Lead UI/UX Designer

As the UX Lead for our ServiceNow platform, you will drive consistency across our UX and UI, document and own the standards that get us there, and build the design system and practice that make great experiences repeatable rather than accidental. This is a hands on leadership role. You will set the design direction and build it, in UI Builder and in React. This is a pivotal moment for experience on our platform. We are raising our ambition from enterprise tolerable to consumer grade, moving beyond a traditional ITSM mindset to design solutions our users genuinely want to will own the success and adoption of what we ship, not just the design behind it. You will establish a formal UX practice on the platform from the ground up and lead the designers and developers who join it. Strong stakeholder management and communication are central to the role. You will be the advocate for experience who aligns product, engineering, and business around a shared bar for quality, and holds us to it. What you will do UX Standards and Consistency • Own and document the UX and UI standards for the platform, and drive their adoption across every team building on ServiceNow. • Build and own a design system and component library so that consistency is built in, not policed after the fact. • Establish design patterns, guidelines, and reusable components that raise the floor on every solution we ship. • Define what “good” looks like on the platform and hold teams to it through design reviews and clear standards. Consumer Grade Experience and Adoption • Move the platform beyond a traditional ITSM mindset and design solutions where the experience is consumer grade. • Own the success and adoption of the solutions we ship. Define what adoption looks like, measure it, and use it to drive design decisions. • Partner with product and business teams to make sure we are solving the real user problem, not just delivering the requested feature. • Bring an outside-in view of quality, benchmarked against the consumer products our users actually compare us to. Hands On Design and Build • Design and build experiences directly in UI Builder and the Now Experience Framework. • Write front-end code in React to build components, prototypes, and production experiences where native tooling is not enough. • Move fluidly between design and implementation so that what gets shipped matches what was designed. • Set front-end engineering standards for the UX work on the platform. User Research and Accessibility • Stand up a user research practice. Talk to real users, run usability testing, and bring evidence to design decisions rather than opinion. • Own accessibility on the platform. Make sure what we build meets WCAG standards and works for everyone, and build accessibility into the design system rather than retrofitting it. • Turn research and accessibility from checkboxes into a genuine part of how the team works. Mobile Experience • Extend the same consumer grade bar to mobile. Our mobile experience is a strength today and this role keeps it that way as the platform grows. • Design and build mobile experiences that are first class, not afterthoughts, across ServiceNow mobile apps and mobile web. Building the UX Practice and Team • Establish a formal UX practice on the platform from scratch: the standards, the tools, the rituals, and the ways of working. • Hire, lead, and grow a team of UX designers and developers, and build a culture where craft and user obsession are the norm. • Mentor the team and raise the level of design and front-end work across everyone building on the platform. Stakeholder Management and Communication • Be the advocate for experience across product, engineering, operations, and business, and align them around a shared bar for quality. • Communicate design decisions clearly to technical and non-technical audiences, including executive leadership, and bring people along rather than mandating. • Make the case for investment in UX and show the return through adoption and outcomes. Minimum Qualifications • Deep hands on experience with ServiceNow native UX capabilities, including UI Builder and the Now Experience Framework, across workspaces, portals, and Employee Center. • Hands on front-end development experience with React, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, with the ability to build production experiences directly. • Proven track record building and owning a design system and component library adopted across multiple teams. • Experience establishing and documenting UX and UI standards and driving their adoption at scale. • Hands on user research experience, including usability testing and translating findings into design decisions. • Strong accessibility expertise, including WCAG 2.1 / 2.2 and designing for assistive technologies. • A portfolio that shows consumer grade enterprise experiences, and the judgment to move a platform beyond legacy and ITSM era patterns. • Proven people leadership. You have built or led a team of designers and developers. • Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, including with executive leadership. • Experience owning the adoption and success of what you ship, and measuring it. • Proficiency with Figma or equivalent design and prototyping tools. • 8+ years in UX and UI design, with meaningful time in a lead or player-coach capacity. Preferred Qualifications • ServiceNow certifications related to UX, UI Builder, or application development (e.g., CSA, CAD). • Hands on experience with ServiceNow mobile, including Now Mobile and the mobile app builder. • Experience standing up a UX or design ops practice inside an organization that previously had none. • Experience turning around the reputation of a platform or product that had outgrown its original design. • Familiarity with Employee Center Pro intranet and portal experiences. • Experience with design system tooling such as Storybook, design tokens, and component documentation. • Interaction and motion design skills, and UX writing or content design experience. • Experience working with large scale enterprise design systems.