Northern Trust

About Northern Trust:

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.

Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world’s most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Department

Experience Design & Research (EDR) is a multidisciplinary design and research team dedicated to delivering innovative, differentiated, and exceptional experiences for clients, prospects, and partners by demonstrating a deep understanding of their needs. Experience Design & Research is committed to growing and supporting a diverse team, with a collaborative environment that provides educational and career growth opportunities.

Summary

As a Lead Designer for our Northern Trust Design System, you will be a part of our Design Enablement Team, thinking in and designing systems to amplify EDR designers’ work for business unit digital product and service experience initiatives. Ideal candidates will lead with curiosity and empathy, driving change through contribution and communication.

Your work will elevate our digital experiences through compelling and clean design that reflects user needs. Lead Designers work tactically and strategically to contribute to our design system products in collaboration with peers and stakeholders. They can also work independently to contribute to the design system documentation, components, and governance. They are responsible for the delivery of specific features or processes within a product or capability team and take accountability for execution and experience outcomes with manageable risks and resource requirements. 

In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring that new or existing digital products meet or exceed user needs. Leads are experts in their design domain who tirelessly work toward improved user experiences with a team of technology, product, and business collaborators. Leads actively seek opportunities to better delivery methods and apply a product mindset to design system adoption. It is expected that you will not only set the experience direction for product teams, but, when necessary, lead other designers to a common goal and work with colleagues to establish a standard of greatness.

At the ‘Lead’ level, we’re looking for individuals that have:

• At least 3 years of experience within a design agency, in-house design team, or in a relevant business role
• Educated in design or related field, formally or though comparable training
• Experience working with a cross-functional team or large-scale software development lifecycle, preferably in an agile environment
• Experience advocating digital experiences that navigate multiple perspectives from technology, product, and design to redefine existing experiences or imagine new ones.

Working Model: Hybrid

We have a balanced hybrid working model to ensure you get the flexibility you need, and the successful candidate will spend their time between working in the office and working from home.

Major Duties 

• Works to improve Northern Trust Design System user experiences through collaboration with product owners, business analysts, designers, architects, and developers to validate ideas, designs, and interaction concepts
• Guides design to meet objectives and outcomes, influences business and technology decisions with user needs in mind 
• Contributes to an open culture that enables employees’ development through direct but kind feedback, promotes diverse perspectives and fosters a sense of curiosity and optimism 
• Creates user experiences (including interactive data dashboards and visualizations) from low-fidelity sketches to high-fidelity mockups and prototypes to extend and refine the Northern Trust Design System. 
• May collaborate in an agile environment or ad hoc in emerging experience projects 
• Ability to work thoughtfully, understanding that changes to the design system create changes across the organization while continuing to evolve and build our design system product rapidly
• Contributes to an open culture that enables employees’ development through direct but kind feedback, promotes diverse perspectives and fosters a sense of curiosity and optimism
• Solves experience problems and takes new perspectives on existing solutions 
• Exercises judgment based on the analysis of multiple sources of information
• Works within broad guidelines and policies 

As a Design Lead, you should have working knowledge, or experience with some of the following:

Knowledge/Skills 

• 7+ years of experience
• Proficiency in a range of relevant design methods and concepts, which may include low-fidelity sketching, information architecture, wireframe development, usability testing, research planning, competitive analysis 
• Strong design skills in multiple competency areas (visual, interaction, information architecture, product, behavioral sciences) 
• Able to present work and decisions effectively, through presentation and storytelling skills 
• Ability to recognize, predict and incorporate use cases and user interactions into design 
• Highly flexible, adaptable to change and comfortable with ambiguity and critique 
• Effective use of collaborative/communication tools 
• Clear growth mindset, looking for opportunities to learn and motivated to approach challenges proactively 
• Educated in design or related field, formally or though comparable training
• Experience working with a cross-functional team or large-scale software development lifecycle, preferably in an agile environment, is desired
• Creating and implementing accessible, inclusive (WCAG 2.2 AA) designs
• Using or building design systems
• Proficiency in graphic design, motion graphics, digital art, as well as a sensitivity to typography, color, layout, and a general awareness of materials/textures
• Experience responding to user feedback to make informed UX decisions
• #LI-Hybrid
• #LI-GG1

Ideal candidates will have several years of design system experience but may not match the criteria listed above. It is a rough guide to the type of work you will be expected to perform and excel at doing. We encourage you to apply if you feel you are a strong candidate but not a perfect match.

Working with Us:

As a Northern Trust partner, greater achievements await. You will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture in an organization where financial strength and stability is an asset that emboldens us to explore new ideas.

Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to assisting the communities we serve! Join a workplace with a greater purpose.

We’d love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of the world’s most admired and sustainable companies! Build your career with us and apply today. #MadeForGreater

Reasonable accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at MyHRHelp@ntrs.com.

We hope you’re excited about the role and the opportunity to work with us. We value an inclusive workplace and understand flexibility means different things to different people.

Apply today and talk to us about your flexible working requirements and together we can achieve greater.