ICON is looking for a highly motivated, very experienced Principal UX Designer. You will join a small, multidisciplinary team in ICON’s Design studio who are responsible for conceiving, designing, validating, and launching our world-class products and services. The Design team manages the entire company brand, product design, and marketing creative plus is responsible for many advanced R&D initiatives. As an ICONic in the Design studio, you will be a direct contributor to the development of entirely new products and processes to advance humankind’s ability to provide dignified, affordable, resilient, and sustainable shelter to the world. You will work as a creative director, program lead, team leader, and individual contributor  across a variety of projects, products and initiatives.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead the team of UX designers as a member of the Design Studio’s leadership team
• Collaborate directly with executives to invent, concept, design, engineer, and launch new products and services 
• Negotiating and collaborating cross functionally with various departments such as our Software, Controls, Hardware, Material Science, and PR/Comms to refine and execute the vision for our products, services, or brand 
• Collaborate with engineers, technologists, and internal experts to optimize designs for function, aesthetics, and production
• Collaborate with product teams to define research goals and identify target users
• Work directly with the Director of Design on new product strategy
• Conduct generative research to identify industry opportunities and de-risk product development efforts
• Create research plans and conduct discovery research for emerging technologies
• Create, test, and refine UX ideas for products where users and technology together closely
• Share research insights regularly with the design, development, product teams
• Providing creative direction and mentoring to designers
• Create and iterate client-facing deliverables on time across multiple platforms, including web, print, digital and social
• Advocating for our users at every stage of research, design, and development
• Developing deep technical knowledge in areas outside your realm of expertise to understand other teams’ design constraints and challenges in service of creating seamless processes and production solutions
• Must be willing to perform a wide range of tasks on a daily basis (e.g. Transition from studio work to field work at a moment’s notice)

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• 18+ years of professional work experience as a multidisciplinary designer, high level UX designer, or creative director
• A very high degree of motivation, curiosity, passion and creativity
• An expert in Design Research, Interaction Design, and Visual UI Design
• Design craftsmanship - able to create high quality design work and then manage production of design work through development to ensure the proper outcome
• Proven track record of designing and implementing user and usability research studies
• Experience in qualitative research methods such as contextual inquiry/ethnographic field research, heuristic evaluations, in person and remote usability testing, & discovery based research with a focus on delivering insights that directly inform product roadmaps
• Experience with participant recruitment and protocol development
• Exceptional at empathic listening, identifying users’ needs, delivering an unbiased/data driven view of users, and translating user insights into action items for product teams through cohesive storytelling and knowledge sharing
• Experience managing design/creative projects from concept to release
• Demonstrated knowledge of various technologies (web based UX/UI, application based UX/UI, conversational UI, voice UI, AI, etc.)
• Expert understanding of effective design, usability heuristics and UX best practices
• Proficiency using standard creative software, such as the Adobe Creative Cloud suite
• A deep appreciation for aesthetics + functionality
• Adept at communicating in a collaborative team environment and seeking optimum solutions with other team members
• Strong typography and layout skills, presentation and storytelling skills, verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to prioritize and stay cool in a fast paced, dynamic start-up environment 
• BFA or BS or equivalent in design or user experience design

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Experience working in a design studio environment with other types of designers +  familiarity with design working processes
• Previous design consultancy/studio/agency experience, and/or a resourceful innovative nature with an ability to streamline or develop efficient processes
• Experience working on agile teams delivering value in digital products strongly preferred
• Familiarity with traditional graphic design production processes
• A hunger for learning, personal growth, and the pursuit of craft
• Experience creating new interaction patterns and new forms of UI
• Experience bringing new products to market (concept to production)