Lead User Experience (UX) Designer - Digital Assets

Job description

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze℠, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses. Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment. Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship. Overall Purpose Zelle® moves over $1 trillion a year across more than 150 million enrolled accounts. In October 2025, Early Warning Services announced the next chapter: expanding the Zelle® network to enable cross-border money movement - bringing the same speed, trust, and simplicity Americans rely on domestically to international transfers. As Lead UX Designer on this initiative, you will define design direction for a product that does not yet fully exist. This is not a role for someone who wants to refine what already exists - it is for a designer energized by first-principles thinking, who can hold strategic ambiguity and still produce clear, considered work. In a network business, the quality of your guidelines and frameworks matters as much as the quality of your screens. You will work as an individual contributor while playing a leading role across the workstream : partnering with product, engineering, strategy, compliance, and partner financial institutions. Please either link to your online portfolio in your resume or upload a portfolio document as part of your application. The portfolio should showcase relevant design work, including wireframes, and end-to-end UX case studies. Essential Functions: Lead UX design direction for the cross-border payments initiative - from research and concept exploration through detailed interaction design and published UX standards Translate complex payment mechanics: cross-border rails, currency conversion, stablecoin infrastructure, compliance flows, into experiences that feel simple and trustworthy Develop UX guidelines and frameworks that partner financial institutions implement consistently across the Zelle® network Commission, participate in, and synthesize user research and usability testing to ground decisions in real behavior Proactively identify design risks, edge cases, and systemic issues - and drive resolution across teams Minimum Qualifications: 8+ years of UX/product design experience, with a portfolio showing leadership-level craft and strategic thinking across complex products Deep domain expertise in payments or fintech - direct experience with cross-border, international, or multi-currency flows strongly preferred Fluency in payment systems: rails, cross-border mechanics, the role of intermediaries, and how compliance constraints shape user experience Experience operating in a platform or network model - designing for ecosystems where you influence but do not directly control the end-user surface Strong visual design sensibility; proficiency in Figma and prototyping tools Exceptional written and verbal communication — clear, precise, and persuasive with non-design audiences Experience authoring UX guidelines or design standards for external or partner consumption Preferred Qualifications: ​ E xperience at a payments network, money transfer operator, or global digital wallet (e.g., Wise, PayPal, Remitly, Western Union, Visa, Mastercard, or equivalent) Exposure to stablecoin or blockchain-based payment infrastructure and its UX implications Experience designing for remittance or cross-border money movement, understanding the human and cultural dimensions of sending money internationally Familiarity with compliance UX patterns: KYC/AML flows, sanctions screening, disclosure requirements Prior design leadership experience: guiding designers, running critiques, or setting workstream direction Webflow or front-end familiarity (HTML/CSS) as a strong bonus What we value in this hire: Works at altitude: sets direction and frames problems, while staying connected to the craft details that make experiences trustworthy Has a deep intuition for the human dimension of cross-border payments: the anxiety, the stakes, the trust involved when someone sends money to family in another country Navigates complexity that does not resolve quickly: regulatory constraints, partner dependencies, technical infrastructure , with patience and rigor Can be the design voice in a room of bankers, engineers, and compliance officers — without losing the user Feels the weight and the opportunity of this work : genuinely motivated by the chance to bring trust and simplicity of Zelle® to cross-border payments This is also a team that genuinely enjoys working together. We are looking for someone who makes the people around them better — who shares work early, credits others generously, and checks their ego at the door. Strong opinions, held lightly. Physical Requirements Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently. Requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare, and manipulate documents and office equipment including personal computers. Requires the ability to communicate with internal and/or external customers. Employee must be able to perform essential functions and physical requirements of position with or without reasonable accommodation. The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. The base pay scale for this position in: New York, NY / San Francisco, CA in USD per year is: $157,000 - $192,000. Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits. This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate’s education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes. Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness Healthcare Coverage – Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses. 401(k) Retirement Plan – Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility. Paid Time Off – Flexible Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day. 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave Maven Family Planning – provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work. And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process! Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees.