Sr. UX Designer- HYBRID

Overview

Placement Type:
Temporary
Salary: $75-80 hourly

Start Date:

Aug 3, 2026

Location:

Chicago Area (Hybrid - In-office Tuesday-Thursday)

Aquent Studios is seeking an experienced and strategic Lead UX Designer to support a leading enterprise client in the financial services industry. In this role, you'll own the end‑to‑end user experience design process—from understanding customer needs and business objectives through design execution, validation, and post‑launch optimization.

You'll collaborate closely with cross‑functional partners including Product Management, Engineering, Marketing, Content Strategy, and Research to create intuitive, user‑centered digital experiences. This role requires a balance of strategic thinking and hands‑on design execution, with the ability to influence stakeholders, navigate ambiguity, and advocate for the user while aligning with business goals.

As part of your day‑to‑day work, you'll lead discovery activities, facilitate design workshops, conduct user research, develop journey maps, wireframes, prototypes, and high‑fidelity designs, while contributing to and evolving scalable design systems. You'll also leverage AI thoughtfully to improve research, design workflows, and team efficiency while maintaining a strong human‑centered design approach.

• Partner with Product, Engineering, Marketing, and cross‑functional stakeholders to define UX strategies that support business objectives and product roadmaps.
• Lead UX initiatives from discovery through delivery, ensuring high‑quality user experiences across digital products and platforms.
• Evaluate incoming design requests, providing thoughtful recommendations around prioritization, feasibility, user impact, and business value.
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders, confidently influencing decisions while balancing customer needs, technical constraints, and business priorities.
• Plan and conduct user research, including competitive analysis, heuristic evaluations, stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiry, and usability testing.
• Translate research insights into customer journey maps, service blueprints, personas, user flows, and actionable design recommendations.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to define problem statements, business requirements, KPIs, and success metrics.
• Design intuitive user experiences using Figma, producing everything from low‑fidelity wireframes to polished, interactive prototypes.
• Contribute to and maintain scalable design systems, ensuring consistency, accessibility, and usability across products.
• Partner with UX Writers, Researchers, Product Managers, and Engineering teams to deliver cohesive end‑to‑end customer experiences.
• Leverage AI tools where appropriate to enhance research, ideation, design exploration, documentation, and workflow efficiency while exercising sound judgment around responsible use.
• Participate in design critiques, mentor peers, and contribute to the continued evolution of team processes and best practices.
• Adapt quickly to changing priorities and incorporate feedback from legal, product, engineering, marketing, and business stakeholders.
• Stay current on emerging UX methodologies, accessibility standards, design technologies, and AI capabilities.

• 7+ years of UX/UI design experience with demonstrated success delivering customer‑centered digital products.
• Expertise across the full UX lifecycle, from research and strategy through interaction design, visual design, testing, and implementation.
• Advanced proficiency with Figma, including component libraries, prototyping, and scalable design systems.
• Strong understanding of user‑centered design principles, information architecture, interaction design, and accessibility best practices.
• Experience conducting qualitative and quantitative UX research and translating insights into actionable design solutions.
• Proven ability to thrive in Agile product development environments while partnering with Product and Engineering teams.
• Experience using analytics and user behavior tools (such as Hotjar, Full Story, or similar platforms) to inform design decisions.
• Strong communication, facilitation, presentation, and…