Lead UX Designer

Location: Chicago, IL area (hybrid — 2–3 days/week onsite)

Our client, a Fortune 500 industrial distribution leader, is looking for a Lead UX Designer to own the end-to-end design of new customer-facing interfaces supporting their industrial vending and inventory management platform — a solution deployed directly at customer sites that allows field personnel to access products via card-swipe kiosks. This is a highly visible, high-impact opportunity to shape a product experience touching a broad field-based customer base.

This role sits at the intersection of design, product, and engineering, and is ideal for a designer who wants to own the full user journey — from flow and content to interaction design — while also mentoring and elevating junior design talent on the team.

• Own the full user experience for new customer-facing kiosk/vending interfaces — including user flows, content strategy, interaction design, and visual design
• Partner closely with Product Management and Engineering to translate business and user needs into scalable, intuitive digital solutions
• Guide, mentor, and provide design direction to junior designers on the team, raising the bar on craft and process
• Bring a point of view on how AI can enhance and inform the product experience — this isn't an AI-heavy role today, but leadership is looking for someone who can help shape that evolution over time
• Contribute to a growing, high-visibility corner of the broader UX organization

• Strong, hands-on UX design craft — this is a player-coach role, not a pure management position
• Prior experience leading or mentoring other designers, even informally
• Comfort partnering directly with engineering and product stakeholders in an Agile environment
• Full-time, in-house industry experience — candidates coming primarily from a consulting background have not been a strong fit for this team historically
• Familiarity with or curiosity about applying AI/emerging tech to product design (a plus, not required)
• Must be local to the Chicago metro area or open to relocation

While this role is scoped as a strong individual design lead, there is a potential longer-term path toward a formal people-management role for the right person.