiences: Understand the design considerations for integrating AI into enterprise software.

• Cross-functional Skill Development: Enhance collaboration and communication skills with product managers and engineers.

• Potential for Specialization: Opportunities to grow into more specialized design roles or design-technology positions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are directly tied to the role's focus on execution in a dynamic environment. The growth opportunities are framed around deepening core design skills, expanding technical understanding, and contributing to strategic product initiatives.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you contributed to or evolved a design system. What was your specific role, and what challenges did you face?" (Preparation: Prepare a case study focusing on design system contributions, detailing your process, impact, and any challenges overcome.)

• "How do you approach translating ambiguous product ideas into high-fidelity, buildable UI designs?" (Preparation: Outline your process for requirements gathering, ideation, prototyping, and specification, emphasizing how you handle uncertainty and deliver actionable design.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Aras and our mission to transform the way the world makes products?" (Preparation: Research Aras's PLM solutions, target industries, and recent company news. Connect your skills and interests to their mission.)

• "How do you handle working in a fast-moving, high-collaboration environment with evolving requirements?" (Preparation: Provide examples of your adaptability, communication style, and ability to prioritize effectively in dynamic settings.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Focus on Relevance: Prioritize 2-3 projects that best showcase your UI execution, design system contributions, and ability to work with ambiguity.

• Tell a Story: For each project, clearly articulate the problem, your role, the process, the solution, and the impact. Use visuals effectively to illustrate your design decisions.

• Highlight Deliverables: Show the final UI, specifications, or any assets you produced. If possible, show how the design was implemented.

• Discuss Constraints: Be prepared to talk about any technical or requirement-based constraints you encountered and how you navigated them.

• Be Prepared for Figma Deep Dive: Be ready to discuss your Figma workflow, component usage, and how you manage design files for collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview preparation should heavily lean into demonstrating practical UI design skills, design system knowledge, and the ability to work effectively within a product development lifecycle. Candidates should be ready to discuss their specific contributions and problem-solving approaches in detail, supported by their portfolio.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this UX Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided application link on the Aras Careers page.

• Tailor your resume: Highlight your 3-5 years of experience in product UX/UI design, specifically mentioning contributions to design systems, UI execution, and experience with ambiguity. Incorporate keywords like "Figma," "UI Design," "Design Systems," "Product Design," and "Frontend Fundamentals."

• Curate your portfolio: Ensure it prominently features real product UI work, design system contributions, and examples of UI delivered under evolving requirements. Prioritize projects that demonstrate your ability to create buildable UI.

• Prepare for a portfolio review: Be ready to walk through your selected projects, explaining your process, challenges, and outcomes, with a particular focus on your UI execution and design system involvement.

• Research Aras: Understand their PLM and Digital Thread solutions, target industries, and the company's ongoing product culture transformation. Be prepared to articulate why you are a good fit for their mission and values.

⚠️ 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.