UX/UI Designer, Reach

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: UX/UI Designer, Reach

Company: Riverside Insights

Location: United States

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / UX/UI

Date Posted: 2026-09-16

Experience Level: Mid-Senior Level (4-7 years)

Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the end-to-end UX/UI design strategy for Riverside's new Reach platform, a critical initiative for portfolio assessments like CogAT and Iowa Assessments.

• Establish foundational UX frameworks, interaction patterns, and a comprehensive design system from the ground up for a greenfield product.

• Collaborate closely with Product Management, Engineering, Psychometrics, and Content teams to deliver a user-centric platform from concept to market launch and beyond.

• Translate complex assessment data into clear, actionable insights and intuitive displays for students, educators, and administrators.

• Drive user research and usability testing to validate design decisions and inform product roadmap for continuous improvement and feature expansion.

📝 Enhancement Note: While this role is for a UX/UI Designer, the emphasis on leading the "end-to-end design of Riverside's Reach platform and the next generation of our portfolio assessments" and "building the user experience from the ground up alongside Engineering, Product, and Psychometrics partners" suggests a strong GTM (Go-To-Market) alignment. The role requires not just design execution but also strategic input into product direction, user adoption, and how the platform will be perceived and utilized by its target audiences within the education sector. This is a key aspect for operations professionals to understand, as it bridges design with business outcomes.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own and define the complete UX strategy for the Reach platform, including the creation of personas, user journey maps, and information architecture for a new product.

• Conduct comprehensive user research, such as interviews, usability testing, and workflow analysis, with students, educators, and administrators to inform design decisions.

• Develop detailed user flows, task flows, and interaction models that cater to the distinct needs of multiple user roles within the platform.

• Create low-fidelity wireframes and high-fidelity interactive prototypes to effectively test concepts with users and internal stakeholders before full development.

• Design the information architecture and navigation structure to ensure intuitive access for all user types on a complex, multi-role assessment platform.

• Transform complex assessment data into clear, actionable visualizations, dashboards, and score reports that empower educators to make swift, informed decisions.

• Design and implement an effective onboarding experience and in-product guidance for educators and administrators to facilitate platform adoption and proficiency.

• Define, track, and report on key UX success metrics, such as task completion rates and usability scores, to guide product improvements and feature prioritization.

• Build and maintain a scalable design system and component library from inception, ensuring consistency and shared understanding between design and engineering teams.

• Execute high-fidelity visual design across all platform screens, including typography, color palettes, spacing, and real content integration.

• Ensure all UI designs are accessible, responsive, and compliant with WCAG standards from the initial design phase.

• Design print and PDF layouts for generated reports and essential assessment materials.

• Collaborate closely with Engineering on detailed design specifications and developer handoff, performing design quality assurance (QA) to ensure accurate implementation.

• Provide ongoing support, iteration, and expansion of the Reach design system and UX as new assessments and features are integrated post-launch.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities clearly indicate a "0-to-1" build, which is critical for operations candidates to grasp. This means the role is less about incremental improvements and more about establishing foundational processes and systems. The emphasis on "actionable displays" for educators and "decision-making in seconds" highlights a direct link to operational efficiency for users, a key GTM and RevOps consideration.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

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

• 4-7 years of professional experience in product design, UX design, or UI design.

• Demonstrated experience leading design initiatives for "0-to-1" or greenfield product builds, including establishing UX frameworks, interaction patterns, and design systems from scratch.

• Proven track record of successfully launching and iterating on digital products. Required Skills:

• UX Strategy & Research: Strong foundation in user research methodologies (interviews, usability testing, surveys, workflow analysis) and the ability to translate findings into actionable design specifications, personas, and journey maps.

• Interaction Design: Expertise in defining user flows, task flows, and interaction models for complex, multi-stakeholder platforms.

• Prototyping & Wireframing: High proficiency in Figma (or comparable tools like Sketch, Adobe XD) for creating wireframes, interactive prototypes (low to high fidelity), and user flows.

• Design Systems: Proven experience building and maintaining a design system or component library from the ground up, ensuring scalability and consistency.

• Visual Design: Strong aesthetic skills with a keen eye for typography, color, spacing, and layout.

• Data-Heavy Interfaces: Experience designing for complex, data-rich environments, including dashboards, score reports, and analytical displays.

