Principal Product Designer

Job Title: Principal Product Designer 

Location: U.S (Remote)

Pearson 
Pearson is a product company whose mission is to have a direct relationship with millions of lifelong learners. As the world’s learning company with more than 22,500 employees operating in 70 countries, we provide content, assessment, and digital services to learners, educational institutions, employers, governments and other partners globally. We are committed to helping equip learners with the skills they need to enhance their world of opportunities. We believe that wherever learning flourishes so do people. 

At Pearson you will be challenged in an organization that values vision, execution, and persistence. You will take ownership of our product by solving complex problems in simple, elegant ways. Product Designers at Pearson are embedded within product teams that are deeply collaborative, and each member is directly responsible for the team’s success. 

 

Principal Product Designer 

We are looking for a Principal Product Designer with a portfolio demonstrating high expertise in both desktop and native mobile projects, complex platforms, and processes which can be articulated through presentation and storytelling. We see Principal Product Designers as experts in their field, who can raise the bar as well as produce high quality design. While they are individual contributors, they lead by example and mentor more junior designers.  

• As a Principal Product Designer, you have: 

• 5+ years of relevant, demonstrable experience in Product Design as an individual contributor, producing seamless experiences and visually pleasing designs  

• A good level of business acumen, achieved through your experience in the tech/product industry  

• Ability to find solutions that take into account reusability, feasibility, and both customer and business needs  

• Experience working with Design Systems  

• Experience working in Agile as part of a product and technology team 

 
About the role 

This position reports directly to the Manager of Product Design within the Higher Ed UX Team, focusing on the design and development of higher education courseware for students and instructors. The role centers on enhancing the user experience for a comprehensive suite of digital academic tools used in university and K-12 settings, including eTextbooks, interactive study materials, AI-supported learning modules, practice assessments, and personalized learning journeys. The Higher Ed UX Team supports both desktop and mobile experiences, ensuring courseware meets the evolving needs of global higher education audiences. 

 

As a Principal Product Designer within the Higher Ed UX Team, you will: 

• Partner with Product colleagues to define experience strategies and shape the roadmap for digital academic tools, ensuring seamless end-to-end user journeys across platforms. 

• Lead design execution for higher education courseware, from initial wireframes to polished high-fidelity prototypes, while setting the creative direction and overseeing the quality of outputs from your UX team. 

• Work in partnership with engineering to support the implementation of your team’s designs, making certain that solutions are both user-centric and technically feasible. 

• Present and communicate UX strategies to a wide audience, including senior leadership, using engaging prototypes, presentations, and storytelling methods. 

• Build strong, collaborative relationships across product, engineering, content, and marketing teams as well as with fellow designers and researchers. 

• Champion the use of user testing for new features and learning journeys, collaborating with product and research teams to design and run effective evaluations. 

• Facilitate cross-functional workshops and design thinking activities to unlock creative ideas and solve complex challenges in higher education digital products. 

• Lead by influence, fostering the skills, approaches, and mindsets needed to drive innovation and meet the evolving goals of the Higher Ed UX Team. 

• Take a long-term view of key design and technology decisions, ensuring the academic tools remain adaptable, scalable, and relevant for global education audiences. 

• Proactively identify when to engage specialists in UX research, accessibility, illustration, or other areas, and help build a business case for additional resources to support courseware development. 

 

Compensation at Pearson is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience,