User Interface​/User Experience Lead Designer

CLA is a top 10 national professional services firm where our purpose is to create opportunities every day, for our clients, our people, and our communities through industry-focused wealth advisory, digital, audit, tax, consulting, and outsourcing services. Even with more than 8,500 people, 130 U.S. locations, and a global reach, we promise to know you and help you.

CLA is dedicated to building a culture that invites different beliefs and perspectives to the table, so we can truly know and help our clients, communities, and each other.

• Flexible PTO (designed to offer flexible time away for you!)
• Up to 12 weeks paid parental leave
• Paid Volunteer Time Off
• Mental health coverage
• Quarterly Wellness stipend
• Fertility benefits
• Complete list of benefits here

CLA is growing and seeking to hire an experienced User Interface/User Experience Lead Designer to join our talented Information Technology team. The position offers growth, flexibility and a collaborative work environment.

In this position you should have the following; excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate at all levels. Strong problem solving and creative skills and the ability to exercise sound judgment. Most important, demonstrate a high level of integrity and dependability with a strong sense of urgency and results-orientation.

The Lead Designer owns end-to-end design strategy and execution for a product domain within CLA's digital portfolio, translating complex professional services workflows into intuitive, scalable, and outcome-driven experiences.

As the senior design voice within cross-functional triads (Product, Engineering, UX), the Lead partners from problem definition through delivery and is accountable for business outcomes-not just deliverables. Design at this level functions as decision support, with outputs grounded in measurable business problems, validated user needs, and workflow adoption goals. The Lead challenges low-evidence work and elevates design as a strategic input to what gets built.

This role holds full design accountability for an assigned domain or horizontal strategy, setting standards for quality, practice maturity, and user outcomes. As a strategic individual contributor, the Lead manages stakeholder relationships, drives cross-team alignment, and represents UX in broader product discussions. The Lead also stewards design system integrity within their product surface and models best practices in continuous discovery, evidence-based decision-making, and modern prototyping approaches.

This role reports to the UX Manager and partners with peer Leads to ensure consistency across the UX organization.

• Own design strategy and prioritization for an assigned product domain
• Connect design work to measurable business and user outcomes (e.g., efficiency, adoption, quality)
• Generate and communicate trade-offs that inform domain-level decisions
• Challenge or descale work when impact is unclear to protect team focus

• Lead ongoing discovery to identify high-value problems before solutions are defined
• Translate insights into clear, actionable product direction
• Validate concepts through rapid testing, feedback, and available data
• Apply modern tools (including AI-assisted methods) to accelerate learning and execution

• Own end-to-end design of complex workflows across roles, systems, and dependencies
• Decompose ambiguous processes into usable, scalable solutions
• Design across product boundaries, considering data, rules, and operational impact
• Balance long-term experience quality with practical delivery constraints

• Partner with Product, Engineering, Research, and business stakeholders to shape direction
• Communicate design rationale in business terms (outcomes, value, risk, trade-offs)
• Represent UX in alignment and decision-making forums
• Navigate ambiguity and organizational complexity to drive progress

• Promote and apply design system standards within the domain
• Contribute improvements to shared patterns and components with clear rationale
• Deliver high-quality interaction and visual design
• Apply accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA) and behavioral design principles

• Mentor designers on craft, product thinking, and stakeholder engagement
• Contribute to team practices, standards, and knowledge sharing
• Support hiring, critique, and overall UX capability growth

• 6+ years of experience in UX or product design within complex enterprise environments
• Proven ownership of product domains or end-to-end workflows with measurable outcomes
• Experience working in cross-functional product teams to shape direction and delivery
• Strong portfolio demonstrating strategic thinking,…