• Accessibility & Responsive Design: Working knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and principles of responsive design for multi-device compatibility.

• Ambiguity Tolerance: Demonstrated comfort and effectiveness operating in environments with high ambiguity and minimal pre-existing structure.

Preferred Skills:

• Domain Expertise: Experience in the K-12 education sector, assessment platforms, or clinical/behavioral health products.

• Engineering Familiarity: Basic understanding of HTML/CSS or familiarity with front-end frameworks like React/Next.js to facilitate closer collaboration with engineering teams.

• Leadership & Mentorship: Experience mentoring junior designers or establishing design standards adopted across multiple product teams.

• AI Tools: Familiarity with AI-assisted design tools or workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "0-to-1" and "greenfield build" is a significant differentiator. Candidates will need to showcase their ability to build structure and strategy where none exists, a skill highly valued in operations roles focused on process creation and optimization. The mention of "complex, data-heavy interfaces" and "actionable displays" directly relates to the core functions of operations roles in making data digestible and driving informed decisions.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase at least one significant project demonstrating a "0-to-1" or "greenfield" product build, highlighting the entire design process from initial research to final UI.

• Include case studies that clearly articulate the problem, your design process, key decisions, user research insights, and the final solution.

• Demonstrate experience in building and evolving a design system or component library, providing examples of its structure, components, and usage guidelines.

• Present examples of complex data visualizations, dashboards, or score reports, explaining how you translated raw data into user-friendly and actionable insights.

• Include examples of designing for multiple user roles or stakeholders within a single platform. Process Documentation:

• Detail your approach to user research and how findings were integrated into the design process.

• Illustrate your methodology for creating information architecture and navigation for new products.

• Provide examples of how you collaborated with engineering and product teams, including your handoff process and QA procedures.

• Showcase your understanding and application of accessibility (WCAG) standards in your design work.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a "0-to-1" build, a portfolio should not just show final designs but the process of creation. This includes how foundational elements like research, information architecture, and design systems were established. Operations professionals often need to document and present similar foundational processes, making this a parallel skill.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $90,000 - $120,000 USD per year.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plans.

• Company-paid basic life insurance and Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) insurance.

• Company-paid long-term disability coverage.

• Paid Parental Leave to support new parents.

• Supplemental life insurance options for extended coverage.

• Company-paid Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for confidential support.

• Retirement savings plan with discretionary company matching contributions.

• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA) options for tax-advantaged healthcare spending.

• Premium subscription to Calm for mental wellness for employees and dependents.

• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO) package, including holidays, summer Fridays, and wellness days (33 days total).

• Weekly "Focus Wednesdays" to minimize meeting disruptions and encourage deep work.

• Flexible work arrangements to support work-life balance.

• Tuition Reimbursement Program for continued learning and professional development.

Working Hours: 40 hours per week, with an emphasis on flexible work arrangements and "Focus Wednesdays" to promote efficient work without constant interruptions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is a reasonable estimate for a mid-senior level UX/UI Designer in the US, considering the "4-7 years" experience requirement and the specified remote work arrangement. This range aligns with industry benchmarks for specialized design roles requiring significant strategic input and foundational build experience. The inclusion of "Focus Wednesdays" and "Flexible work arrangements" speaks to a company culture that values deep work and employee well-being, aspects often sought by operations professionals who rely on focused time for analysis and process improvement.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Education Technology / Assessment Software. Riverside Insights operates within the education sector, specifically focusing on developing and delivering portfolio assessments and data analytics tools for K-12 students, educators, and administrators. This industry demands a strong focus on user needs, data integrity, and measurable educational outcomes.

Company Size: While not explicitly stated, Riverside Insights is part of a larger organization (implied by the ".com" domain often associated with established companies, and the structured benefits package). The description suggests a growing company with ambitious goals for its new platform.

Founded: The founding date is not provided, but the company's focus on portfolio assessments like CogAT and Iowa Assessments suggests a history and established presence in the educational assessment market. The "0-to-1" build of the Reach platform indicates a forward-looking strategy to innovate and expand its offerings.

Team Structure:

• The UX/UI Designer will report to the Product Director, indicating a clear reporting line within the product development hierarchy.

• Close collaboration is expected with cross-functional partners including Engineering, Product Management, Psychometrics, and Content teams. This structure emphasizes a team-oriented approach to product development, where diverse expertise is leveraged.

