Senior Product Designer (in person)

Job description

At SEP, we make vital software. The kind that keeps airplanes in the sky, helps farmers feed a growing population, and makes medical devices safe. Our clients range from Fortune 100 enterprises to fast-moving startups. ### Why SEP for Your Design Career The designer in this role embeds into one of our product teams, bringing human-centered design and complex problem-solving to platforms that range from data-heavy enterprise tooling to consumer mobile apps to software running on an embedded device. The problems are real ones. Our designers have made chemical-ID equipment usable through heavy gloves for first responders, and folded three separate engineering analysis tools into one, deliberately mirroring the Microsoft Office interface so engineers could pick it up without training. Complex, consequential, and rarely the kind of thing you can solve from a mockup. We're not an agency — we're a consultancy. We co-create with our clients, guiding not just what we build but how we build it. Designers here influence product direction, align cross-functional teams, and raise the bar for design maturity across industries. Curiosity is our default setting. We're relentless question-askers and makers. You'll solve real problems, reflect with peers, and share what works. Senior designers lead by example, coaching through collaboration, critique, and clear decision-making. We value assertiveness and empathy in equal measure. You'll need to read the room, push when it matters, and navigate ambiguity with care. ### You might be our new Senior Product Designer if: - You enjoy the challenge of complex software design and have the work experience to prove it - You thrive on finding the path forward that solves both business objectives and user needs - Your passion for design shows up in the conversation, and you have the professional know-how to bring a client's product vision to life - You like working alongside people with different technical backgrounds — the chance to learn, adapt, collaborate, and coach as a member of your product team ### Responsibilities and Duties - Set design direction on your cross-functional client team and iterate toward it, refining the product experience as you learn - Make the call when inputs conflict — user needs, business objectives, technical reality, and client opinion rarely point the same direction - Work end-to-end on a client team: flows and diagrams, prototyping, pairing with other designers, collaborating with engineers — using dual-track Agile where it fits - Plan, run, and synthesize generative and evaluative research - Facilitate continuous discovery in a way that brings the team along rather than reporting findings at them - Craft the artifacts that align a team around the broader user experience: conceptual models, user flows, information architecture, design systems, and prototypes - Design AI into the product. Decide what the system does on its own, how a person stays in control, and where human judgment is still required - Design alongside AI. While embedded with your product team, you'll both use AI tools to design solutions and pair with engineers shipping through agentic workflows. Less handing off screens, more setting the design system and patterns that the team — and its agents — both build against - Work comfortably with developers. We don't expect you to code; we do expect you to know what code can do - Contribute to the growth of design at SEP through writing, facilitation, and knowledge sharing - Occasionally travel within Indiana and surrounding states to work on-site with clients or conduct product research - Leave your team, your client, and SEP better than you found them ### Required Qualifications - 8+ years of professional design experience, **including 4+ years focused on complex software problems**, across more than one platform (web, mobile, desktop, embedded, or IoT) - A Bachelor's degree in an applicable major - A portfolio showcasing a variety of project types, **with clear articulation of your own role and contributions** - Proven experience with Figma - Experience collaborating with a cross-functional team in an Agile or Lean environment - Experience coaching and mentoring growing designers, engineers, and clients in their design awareness and understanding - Modern product thinking, including working with metrics, to pragmatically inform design decisions - Strong communication skills and the ability to stay highly organized - Must be legally authorized to work in the United States. We aren't able to sponsor visas or hire candidates on OPT or CPT work authorization - Must be able to work from our office in Westfield, IN without relocation financial assistance ### Nice to have - Consultancy or agency experience, including assessing client design maturity and coaching teams toward growth - Depth in embedded, device-constrained, or data-heavy platforms - Experience designing for complex systems such as AI systems, agent-assisted workflows, automation, or complex logic - Fluency with prompt-to-prototype tooling such as Figma Make or Claude Design, and judgment about when it earns its place in the work and when it doesn't - HCI coursework, certification, or graduate study ### Benefits - Flexible time off (FTO) - Medical, dental, vision, long- and short-term disability, and life insurance - 401(k) and ESOP retirement programs — as an employee-owned company, you share in what we build - Project variety - Professional development reimbursements - Fitness classes and on-site gym - Free EV chargers