Product Designer

Department: Product

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Remote

Compensation: $110,000 - $130,000 / year

Description

We’re looking for a strategic, craft-driven mid-level Product Designer to join our team and help shape the future of academic operations. At Coursedog, we build tools for higher education that support curriculum management, scheduling, and student success—mission-critical operations that advance institutional efficiency, collaboration, and student outcomes. This is your chance to transform institutional complexity into clarity—through thoughtful, user-centered design that empowers educators and administrators and expands access to opportunity for students.

We're laying the foundation for a design practice grounded in deep understanding of user needs and evidence-based decision-making—with strong support from product leadership and a shared drive to make the user experience a strategic advantage. You'll help shape a culture where designers are trusted to lead and elevate the product experience through thoughtful craft and collaboration.

Key Responsibilities

Design Experiences: Explore and refine product ideas from early concept through low- to high-fidelity prototyping—including live iteration with peers and stakeholders—solving complex UX challenges with clarity and polish through a rigorous, user-centered process that transforms complexity into intuitive experiences
Content Design & UX Writing: Craft clear, purposeful interface copy that enhances usability, supports user goals, and reflects a consistent product voice—while identifying and addressing opportunities to improve UX writing throughout the experience
Document Design Specifications and Ensure Quality Implementation: Create polished visual designs with UI specifications that support implementation, and partner with engineers to ensure design quality and alignment are upheld throughout the build process
UX Evaluation: Identify and address UX issues through heuristic reviews, usability testing, accessibility audits, surveys, and usage insights—collaborating with research, design, and customer-facing teams to drive continuous improvement
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with product, engineering, research, and other stakeholders to ensure design solutions are aligned, feasible, and impactful—proactively communicating trade-offs, driving clarity, and advocating for users
Design System Contribution: Help establish and evolve our design system in Figma—including reusable components, patterns, and guidelines—to promote UI consistency and design ops efficiency
Strategic Design Thinking: Think holistically across functionality, usability, and visual design to guide prioritization, inform trade-offs, and shape strategies that balance user needs with technical constraints and business goals

Experience designing interfaces for:
- Higher education users or administrative enterprise systems
- Workflow configuration and management tools
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
- AI/GenAI-powered experiences, such as chatbot interfaces or content generation
Experience driving accessibility efforts, applying WCAG guidelines, and establishing documentation and processes that support inclusive design to help teams consistently meet accessibility standards across complex interfaces
Curiosity or direct experience with GenAI UX challenges, including chat-based interaction design, prompt design, transparency, and helping users form accurate mental models of AI capabilities and limitations
Experience with UX research methods—such as usability testing, RITE, interviews, contextual inquiry, surveys, analytics, co-design, workshops, and affinity mapping—gained through experience as a dedicated researcher or in a hybrid design/research role. While this is a design role, it offers strong opportunities to flex and deepen research skills.

You lead product areas confidently, quickly identify UX issues, and thoughtfully explore and evaluate solutions based on user insights and UX best practices—balancing strong design convictions with openness to feedback
You raise the bar for design quality and contribute to a more mature, scalable UX process
You build strong partnerships across product and engineering by communicating clearly and proactively, thinking beyond your lane, and acting as a trusted thought partner
You bring curiosity, optimism, and design maturity to help transform a growing platform into a best-in-class user experience

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

3–4+ years of UX/Product Design experience, ideally in B2B SaaS or other complex application environments
Deep interaction design expertise with a strong grasp of usability heuristics, UX principles, and accessibility standards
Strong systems thinking and information architecture skills—able to simplify complexity through clear, cohesive design that aligns with user mental models
Excellent communication skills with the ability to clearly articulate design rationale, ask thoughtful questions, and provide and receive feedback gracefully
Familiarity with contextual design and service design to support the full user journey—including how users engage with the product, adjacent services (like implementation, customer success, and support), and the broader ecosystem of tools they rely on to get work done
Experience conducting or collaborating on user research and identifying when user insight is needed to guide design decisions
Familiarity with Figma libraries and hands-on experience scaling and maintaining design systems
Proven success in cross-functional collaboration with product managers, engineers, researchers, and stakeholders—acting as a strategic partner, not just a service provider
Self-starter with a strong sense of ownership—able to manage multiple priorities, shift between strategy and execution, and thrive in a fast-paced environment
Comfort with ambiguity and complexity; you bring clarity, momentum, and persistence to messy problem spaces

Working at Coursedog

Benefits

Healthcare, Dental, & Vision: We use a fixed contribution model for benefits. In the spirit of fairness, each employee gets the same dollar amount each year to spend on their health, dental, & vision coverage with the option to opt for a more comprehensive plan if they so choose. Depending on the selected coverage level, the employer contribution to monthly premiums ranges from 99% —> 55% for employee only to 77% —> 43% for employee + dependents. We are committed to providing leading plan providers and currently partner with Aetna & Guardian, along with other related perks like Spring Health, XP Health, Carrot Fertility, & One Medical. We also offer a Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Account options.
Retirement Planning: We offer a 401k plan on day one of your employment. As of January 1, 2026, the company will be offering a 4% annual salary match, up to any federally mandated limits, for all employees that contribute to a tax-advantaged account.
Paid Time Off: We value work-life balance and provide a high amount of autonomy. In service to this, our Paid Time Off policy has no annual limit.
Remote First Since Inception: We value flexible working hours over set hours, outputs over inputs, and communication focused on transparency over need-to-know access. We are committed to being a remote-first company in perpetuity.
Equity: You’ll be contributing to the team's success, so you deserve to share in it. All employees will have the ability to vest in the company’s stock plan commensurate to the level that they were hired, adjusted for any promotions.
Paid Parental Leave: To help support new parents in the workplace, we offer up to twelve (12) weeks of paid parental leave for the primary caregiver and six (6) weeks of paid leave for the secondary caregiver.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Coursedog is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization and creating an inclusive environment for all.

We value and encourage the contributions of our employees and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential and drive outstanding results. We draw strength from our range of interests, backgrounds, and perspectives

We strongly encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law.

Accommodations

Accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities in all phases of the application and employment process. On your application, you will be prompted to inform us If you need any accommodation during this process.