• The "0-to-1" nature of the Reach platform implies a dedicated, potentially agile, team focused on its rapid development and market launch. Methodology:

• Data-Driven Design: Emphasis on user research, usability testing, and tracking UX success metrics to inform design decisions and product roadmaps. This aligns with an operations mindset of using data to drive strategy and improvement.

• Agile Development: The collaborative structure with Engineering and Product suggests an agile or iterative development process, common in tech companies for rapid product delivery.

• Design System Centricity: Building a design system from scratch emphasizes consistency, efficiency, and scalability in design and development, a core principle in operational excellence.

Company Website: https://www.riversideinsights.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "achieving real results for students and educators" and "solution-focused team" indicates a mission-driven culture. For operations professionals, this translates to working within a company that values tangible impact and problem-solving, often a motivating factor when aligning personal career goals with organizational objectives. The collaboration with "Psychometrics" is a unique aspect that points to a data-intensive and research-backed approach to product development.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned as a Senior Individual Contributor, specifically a Lead Designer for a critical new initiative. It requires significant autonomy, strategic thinking, and the ability to establish foundational processes and systems within the design domain. The "0-to-1" nature means the designer is not just executing but defining the future of the platform's user experience.

Reporting Structure: The UX/UI Designer reports directly to the Product Director. This provides visibility to product leadership and an opportunity to influence product strategy from a design perspective. Collaboration will be broad, extending across multiple departments.

Operations Impact: While this is a design role, its impact is deeply intertwined with operational success and GTM strategy. A well-designed platform leads to:

• User Adoption & Retention: Intuitive design reduces friction, encouraging users (educators, administrators, students) to adopt and continue using the Reach platform, directly impacting user engagement metrics.

• Efficiency Gains: Clear data displays and streamlined workflows enable educators to make decisions faster, improving their operational efficiency.

• Market Competitiveness: A strong, user-friendly UX/UI is a key differentiator in the competitive assessment software market, contributing to market share and revenue growth.

• Scalability: A robust design system built from scratch will enable faster future development and feature additions, supporting the company's growth trajectory.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership in Design: Opportunity to become the primary design authority for the Reach platform, potentially leading to a Design Lead or Manager role as the product and team grow.

• Strategic Influence: Direct involvement in defining the product's user experience from its inception, offering a chance to shape product strategy and roadmap.

• Cross-Functional Expertise: Deep collaboration with Product, Engineering, and Psychometrics will foster a broad understanding of product development lifecycle and educational assessment domain.

• Skill Development: Opportunity to hone skills in building design systems, conducting greenfield research, and designing for complex data-rich applications.

• Industry Impact: Contributing to tools that directly impact student learning and educational outcomes provides a significant sense of purpose and industry contribution.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "0-to-1" nature of this role is a significant growth opportunity. It's akin to building an operations function from scratch – requiring strategic foresight, process definition, and hands-on execution. This experience is highly transferable to operations leadership roles where establishing frameworks and driving efficiency are paramount.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Fully Remote. This role is designated as TELECOMMUTE, allowing the designer to work from any location within the United States.

Office Location(s): United States. While remote, there may be occasional travel requirements for off-site team meetings or conferences, suggesting opportunities for in-person collaboration and networking.

Workspace Context:

• Remote Collaboration: Expect to utilize a suite of digital collaboration tools (e.g., Slack, Zoom, Figma) for communication, design reviews, and team meetings.

• Focused Work Environment: The "Focus Wednesdays" and flexible work arrangements indicate a culture that supports deep work and minimizes disruptive meetings, ideal for complex design tasks.

• Cross-Functional Interaction: The role necessitates consistent interaction with product managers, engineers, and psychometricians, fostering a dynamic and collaborative work environment despite the remote setup.

Work Schedule: Standard full-time hours (approximately 40 hours per week), with flexibility in scheduling to accommodate different time zones within the US and personal needs, balanced by the requirement for collaborative sessions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The remote nature of this role requires strong self-discipline and proactive communication. For operations professionals, this mirrors the need for effective remote management of processes, data, and cross-functional teams, relying heavily on asynchronous communication and clear documentation.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A brief call with a recruiter to assess basic qualifications, cultural fit, and salary expectations.

