Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Hiring for Lead UX Designer at Pune Full Time

Job Requisition ID: 18333

Additional Locations: 

“Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is a high-purpose, high-performing, leading K-12 EdTech company, powered by values and culture that support continuous learning and rapid innovation. Known for serving more than 50 million students and 4 million educators in 150+ countries, we provide learning to countless students and teachers, transforming lives, supporting communities, and making our society more open, just, and inclusive for all. HMH Technology India Pvt. Ltd. is our technology and innovation arm in India, focused on developing products and solutions using cutting-edge technology in order to better serve education globally. We aim to help employees grow as people, not just as professionals. We do work that matters and are in a unique position to support and empower people’s lives.”

Lead UX Designer –  

Keywords for candidate screening: Design Thinking, Whiteboard, Affinity Mapping, Workshops, Mind-mapping, transformation, digital transformation, Lead User Experience, UX Lead, Associate UX Director, Customer Journey, User Journey, Service Blueprint, UX Strategy, Pain Points, Figma, Agile 

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The UX Team at HMHCO, part of Digital Product Design (DPD), focuses on building an intuitive digital experience for teachers, students and administrators in and out of the classroom. We work to simplify and delight teachers and administrators while helping students to achieve success with the HMHCO product lines. 

We are looking for a Lead UX Designer with a proven track record creating and driving the user experience for world-class enterprise platforms. You will be a key player in the digital creative under-takings, from user research, problem identification, project concept, user testing to design execution and upper management presentations. You will be shaping your team while helping the other Leads, UX Director, and the VP refining the UX department vision. 

• You have a proven track record in running and facilitating design thinking workshops among inter-departmental teams to build a world-class platform. 

• You have passion to mentor 1-3 Senior and UX designers helping them to grow, achieve design excellence and manage their workload while working on your own project. 

• You enjoy working with UX researchers, product owners and the engineering team and don’t get discouraged easily when people do not agree immediately.  Instead, you think out of the box to find ways to gain consent and assert the relevance of UX into the team. 

• You are comfortable in managing down as much as managing up. You will work closely with the UX Director and other Leads to sell-in UX strategies and design concepts to the VPs. 

• You believe in data-driven design. “I have a hunch” is not a part of your vocabulary. 

• You are not shy and bring up ideas on how to improve internal team processes. 

• You are comfortable working within constraints imposed by leveraging an established and evolving design system, and delight in creating new experiences from existing componentry. 

• You are a champion for users of all types and have professional familiarity with designing for accessibility, including compliance with WCAG ARIA standards. 

• You understand the value of the right level of process and a team’s adherence to it, contributing to improvements in its efficiency and quality output. 

Responsibilities: 

• Lead the ideation, direction and creation of UX designs within a multifunctional team and with a strong understanding of an iterative, user-focused approach. 

• Organize and lead workshops to promote and implement design thinking including whiteboarding, Affinity Mapping, Role-Play and mind-mapping to name a few. 

• Take ownership of dedicated tasks under the UX Director to keep up with technological changes, new UX methodologies, design patterns and innovations within the industry. 

• Collaborate with other team members to provide mentorship and lead by example to ensure UX team efficiency and effectiveness in delivering on the project and team goals. 

• Own the validation, usability, design quality and execution of final designs, from user research through final visual designs to development. 

• Ensure appropriate UX methodologies and design best practices persist on projects – so that design decisions result in optimal end-user experiences and outcomes. 

Requirements: 

• Bachelor’s Degree in design or design-related discipline (graphic design, user experience design, visual design, etc.) or equivalent experience. 

• 9+ years of relevant experience in UX planning and design, with a strong understanding of identifying User Insights, articulating UX visions, and how to leverage them to successfully deliver enjoyable and successful experiences. 

• 1-2+ years of experience in organizing and running workshops including whiteboarding, affinity mapping, mind-mapping, role-play etc. 

• A solid User-Centered Design approach to solving creative challenges. Your portfolio shows examples in how you integrated user research, consumer & user journeys, to develop experience ecosystems composed of multiple components, touchpoints, channels, and platforms. 

• A strong collaborator across diverse groups, including Product Owners, Engineers, other stakeholders and team members. 

• Have excellent written, verbal and room management communication skills: the right candidate must be able to communicate in writing and/or present in person, strategic design concepts and creative vision – in any team or stakeholder setting – with passion and confidence. 

• Strong experience creating user journeys, personas, user flows, workflow diagrams, wireframes, interactive prototypes, visual designs, design specification documents, and performing project management in the following tools: Figma, Miro, Axure, and JIRA. 

• Experience working with cross-functional teams in an Agile environment. 
    

Physical Requirements: 

• Might be in a stationary position for a considerable time (sitting and/or standing). 

• Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine, and computer printer. 

• Must be able to collaborate with colleagues via face to face, conference calls, and online meetings. 

• Ability to work in cross-functional teams and as well as work independently.