UX designer job description template: design maturity, portfolio rules and a fair exercise
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UX designer postings fail in two predictable ways. Some list every design skill and tool ever named, from user research to motion design to front-end code, so every applicant matches. Others say almost nothing about the product, the team or how design decisions are made, which is exactly what experienced designers want to know. A useful UX designer job description says what kind of design work fills the week, how mature the design function is, and how the portfolio and exercise will be judged. Below is a copy-ready template, the pay and accessibility lines, how each must-have becomes a screening question and scorecard row, and the mistakes that put good designers off. The general method is in how to write a job description that screens.
Describe the design role and the team around it
| Role shape | What fills the week | Must-have that separates it |
|---|---|---|
| Product designer, end to end | Discovery, flows, wireframes, high-fidelity screens and handoff for one product area | Has taken a feature from problem to shipped and measured it |
| UX designer with research focus | Interviews, usability tests, journey maps and information architecture | Has planned and run research that changed a design direction |
| Interaction or UI-heavy designer | Detailed screens, states, components and prototypes | Has designed complex interface states, including errors and edge cases |
| Design systems designer | Component libraries, tokens, documentation and adoption | Has built or maintained a system other designers and engineers used |
Then describe the design maturity in one or two sentences. "You will be our first designer, working directly with the founders and four engineers" and "you will join a team of eight designers with a research team and a design system" attract different people, and both are honest. Say who the designer reports to, since a designer reporting to a product manager and one reporting to a design lead have different support and career paths.
The UX designer job description template
UX Designer / Product Designer, [product area: onboarding,
payments, internal tools]
[Company], [city] — [On-site / Hybrid: days / Remote within: states]
Pay: $[min]–$[max] per year, plus [equity / bonus, if any].
[Benefits summary, if required.]
SUMMARY
You will design [product area] for [users: small business owners /
warehouse staff on handheld scanners / patients booking visits].
You will be [our first designer / one of N designers], working with
[N] engineers and a product manager, and reporting to [title]. Most
of your week will be [research and flows / detailed interaction
design / design system work].
WHAT YOU WILL DO
- Work with product and engineering to define problems before
designing solutions.
- [Plan and run usability tests and customer interviews, about N a
month.]
- Design flows, wireframes and high-fidelity screens in [design
tool], including empty, error and loading states.
- Hand off designs engineers can build, and review what ships.
- Design to [accessibility standard and level] and check your work
against it.
- [Contribute to and use our design system.]
YOU MUST HAVE
- Shipped product work you can walk us through, from the problem to
the result, including what you would change.
- Tested designs with real users and changed course because of what
you learned.
- Worked closely with engineers through build, including trade-offs.
- [Research-heavy roles: planned and run studies yourself.]
- [Accessibility-critical products: designed for keyboard, screen
reader and contrast requirements.]
NICE TO HAVE
- Experience in [domain: fintech, healthcare, B2B software].
- Prototyping in code, motion design, or analytics tools.
If you meet the must-haves and none of these, please apply.
PORTFOLIO AND PROCESS
- Share a portfolio, a few case studies, or tell us you will walk us
through work you cannot publish. Redacted work is fine.
- [Optional exercise: no more than N hours, the same brief for every
candidate, not a real company problem.]
- [Recruiter screen; portfolio walkthrough with the design lead;
collaboration session with a product manager and engineer.]
[EEO STATEMENT]
If you need an adjustment to apply or interview, email [address].Pay, accessibility and EEO lines
Not legal advice. Sources were checked as of October 2026. Confirm the pay transparency rules for every location the role can be done from.
Pay. Post the approved range; remote design roles often fall under several states' pay transparency rules, summarized in pay transparency laws by state. For an outside reference, the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook covers digital designers, who "develop, create, and test website or interface layout, functions, and navigation for usability," in its web developers and digital designers entry (last modified August 27, 2026). It combines several roles, so treat it as a loose check; this page does not quote figures.
