Principal Designer jobs in the United States

Company Description

McDonald’s is proud to be one of the most recognized brands in the world, with restaurants in over 100 countries that serve 70 million customers daily. We continue to operate from a position of strength. Our updated growth strategy is focused on staying ahead of what our customers want and realizing further growth potential. Our relentless ambition is why McDonald’s remains one of the world’s leading corporations after almost 70 years. Joining McDonald's means thinking big and preparing for a career that can have influence around the world.

At McDonald’s, we see every day as a chance to create positive impact. We lead through our values centered on inclusivity, service, integrity, community and family. From support of Ronald McDonald House Charities to our Youth Opportunity project and sustainability initiatives, our values keep us dedicated to using our scale for good: good for our customers, people, industry and planet. We also offer a broad range of outstanding benefits including a sabbatical program, tuition assistance and flexible work arrangements.

We are enjoying the flexibility of a hybrid work model, in which employees spend part of their week connecting with co-workers in our state-of-the-art headquarters. Located in the booming West Loop of downtown Chicago, it's set up to be a global hub that cultivates collaboration:

• Take a class at Hamburger University
• Sample future items in our Test Kitchen
• Utilize the latest technology to connect with your team around the globe

We are an equal opportunity employer committed to the diversity of our crew members, staff, operators, and suppliers. We promote an inclusive work environment that creates feel-good moments for everyone.

Job Description

The McDonalds Global Design team is a key part of the Customer Experience team (MCX), which provides user-centered experiences that deliver a cohesive and meaningful experience for customers and crew members around the world.

The position requires demonstrable expertise in solutions with strong design work, UX research, design sensibility, and articulate storytelling. This is a hands-on role focused on both product discovery and design deliverables. The position involves participating in the entire design lifecycle, but with a focus on blue-sky, boundary-pushing concepts, UI, visual and interaction design. The Principal Designer will play a key part in elevating the standard of design within the organization and ensuring overall alignment and consistency across Product areas. The ideal candidate will be comfortable with ambiguity, passionate about design, and able to lead large initiatives with minimal direction.

Responsibilities:

Your attention to detail is renowned, your design and research skills impeccable, and you love putting structure around difficult problems. You thrive on being hands-on and immersive. You look for opportunities to improve the way things work. Your superpower is the ability to make connections across various products to establish a seamless customer experience across all channels.

· Be an excellent leader and practitioner giving guidance to design simple, engaging, and intuitive experiences in both web and native/hybrid ecosystems thinking through the physical aspect of an Omnichannel experience

· Be the catalyst to push innovative design concepts based on a deep understanding of user needs and business objectives; willingness to try new innovative approaches and iterate

· Understand technical, business, and time limitations and design within these constraints

· Lead throughout the entire design process by designing experiences that infuse empathy and creativity that will also inspire and serve as guidance for all other disciplines to deliver towards

· Execute on user research and usability tests and ensure the findings are incorporated into design decisions

· Obtain buy-in from stakeholders, explaining how design solutions addresses the identify problem/ user need

· Lead complex, multidisciplinary projects from start to finish

· Balance near term execution and far-term strategic investigations by being a forward looking, innovative thinker that will define north star (ideal) experiences

· Communicate the value of design within a design and business context, and identify the critical design trade-offs to deliver value-add solutions

· A solid grasp of user-centered design (UCD), human computer interaction, planning and conducting user research, user testing, rapid prototyping, heuristic analysis, usability and accessibility concerns

· Part of a multi-disciplinary discovery squad, you will be working to uncover opportunities for product development, identifying, quantifying the value and validating potential solutions with customers

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree preferred in a related field (HCI, UX Design, Product Design)

· 10 years of hands-on experience in digital design (browser app at minimum)

· Expert in Figma

· Expertise across all facets of human-centered design and user experience, spanning UX strategy, experience/interaction design, user research, prototyping, and visual design, but UI, visual and interaction design superpowers

· Experience translating qualitative and quantitative data into design decisions

· Experience with designing experiences for consumer applications and/or enterprise experiences

· Solid understanding of experience design principles and best practices

· Flexibility and openness to feedback from cross-functional team members

· Strong prioritization, planning and time management skills

· Attention to detail and follow through

· Excellent verbal and written communication skills; superior at relationship-building

· Ability to think fast and slow and know when to do each

· Portfolio or equivalent asset containing examples of digital design solutions and your thought process, success and failures, getting to the outcome

· Well versed in facilitation techniques that enable groups to build clarity and alignment

· Proven ability to lead indirectly and influence without reporting lines

· Understanding of accessibility standards

Preferred:

· Understanding and knowledge of mobile human interface guidelines (Apple’s HIG and Google’s Material Design), current possibilities and limitations of hardware and operating systems

· Master’s degree in Human Factors, Interaction Design, Industrial Design, Graphic Design, or related technical field

Additional Information

McDonald’s is an equal opportunity employer committed to the diversity of our workforce. We promote an inclusive work environment that creates feel-good moments for everyone. McDonald’s provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities as part of the application or hiring process or to perform the essential functions of their job. If you need assistance accessing or reading this job posting or otherwise feel you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process, please contact [email protected]. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

McDonald’s provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy (including pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding), race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin, age, disability status, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, protected military or veteran status, citizenship status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Nothing in this job posting or description should be construed as an offer or guarantee of employment.