Lead UX Designer

Title: Lead UX Designer 
Location: DC/Wilmington, DE/NYC/Philadelphia
Long term

Key-skills: UX/UI Design, User-Centered Design, Design Systems, Component Libraries, User Research, Usability Testing, Prototyping, Figma, FigJam, Jira, Confluence, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Information Architecture, Accessibility, Enterprise Application Design, Requirements Scoping, Task Management, Design Strategy
 

25% Travel required. Must be local to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, specifically near Wilmington, DE, NYC, D.C., or Philadelphia. Train travel is required to support local workshops and engage with employees on premise and on trains. The opportunity also requires in-person participation for PI Planning activities that happen quarterly.

As a Lead UX / UI Designer on an agile team, you will play a crucial role in leading a team to design intuitive, user-centered custom applications that empower our operations staff to keep trains running smoothly and on time. You will collaborate closely with product owners, researchers, developers, engineers, and product managers, to create digital experiences and refine components that contribute to a design system, ensuring consistency and scalability across all our digital products.

Key Qualifications & Expectations:

• Senior-level UX/UI expertise with proven ability to manage and streamline communication across a cross-functional agile team
• Advanced front-end UI skills with a solid understanding of implementation constraints and best practices
• Proficiency in defining, scoping, and managing design tasks within Jira
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability in meeting team commitments and deadlines
• Ability to clearly articulate and advocate for design decisions, educating product owners and stakeholders on the “why” behind design and process
• Comfortable balancing structure with flexibility to adapt to evolving team and business needs
• Deep experience creating, maintaining, and scaling design systems and component libraries
• Experience conducting user research, usability testing, and synthesizing insights into actionable improvements
• Commitment to agile practices, including active participation in standups and all team ceremonies

Role Overview:

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior UX/UI Designer to join a fast-paced, collaborative agile team. This role requires a strong communicator who can effectively bridge design, product, and engineering while driving clarity and alignment across initiatives. You will play a key role in building and evolving scalable design systems, crafting high-quality front-end experiences, and ensuring design work is clearly defined and tracked within Jira.

Success in this role requires not only deep design expertise, but also the ability to educate and influence—helping product owners and stakeholders understand the rationale behind design decisions and processes. At the same time, you must remain adaptable, responding to shifting priorities and team needs with a solutions-oriented mindset.

Although the role is primarily remote, candidates must be based in or willing to travel within the Northeast corridor for periodic in-person collaboration. This includes conducting hands-on user research and testing sessions with employees, as well as attending PI Planning events. Active participation in daily standups and all agile ceremonies is essential to support the team’s ongoing delivery and continuous improvement.

Basic Qualifications

• 6 years of experience in UX / UI design, with a strong portfolio showcasing user-centered high-fidelity designs for complex applications.
• Must have a strong, confident voice to advocate for and defend design decisions and processes.
• Must have experience working with and designing components and templates within a design system to create consistency and reusability across products.
• Must have expertise working in agile environments and following agile methodologies.
• Proficiency in tools such as Jira, Figma, Figjam, confluence, prototyping, testing.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to present and advocate for design decisions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with rail industry or complex operations and backend systems.
• Experience designing processes, software, or applications for internal audiences in enterprise organizations.
• Familiarity with the usability testing process and tools such as: dScout, Maze, User Testing, or UserZoom
• Knowledge of accessibility standards and best practices for inclusive design.