Accessibility. Name the standard the team designs to. The W3C publishes the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 as a W3C Recommendation, with conformance levels A, AA and AAA. "Designs to WCAG 2.2 AA" is a specific requirement a candidate can talk about; "passion for inclusive design" is not.
EEO. Wording such as "digital native" or "recent graduate" can discourage older applicants, one of the protected groups the EEOC lists. Close with your standard EEO statement and an accommodation contact; candidates with disabilities may need adjustments to a timed exercise or a live whiteboard session.
From must-haves to screening questions and scorecard rows
A recruiter can screen for these without judging visual taste. Each question asks for the reasoning behind a specific project.
| Must-have | Screening question | Scorecard competency | Evidence of a strong answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shipped work, problem to result | "Pick one project you shipped. What was the problem, what did you decide, and how did you know it worked?" | Problem framing and outcomes | States the problem in user terms and names a result, even a modest one |
| Tested with users | "When did testing change your design? What did you see, and what did you change?" | Research and iteration | A specific observation and a specific change, not "we validated it" |
| Worked with engineers | "Tell me about a design that had to change during build. Who raised it and how did you decide?" | Collaboration | Gave up something for a good reason and protected what mattered |
| Designed for accessibility | "How did you check that your last design worked with a keyboard or screen reader?" | Accessibility practice | Names a method or tool and a problem they caught |
| Fit with team maturity | "What did you rely on in your last team that you would miss here, or not need?" | Self-sufficiency | Realistic about working with or without research and system support |
The fuller call, including how to handle portfolios under NDA, is in UX designer phone screen questions, and the interview guide for designers covers the portfolio and collaboration rounds. If you use an exercise, score it with the approach in how to evaluate a take-home assignment. After the hire, the 30-60-90 day plan for UX designers turns the same outcomes into first-quarter goals.
Common mistakes in UX designer job descriptions
The unicorn list
Research, interaction design, visual design, illustration, motion, front-end code and data analysis in one must-have list describes a team, not a person. Pick the two or three things that fill the week and move the rest to nice-to-have.
Tool names as requirements
Designers switch design tools easily. Name your tool as the environment; require the skills behind it.
Spec work disguised as an exercise
A brief that looks like your actual roadmap, with no time limit, reads as free consulting and puts off experienced designers. Use an invented problem, a stated limit and the same rubric for everyone, or replace it with a case study walkthrough.
Portfolio rules that exclude NDA work
"Public portfolio link required" filters out designers from banks, healthcare and internal tools, where much of the hardest work happens. Accept redacted or walkthrough-only work.
No word about how design decisions are made
Designers ask who has the final say. "Product managers own priorities; designers own the solution and test it with users" is a sentence worth adding.
Before you publish
- The role shape, product area, users and team maturity are in the summary.
- Must-haves are about shipped work, testing and collaboration, not tool names.
- Portfolio rules accept NDA work, and any exercise has a time limit and a fixed brief.
- The accessibility standard is named if the product has one.
- An approved pay range, the EEO statement and an accommodation contact close the posting.
Questions people ask
Should a UX designer job description require a portfolio?
Ask for a portfolio or case studies, but say that redacted or walk-through-only work is welcome. Many designers worked under nondisclosure agreements and cannot publish their best projects. What you are assessing is how they framed the problem, made decisions and measured results, which they can explain without showing confidential screens.
Is it fair to give UX design candidates a take-home exercise?
It can be, if it is short, the same for everyone, scored against a written rubric and not based on a real problem you intend to ship. State the time limit in the posting. Many teams instead ask candidates to walk through an existing case study, which tests the same thinking without unpaid work.
What is the difference between a UX designer and a UI designer posting?
A UX designer posting centers on research, flows, information architecture and testing whether a design solves the problem. A UI designer posting centers on visual design, layout, components and polish. Many roles combine both as product designer; say which half takes most of the week so candidates can judge the fit.
Should a UX posting mention accessibility?
Yes, if the product has to meet accessibility standards, which most consumer and public-sector products do. Name the standard your team works to, such as WCAG 2.2 at a stated conformance level, and ask candidates how they have designed for it rather than requiring a certification.