Lead Product Designer (UX) - Freelance

ustwo is looking for a freelance lead level Product Designer to join the design team in our New York Studio.

As Design Lead at ustwo, you’ll drive projects providing creative direction, inspiration and oversight working collaboratively within cross discipline teams. You know when to get hands-on with the detail yourself, and when to set your teams up for success by delegating work, while directing and nurturing. You are passionate about creating world class products and have the experience to navigate complex problems, effectively managing teams and clients. You’ll be responsible for ensuring that our designers are learning and developing through role modeling, and you’ll provide guidance and support to individual designers and teams, bestowing vision and direction during projects; from discovering value, validating propositions all the way through to delivering product and services.

You will often be hands-on during projects, working with other designers, developers, and delivery coaches to define, build, and iterate solutions for our fantastic clients and partners. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to work with other senior members of the design team, helping us improve process, approaches, and strategy for both the design team and the studio as a whole.

ustwo is known for exceptional design craft, we are looking for a Design Lead that can help lead teams to create experiences that not only express brands within products but resonate emotionally with audiences. 

This is a 3 month, full-time/40-hour a week contract position starting end of March and lasting through the end of June. This role is expected to be fully remote, EST time zone. Please provide a link to your online portfolio. 

REQUIREMENTS

• Proven experience creating world class products for leading brands
• Comfortable, confident and competent at managing and directing individuals and teams.
• Impeccable presentation skills with the ability to communicate ideas clearly to both clients and internal teams. 
• Able to manage multiple projects and organise your time effectively.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. 
• Experience carrying out strategic opportunity discovery work to frame and communicate challenges and opportunities.
• A natural and inclusive collaborator who can speak to a range of professionals from different backgrounds
• Someone who gives and receives quality feedback in equal measures.

YOU ARE...

• A brilliant and accomplished designer with a sharp eye for detail and proven experience working on things that exist in the real world, not only as prototypes.
• An inspirational leader with a positive attitude who is  full of ideas and methods to solve a variety of problems.
• Comfortable, confident and competent directing individuals and teams.
• Comfortable with experimentation and clear understanding when to experiment and where to use defined solutions.
• Experienced and confident in visualising and prototyping concepts fast to communicate ideas.
• Well versed in conducting research, creating and validating ideas, creating prototypes and make confident recommendations to our businesses.
• Someone who takes a wide strategic view of problems, seeking multiple inputs and solutions and challenge the thinking of the teams and clients you work with.
• Someone that enjoys being hands-on. We believe lead designers shouldn’t be separated from the reality of making things.

YOU HAVE…

• 7+ years experience working in product or at a reputable agency with experience creating world class products in multiple verticals. 
• Deep knowledge and expertise in user experience, research and product design and solid understanding across other design disciplines - Brand strategy, Business design, product ownership.
• Exceptional understanding of how behaviour and context impacts design and proficiency in, and examples of, how you resolve difficult design challenges.
• A clear written and verbal communication style, and a natural storyteller and presenter. 
• Impeccable knowledge of design tools and workflows.
• A portfolio that demonstrates your experience and showcases the quality and variety of your work. 

ABOUT USTWO

ustwo NYC combines expertise in product and service development, ventures and gaming to make a meaningful impact on the challenges companies and individuals face in contemporary culture.

Over the last 5 years, we have been carving out a reputation in the US in the space between digital product development and new experience design. Our deep product development knowledge, our design heritage and our leadership at the edges of technology and culture, means we are capable of providing fresh creative and strategic direction on genuinely new experiences, as well as deep technical expertise on implementation - never disconnecting strategy from implementation.

This combination of capabilities is rare and valuable, particularly in a market that’s seeing ever-increasing convergence of entertainment, gaming, content, commerce, and platforms.

ustwo is committed to making a measurable positive impact on people's everyday lives. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We believe diverse teams help us make better products and actively hire for cultural growth. We welcome people of all ages, stories and backgrounds. We provide everyone with equal access to professional development.