Senior UX Designer

As a Sr. UX Designer focused on internal software solutions for our Tour Operations department, you will work closely with Product Management, Engineering and business stakeholders to co-create the design and user workflow for our new operations systems from the ground up. You will establish yourself within your workstreams as the go-to authority and strategic partner for UX practices, proactively identifying opportunities before they become requests and driving alignment across distributed, cross-functional teams

Leveraging your expertise in design thinking and user-centered design, you will lead in addressing user pain points and business needs while considering technical feasibility. You thrive on the challenge of reconciling complex user workflows with intricate business processes to find opportunities for improving usability and efficiency across an ecosystem of applications that serve hundreds of internal users across multiple countries, departments and products, and setting standards within the practice to support these opportunities.

Key Responsibilities:

Designing Beyond Screens: Drive the tooling that supports how an EF tour is made and reimagine the processes and workflows that evolves how we operate as a business.

Stakeholder Collaboration: Empower stakeholders, at all levels, within the business to understand where technology can evolve the way they work and where human insight is invaluable. Support these insights with actionable research and strong storytelling.

Design for all Scales: Own the work from initial discovery down to what gets put in people's hands with equal passion and cross-functional partnership.

Thoughtful Scope: Scope and develop solutions, understanding the impact of timeliness, feasibility, and complexity on deadlines.

Communication and Feedback: Communicate the thought process behind your work, address feedback constructively, and determine when to apply comprehensive solutions versus minimal viable products.

Adaptability: Embrace Greenfield development and be a strong thought partner on how priorities should evolve as research and ideation show what's possible.

Systems Thinking: Design, not just for individual users and their pain-points, but for the health and efficiency of the whole digital and service ecosystem supporting how a tour gets made 

Global Travel Requirements: You will be working with teams across EF Tours' global offices and will be expected to travel internationally, on average once per quarter to the US (Boston) or other locations.

In-office Presence: Be consistently present in the office 4 days per week to build team presence and connection with the product managers. (Exceptions can be made when uninterrupted "heads down time" is needed to complete work.

Who You Are:

You're a thoughtful, collaborative designer who thrives in complexity and cares deeply about making messy workflows simpler and more effective for real people. You lead with curiosity, grounding your work in user insight and pairing creative thinking with practical judgment. You are willing to experiment with new tools and techniques —including prototyping with AI— to grow team UX capabilities and leverage.

You don't wait to be told what to design—you actively seek out friction points, ask hard questions, and bring solutions that balance user needs with business constraints. You're comfortable partnering across functions and levels, shaping conversations, and influencing decisions through clear storytelling.

You bring a balanced mix of autonomy, adaptability, and craft, and you know how to move teams forward even when direction is still emerging. You understand that enterprise design means designing for scale, governance, permissions, integrations, and the ripple effects of every decision across a complex organizational ecosystem.

Skills & Experience:

Core Experience

· 5+ years in UX Design with experience in service design and/or designing for enterprise complexity

· Hands-on experience designing digital products, leading A/B tests, and usability testing

· Experience with enterprise-level products; Salesforce platform experience is a plus

Design Expertise

· Skilled in user-centered design methods, design thinking, and digital product design

· Ability to design simple, scalable experiences across complex product ecosystems

· Strong visual and interaction design problem-solving skills

· Experience working without dedicated UI resources; adept with component-based design systems (including Salesforce Lightning and Material UI)

· Experience creating and maintaining design systems is a plus

Collaboration & Leadership

· Strong collaboration with product managers, engineers, subject matter experts, and senior leadership in a deeply embedded, day-to-day capacity—not as an external consultant but as a core member of the product team

· Proactive design leadership with strong creative and analytical thinking skills

· Ability to influence through storytelling, adapt communication to audiences, and pivot with changing business needs

· Experience scaling design practices in environments with limited design resources—mentoring PMs and engineers on UX principles and building design maturity

Education

· Degree in HCI, Human Factors, Design, or related field preferred

What This Role Is Not:

· Not a pure Visual/UI Designer: You will have access to component libraries created by our teams for visual/UI design.

· Not a Hand-Off Role: This role involves following through collaboratively from initial concepts to first release and beyond.

Why you will love EF Zurich:

· A fun, international, and dynamic environment

· Regular training sessions and opportunities for company growth

· Opportunity for business-related travel and participation in the Educational Tours Staff Experience Travel Program (STEP) where you will be eligible to participate in company-led experiences around the world. Please inquire during your interviews to learn more

· Team events, kick-offs, and Holiday Parties

· Discounts on EF programs for Staff and Staff Families for all EF Programs

· Free use of EF Hello: a premium Language Learning App

· Work from home one day per week

· Tuition Reimbursement for continued education

· And much more…

About EF Education First

Some companies are in the Business of Technology.

Others are in the Business of Finance….Sports…Or Soft Drinks.

At EF, we're in a different kind of Business.

One that's a little less tangible, and a lot more important.

Because our Business, what we make, makes everything else possible.

We're in the Business of Understanding.

Between people. Between cultures.

For over half a century we've been the leader in international educational programs and experiences designed to foster such understanding. Through Language, Cultural Exchange, Academic Studies, and Educational Travel, we create the kinds of immersive experiences that challenge biases, open minds, and pave the way for a more understanding world.

You'll find our 115 offices located in some of the world's greatest cities, and filled with smart, driven people who push each other to be better every day. And yes, we have technology, we have finance, we even have sports with our own professional cycling team. But it's what we do with it – Building greater understanding, breaking down barriers, and creating a better world…that makes all the difference.

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