• Portfolio Presentation & Design Challenge: A dedicated session where candidates present their portfolio, focusing on their "0-to-1" build experience. This may be followed by a take-home design challenge or an on-the-spot problem-solving exercise related to the Reach platform's user experience.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Interviews with key stakeholders, including the Product Director, Engineering Leads, and potentially members of the Psychometrics team, to evaluate collaboration skills, technical understanding, and strategic thinking.

• Final Interview: Potentially a conversation with a higher-level executive or final decision-maker to confirm fit and alignment with company vision.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Highlight "0-to-1" Experience: Dedicate a significant portion of your portfolio to projects where you established design systems, UX frameworks, or entire product experiences from scratch. Clearly articulate the challenges and your approach to creating structure from ambiguity.

• Showcase Process, Not Just Pixels: For each case study, emphasize your research methodology, iterative design process, problem-solving approach, and how you incorporated user feedback.

• Quantify Impact: Where possible, include metrics that demonstrate the success of your designs (e.g., improved usability scores, increased task completion rates, positive user feedback). For this role, focus on how your design decisions contribute to user adoption and operational efficiency for educators.

• Design System Examples: Provide clear examples of your design system components, their usage guidelines, and how they contribute to consistency and development efficiency.

• Tailor Your Narrative: Be prepared to articulate how your skills and experience directly address the specific needs of building the Reach platform from the ground up, especially in the context of educational assessment.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Research Riverside Insights, its existing assessment products (CogAT, Iowa Assessments), and the general landscape of educational assessment software. Consider the needs of students, educators, and administrators.

• Focus on Core Responsibilities: Anticipate challenges that test your ability to define information architecture, design data-heavy interfaces, create user flows for multi-role platforms, and design accessible, responsive UIs.

• Emphasize Strategic Thinking: For any design challenge, focus not just on the visual solution but on the strategic reasoning behind your choices, linking them back to user needs and business objectives.

• Prepare to Discuss Ambiguity: Be ready to discuss how you approach problems with incomplete information and how you establish direction and structure in ambiguous situations.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on a "0-to-1" build means interviewers will be looking for strategic thinkers who can establish foundations. This is highly relevant for operations roles where building processes, defining KPIs, and setting up systems from scratch are common tasks. Candidates should be prepared to discuss their frameworks for tackling such challenges.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: This is explicitly mentioned as the required tool for flows, wireframes, and interactive prototypes from low to high fidelity. Proficiency is essential.

• Design System Tools: While not specified, expect to use Figma's component features and potentially other tools for documentation and governance of the design system.

• Prototyping Tools: Figma's prototyping capabilities are key, but experience with other tools like InVision, Adobe XD, or Axure may be beneficial for understanding different approaches.

Analytics & Reporting:

• UX Analytics Tools: Familiarity with tools that track user behavior, task success rates, and usability metrics (e.g., Hotjar, Pendo, Google Analytics for web-based products) would be advantageous for defining and tracking UX success metrics.

• Data Visualization Tools: Experience with tools or principles for presenting complex data clearly, which will be crucial for designing score reports and dashboards.

CRM & Automation:

• While not directly part of the UX/UI designer's core toolset, understanding how the design integrates with CRM (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot) or marketing automation platforms (e.g., Marketo, Pardot) could be beneficial for understanding the broader user journey, especially for administrator/educator interactions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit mention of Figma highlights its central role. For operations professionals, understanding how design tools like Figma integrate with project management (e.g., Jira, Asana) and documentation platforms (e.g., Confluence, Notion) is crucial for seamless cross-functional collaboration.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Impact-Driven: A strong focus on delivering tangible results for students and educators, aligning with a mission to improve educational outcomes.

• Solution-Oriented: A proactive approach to problem-solving, tackling complex challenges with innovative and effective solutions.

• Collaborative: A commitment to teamwork, working closely with diverse functional teams to achieve common goals.

• User-Centric: Prioritizing the needs and experiences of students, educators, and administrators in all design and product decisions.

• Data-Informed: Utilizing research and metrics to guide strategy and measure success, reflecting an analytical and evidence-based approach.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: The role demands close partnership with Product, Engineering, and Psychometrics, fostering an environment where design is integrated early and often into the product development lifecycle.

• Iterative Feedback: Expect a culture of continuous feedback and iteration, where designs are shared, reviewed, and refined based on input from various stakeholders and user testing.

