Director, UX Design & Engineering

About this role

What We Do
At Leading Educators (LE), we know that excellent teaching is the most important driver of student success. The moment a student steps foot in the classroom, their opportunity to learn depends on how prepared their teacher is to translate complex content knowledge, standards, and their knowledge of that student into lessons that help them learn deeply and apply their thinking to the real world.
That’s a big lift, and it often happens alone. As a national nonprofit, we partner with school systems to overcome persistent instructional challenges, foster intentional collaboration and adult learning by design, and ignite new possibilities through systemic solutions at the intersection of teaching, talent, and technology.
We work shoulder-to-shoulder with educators at every level of the education system to strengthen their instructional and leadership practices, bring a vision for excellent instruction to life with consistency, and ensure every student reaches their full potential.
Through direct support, strategic advising, innovation pilots, and best-in-class research, we help educators work toward a future where every student is ready to thrive. Learn more about our work at .
Internal Candidate Application Deadline: Oct 5, 2026
External Candidate Application Deadline:Oct 5, 2026
Position
Leading Educators is seeking a Director, UX Design & Engineering to lead the design and front-end development of AI-enabled product experiences across our innovation portfolio. In this role, you'll close the critical gap between product vision and usable, working tools—translating product requirements, user research, and emerging ideas into clear, coherent, testable front-end experiences that educators and students will actually use. This is your opportunity to shape the future of educational technology by designing interfaces and experiences that make a tangible difference in how teachers teach and students learn.
You'll operate as a thought partner to product leaders, directors, and user researchers, helping teams make stronger product decisions by clarifying front-end possibilities, identifying design tradeoffs, and translating ambiguous concepts into tangible experiences. Your work will have particular impact across MAIN, LEAP, and emerging initiatives, where you'll help LE move beyond current platform limitations by designing and building high-fidelity prototypes, shaping reusable interface patterns, and strengthening the quality and consistency of product experiences across tools.
This is a highly independent Director role for someone who thrives in ambiguity and can move fluidly between structured product requirements and early-stage concepting. As LE's first internal technical hire in this space, you'll bring strong initiative, sound judgment, and the ability to recommend a path forward without waiting for fully defined processes. You'll also work closely with external development partners, representing LE's product priorities clearly while navigating shared dependencies with professionalism and clarity. Reporting to the Senior Director, AI Enabled Instruction, Math, you'll have the autonomy and influence to shape how our products serve educators and students.
Do you have expertise in…

• UX/UI design, including interaction design, visual design, information architecture, and usability-centered product thinking that puts users at the center of every decision

• Building high-fidelity prototypes and functional front-end experiences using modern technologies such as React, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

• Translating both detailed product requirements and ambiguous early-stage concepts into usable front-end designs that teams can test, refine, and implement

• Interpreting user research and usability-testing findings and translating them into prioritized design improvements that strengthen product outcomes

Do you enjoy…

• Working independently across multiple initiatives, exercising strong judgment about priorities and advancing work in emerging environments where processes are still being built

• Cross-functional collaboration with product leaders, researchers, and external development partners to align on vision and move decisions forward

• Designing for clarity, usability, and consistency by developing reusable interface components and patterns that reduce friction across tools

• Prototyping and iterating quickly—adjusting as product direction changes and using repeated cycles of design, feedback, and revision to maintain momentum

If you've answered affirmatively to these questions and meet the following prerequisites, we urge you to seize this opportunity. This role calls for the following:

• 8+ years of professional experience in UX design, product design, front-end development, UX engineering, or a closely related field

• Demonstrated strength in UX/UI design, including interaction design, visual design, information architecture, and usability-centered product thinking

• Demonstrated ability to build high-fidelity prototypes and functional front-end experiences

• Professional experience using front-end technologies such as React, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

• Ability to translate both detailed product requirements and ambiguous early-stage concepts into usable front-end designs and prototypes

• Demonstrated success interpreting user research or usability-testing findings and translating them into design improvements

• Experience working across cross-functional teams and managing multiple projects or priorities simultaneously

• Ability to make sound independent recommendations about user experience direction, prototype design, and front-end tradeoffs

• Comfort working in an environment where processes, pathways, and technical structures are still being built

Strongly Preferred:

• Experience designing and prototyping AI-enabled products

• Experience conducting or closely supporting user testing for digital tools

• Education or education technology experience

• Familiarity…