Sr. UX Designer (Product Designer)

Business Technology Integrators (BTI) is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) with over 25 years of experience delivering innovative IT solutions to the Federal Government. We are committed to excellence, innovation, and supporting mission-critical programs that serve our nation.


POSITION SUMMARY:

The Product Designer is a member of the Innovation Forward Labs Product Team in Higher Ed, responsible for leading end-to-end design across the institution’s student-, faculty-, and staff-facing digital experience ecosystem. The Product Designer works daily with product managers, application developers, QA testers, and institutional stakeholders to deliver user-centered design solutions that improve student outcomes, faculty experience, and administrative efficiency. The role encompasses the full product design lifecycle — from discovery and user research through interaction design, prototyping, and post-launch iteration — with deep integration into Agile development cycles. The ideal candidate brings significant experience designing within higher education technology environments, including direct familiarity with enterprise academic systems such as Learning Management Systems (LMS), Student Information Systems (SIS), and Constituent (or Customer) Relationship Management (CRM) platforms.

Responsibilities

Product Vision & Strategy

• Lead the design of digital products end-to-end — from problem definition and discovery through delivery and post-launch iteration — maintaining ownership of design outcomes across the full product lifecycle.

• Partner with product managers and engineering teams to define product direction, establish success metrics, and ensure design decisions align with both user needs and the institution’s strategic goals.

• Translate ambiguous or evolving requirements into clear, well-scoped design directions, proactively identifying gaps and aligning cross-functional teams throughout the process.

• Contribute to product roadmap planning and sprint ceremonies, representing the user perspective in prioritization decisions.

Higher Education Systems & Platform Integration

• Design and optimize user-facing experiences that integrate with or surface data from core university enterprise systems, including Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as D2L Brightspace, Blackboard, or Canvas; Student Information Systems (SIS) such as Ellucian Banner, Ellucian Colleague, or Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions; and CRM platforms such as Salesforce Education Cloud, Slate, or EAB Navigate.

• Understand the technical and institutional constraints of these systems and translate them into student- and staff-centered interface solutions that reduce friction and administrative overhead.

• Collaborate with academic technology, IT, enrollment management, and student affairs teams to ensure designed experiences are feasible within existing system architectures and data structures.

• Design seamless integrations and handoffs between academic platforms and student-facing portals, ensuring consistent and coherent experiences across the institution’s technology ecosystem.

• Apply working knowledge of higher education workflows — including course registration, degree planning, enrollment, advising, financial aid, and academic progress tracking — to design experiences that reflect real institutional processes.

AI-Augmented Design Workflow

• Incorporate AI tools actively throughout the design process, including the use of LLMs such as Claude and ChatGPT to clarify project scope, draft user flows and personas, write design specifications, and surface edge cases early in the process.

• Use AI-assisted prototyping tools such as Figma Make, Lovable, Replit, and Magic Patterns to generate and iterate on interactive flows rapidly, enabling faster stakeholder alignment and reducing development rework.

• Apply tools such as Variant UI to explore design variations and visual directions efficiently, compressing exploration timelines.

• Document and share AI-assisted workflows and prompts with the broader design team to improve collective design velocity.

Stakeholder Engagement & User Research

• Plan and facilitate UX discovery sessions, Design Thinking workshops, and user interviews with students, faculty, administrators, and institutional stakeholders to build a shared understanding of user needs and pain points.

• Serve as the design voice in cross-functional product discussions, ensuring user needs are represented in every product decision.

• Conduct usability testing at appropriate design stages, using findings to validate and refine design decisions prior to development.

• Perform competitive audits and ben