• Shared Ownership: As a "0-to-1" build, there's an implicit shared ownership of the Reach platform's success among the core development team, encouraging proactive contribution and problem-solving.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values of being "Impact-Driven" and "Solution-Oriented" are directly transferable to operations roles. Operations professionals are constantly tasked with driving impact (e.g., revenue growth, cost reduction, efficiency) and solving complex business problems. This role's cultural alignment suggests a workplace where such contributions are valued.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Building from Scratch: Establishing a comprehensive design system, UX framework, and interaction patterns for a new platform with no existing legacy. This requires significant initiative and strategic foresight.

• High Ambiguity: Operating in a "0-to-1" environment means dealing with undefined requirements, evolving priorities, and a lack of pre-existing structure.

• Balancing User Needs: Designing for multiple distinct user groups (students, educators, administrators) with potentially conflicting needs and technical proficiencies.

• Data Complexity: Translating complex assessment data into clear, actionable insights that are both informative and easy to understand for non-technical users.

• Remote Collaboration: Maintaining strong communication, collaboration, and alignment with distributed team members.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Design System Leadership: Opportunity to define and lead the evolution of a core design asset that will scale with the company.

• Product Strategy Influence: Direct input into the strategic direction of a new, high-priority product.

• Domain Expertise: Deep dive into the K-12 assessment and psychometrics domain, gaining specialized industry knowledge.

• Cross-Functional Skill Development: Enhanced understanding of product management, engineering processes, and educational research methodologies.

• Mentorship: Potential to mentor junior designers or set design standards as the team grows.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "High Ambiguity" challenge is a hallmark of many operations roles, especially in fast-growing companies or during periods of transformation. Successfully navigating this challenge demonstrates resilience, adaptability, and strategic problem-solving skills that are highly sought after in operations leadership.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you were responsible for building a design system or UX framework from scratch. What was your process, what were the key challenges, and how did you ensure adoption?" (Focus on process, methodology, and overcoming ambiguity.)

• "How do you approach user research when starting a '0-to-1' product build with limited initial user access? What methods would you prioritize?" (Demonstrate your strategy for discovery and validation in a greenfield scenario.)

• "Imagine designing an assessment dashboard for educators. What key data points would you prioritize, and how would you ensure they are actionable and easy to understand?" (Showcase your ability to translate complex data into user-centric, efficient outputs.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "Riverside Insights aims to achieve real results for students and educators. How does your design philosophy align with this mission?" (Connect your user-centric approach to educational impact.)

• "This role requires working closely with Psychometrics and Engineering. How do you foster effective collaboration with technical and subject matter experts, especially in a remote environment?" (Highlight your communication and cross-functional collaboration strategies.)

• "How do you measure the success of your UX/UI designs, particularly in a new product where established metrics may not exist?" (Focus on defining and tracking relevant KPIs, akin to operations metrics.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, use a clear problem-solution-result structure. Emphasize the "why" behind your design decisions.

• Highlight Your Role: Clearly articulate your specific contributions, especially in "0-to-1" projects where your leadership was critical.

• Showcase the Design System: Dedicate a section to your design system work, explaining its architecture, components, and benefits for development efficiency and consistency.

• Demonstrate Data Visualization Skills: Present examples of how you’ve made complex data understandable and actionable.

• Be Ready for Deep Dives: Prepare to discuss specific design choices, research findings, and trade-offs made during your projects.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview preparation advice emphasizes demonstrating strategic thinking, process definition, and the ability to handle ambiguity. These are precisely the skills operations professionals need to showcase when discussing their experience in building and optimizing processes, managing cross-functional projects, and driving business outcomes.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this UX/UI Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Workable.

• Tailor Your Resume: Highlight experience with "0-to-1" product builds, design systems, user research, and cross-functional collaboration. Use keywords from the job description such as "UX strategy," "Figma," "design system," and "greenfield."

• Curate Your Portfolio: Ensure your portfolio prominently features case studies demonstrating your ability to build foundational design frameworks and systems from scratch. Prioritize projects showcasing complex data visualization and multi-stakeholder design.

• Prepare Your Narrative: Practice articulating your design process, decision-making rationale, and contributions to past projects, especially those involving ambiguity and greenfield development. Be ready to explain how your work drives user adoption and operational efficiency.

• Research Riverside Insights: Understand their mission, existing products, and the educational assessment market to demonstrate genuine interest and contextualize your experience during interviews.

⚠️ 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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