Principal UX Designer

Position Summary

Cengage is seeking a Principal UX Designer to shape and elevate our web and digital experience through strong product thinking, design craft, and a focus on systems thinking and future-oriented experiences. In this role, you will define Web experience and strategy across complex systems, bringing clarity to ambiguity and translating business and product needs into intuitive, scalable solutions. You will operate across strategy and execution, helping teams move from vision to high-quality outcomes.

You will partner closely with Marketing, Product and Engineering to influence priorities, guide decisions, and ensure what we build delivers meaningful value to our users and the business.

• Define and drive Web experience strategy across key product areas, shaping direction and guiding high-impact decisions.
• Translate complex business, marketing and product requirements into clear, scalable, and forward-thinking user experiences.
• Use data, research, and experimentation to inform decisions and continuously innovate and improve experiences.
• Apply modern tools, including AI, to accelerate and reimagine how we design and build.
• Lead end-to-end design work, from discovery through delivery, ensuring quality and cohesion across the experience.
• Operate at both strategic and executional levels, contributing hands‑on design while guiding broader direction.
• Influence cross‑functional partners and leadership through clear communication, strong rationale, and thoughtful tradeoffs.
• Experience building and scaling experimentation programs, including hypothesis development, success metrics definition, and A/B or multivariate testing frameworks.

• 8+ years of experience in UX, Web Strategy, web and product design with deep expertise across UX, UI, and research.
• Consistent track record of driving ground‑breaking change in web or platform experiences.
• Strong ability to influence cross‑functional partners and shape marketing, product, engineering, and business roadmaps through design leadership.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating end‑to‑end web design work and measurable business impact.
• Proficiency in demonstrating data, analytics, and user research to inform decisions and optimize outcomes.
• Excellent communication and collaborator management skills, capable of influencing cross‑functional teams.
• Experience with front‑end development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and strong collaboration with engineering teams.
• Experience using innovative tools and workflows, including AI, to design, prototype, and build more efficiently.

Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws. Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at