Sr. Product Designer, User

About Niche

Niche is the leader in school search. Our mission is to make researching and enrolling in schools easy, transparent, and free. With in-depth profiles on every school and college in America, 140 million reviews and ratings, and powerful search tools, we help millions of people find the right school for them. We also help thousands of schools recruit more best-fit students, by highlighting what makes them great and making it easier to visit and apply.

Niche is all about finding where you belong, and that mission inspires how we operate every day. We want Niche to be a place where people truly enjoy working and can thrive professionally.

About The Role

We are looking for a Senior Product Designer who will define product problems and opportunities, conducting/participating in user research, analyzing how the user’s encounter with the product, and the overall user experience and visual aspect of a product. You will define and create a cohesive user experience throughout the full suite of Niche products, impacting the school and college search of millions of people each year. You’ll design creative solutions to complex problems and bring them to life as easy-to-use and delightful user flows and interfaces.

In this role, you should be an analytical, empathetic, and creative designer who is excited to understand user needs. You're passionate about user research and gathering insights to inspire and inform your design as well as working together with Product Managers and other designers to transform those findings into impactful solutions. You should be a positive leader, inspiring creativity and providing constructive and thoughtful feedback to other team members. 

At Niche, Product Designers are part of the Design team as well as cross-functional product teams, where you will collaborate with Designers, Researchers, Engineers, and Product Managers to take features from concept to launch—from creating user flows and wireframes to building user interface mockups and prototypes for Niche products. A strong portfolio of successful UX and UI design is essential. This role reports directly to the Manager of UI/UX Design.

Responsibilities

• Thinking: Work closely with Product, Research, Engineering, and other Design Team members to apply a human-centered design approach and visualize the future of Niche. Lead design thinking strategy on cross-functional product teams, handling complex and business-critical projects.
• Research: Partner with Product and Research to conduct user interviews and user testing, determine common pain points, define the problems and opportunities, product improvements, and priorities. Conduct research independently to inform design decisions and validate potential product changes. Socializes those learnings with the rest of product design to enhance everyone's understanding of our products and users. 
• Craft: Design flows, wireframes, interactive prototypes and high-fidelity mock-ups, utilizing existing patterns and components. Contribute to the design systems and tools used by the Design team, redefining the bounds of convention when necessary, and raising the bar as a model for others to follow.
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communicator. Storyteller. Showcase your vision and rationale behind design decisions to stakeholders and your team. Communicates complex ideas, goals, and problems in a way that is accessible even to those unfamiliar with the project. Presents ideas and arguments logically and concisely. 
• Culture: Contribute to a collaborative culture by asking for and offering feedback from other product designers and cross-functional teammates and be an active leader on the Design Team as a source of support and knowledge. Can shift gears easily and cope with change.
• Drive: Enjoys working hard. Is action- and solution-oriented. Proactively seek out additional data, context, and knowledge to find the best solution and work through complexity to maintain momentum. Enthusiastic about improving yourself, the team, and the company. 

What You Will Do

During the First Month:

• Learn about Niche by meeting with various team members to learn more about our company through our Onboarding meetings
• Collaborate with various team members to learn about how your role fits within the team
• Attend onboarding sessions to better understand our internal processes and learn about the company
• Collaborate with other designers to begin to understand our workflow, design system, and tooling
• Shadow design team members to learn more about