Entry Level Lead UX Designer Jobs
New grad lead ux designer jobs are open to recent graduates and entry level candidates with zero to two years of experience, where a strong portfolio or internship work can matter more than a long resume. Most openings are Technology & Software, Manufacturing, and Automotive roles with a mix of on-site, remote, and hybrid settings, with employers like TikTok, Photon, and Figma hiring at this level now.
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We're hiring an Experience Designer I (XD I) to join our digital team. You'll design apps, web products, and interfaces for connected devices, from the first research interview to the launch video.
This is an early-career role. You've got 2 to 3 years of experience and you're ready to work on real products with real constraints. You won't own every skill below on day one, and we don't expect you to. You'll get hands-on time across the whole process and learn from senior designers who've shipped a lot of it.
The best fit is someone who loves the messy middle of a project. You ask good questions, sketch fast, test early, and care about how the last pixel moves.
Our digital work rarely lives on just one screen. In a given year you might touch:
- Consumer apps for iOS and Android, often as the companion to a physical product
- Web apps and dashboards that turn sensor data into something people can act on
- IoT products where the app, the device, and the setup flow all need to feel like one thing
- Medtech touchscreens built for clinicians and patients, where clarity and safety come first
- Non-traditional interfaces like voice, light, haptics, embedded displays, and AI-driven experiences
One week you're designing an onboarding flow for a smart home device. The next, you're figuring out how a nurse reads a screen from six feet away with gloves on.
Whipsaw is a product design and brand consultancy in San Francisco. We take products from first insight to first customer, with one team covering strategy, industrial design, digital experience, brand, packaging, and launch.
We've partnered with 350+ clients, designed 1,000+ products, and picked up 325+ design awards along the way. Our clients range from funded startups shipping their first product to established companies building something new.
Here's what makes us a little different. The product leads, and the brand follows. Our digital designers sit next to industrial designers and engineers, so the screen on a device and the device itself grow up together.
Base Salary Range: $80,000 to $100,000 per year, based on experience and skills
Location: Hybrid (3-days in person) at 55 Mississippi Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
What you'll do
You'll work across every phase of a project, usually as part of a small team with a senior or lead designer.
Discover
- Run needs finding and user research: interviews, observation, competitive reviews
- Synthesize what you learn into insights, journey maps, and clear problem statements
Define and ideate
- Map flows, information architecture, and wireframes
- Use AI tools to generate and stress-test ideas quickly, then apply your own judgment to pick what's worth pursuing
- Explore app concepts and visual directions, from rough sketches to polished comps
Prototype and test
- Build AI-enabled prototypes that feel real enough to test with users and clients
- Plan and run usability and validation testing, then turn findings into design changes
- Write front-end code when it's the fastest way to prove an idea
Refine and ship
- Refine visual design until every state, edge case, and screen size holds up
- Design UI microinteractions and motion that make interfaces feel alive and easy to read
- Build and maintain design systems that engineering teams can actually use
- Create launch assets and motion graphics for product reveals, websites, and campaigns
Work with clients
- Present work in client reviews and workshops, and explain the thinking behind it
- Partner with industrial designers, engineers, and brand designers so hardware and software line up
What you'll bring
You'll need
- 2 to 3 years of professional UX/UI experience, at a studio, agency, or in-house team
- A degree in interaction design, HCI, graphic design, industrial design, or a related field
- Strong visual craft: type, layout, color, hierarchy, and an eye for detail
- A solid grasp of UX process, from research through testing
- Fluency in Figma, including components, auto layout, and interactive prototyping
- Hands-on experience using AI tools in your design process, and opinions about where they help and where they don't
- Clear communication, both in writing and when presenting to a room
- A portfolio that shows your thinking and your polish (more on that below)
Nice to have
- Front-end coding skills (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) or experience building in Framer or Webflow
- Motion design in After Effects, Rive, Protopie, or similar
- Experience designing for hardware, embedded screens, or regulated products like medical devices
- Work on a design system used by a real engineering team
- Comfort running usability sessions and synthesizing results on your own
Don't check every box? Apply anyway. We care more about how you think and how fast you learn than a perfect match.
We're hiring an Experience Designer I (XD I) to join our digital team. You'll design apps, web products, and interfaces for connected devices, from the first research interview to the launch video.
This is an early-career role. You've got 2 to 3 years of experience and you're ready to work on real products with real constraints. You won't own every skill below on day one, and we don't expect you to. You'll get hands-on time across the whole process and learn from senior designers who've shipped a lot of it.
The best fit is someone who loves the messy middle of a project. You ask good questions, sketch fast, test early, and care about how the last pixel moves.
Our digital work rarely lives on just one screen. In a given year you might touch:
- Consumer apps for iOS and Android, often as the companion to a physical product
- Web apps and dashboards that turn sensor data into something people can act on
- IoT products where the app, the device, and the setup flow all need to feel like one thing
- Medtech touchscreens built for clinicians and patients, where clarity and safety come first
- Non-traditional interfaces like voice, light, haptics, embedded displays, and AI-driven experiences
One week you're designing an onboarding flow for a smart home device. The next, you're figuring out how a nurse reads a screen from six feet away with gloves on.
Whipsaw is a product design and brand consultancy in San Francisco. We take products from first insight to first customer, with one team covering strategy, industrial design, digital experience, brand, packaging, and launch.
We've partnered with 350+ clients, designed 1,000+ products, and picked up 325+ design awards along the way. Our clients range from funded startups shipping their first product to established companies building something new.
Here's what makes us a little different. The product leads, and the brand follows. Our digital designers sit next to industrial designers and engineers, so the screen on a device and the device itself grow up together.
Base Salary Range: $80,000 to $100,000 per year, based on experience and skills
Location: Hybrid (3-days in person) at 55 Mississippi Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
What you'll do
You'll work across every phase of a project, usually as part of a small team with a senior or lead designer.
Discover
- Run needs finding and user research: interviews, observation, competitive reviews
- Synthesize what you learn into insights, journey maps, and clear problem statements
Define and ideate
- Map flows, information architecture, and wireframes
- Use AI tools to generate and stress-test ideas quickly, then apply your own judgment to pick what's worth pursuing
- Explore app concepts and visual directions, from rough sketches to polished comps
Prototype and test
- Build AI-enabled prototypes that feel real enough to test with users and clients
- Plan and run usability and validation testing, then turn findings into design changes
- Write front-end code when it's the fastest way to prove an idea
Refine and ship
- Refine visual design until every state, edge case, and screen size holds up
- Design UI microinteractions and motion that make interfaces feel alive and easy to read
- Build and maintain design systems that engineering teams can actually use
- Create launch assets and motion graphics for product reveals, websites, and campaigns
Work with clients
- Present work in client reviews and workshops, and explain the thinking behind it
- Partner with industrial designers, engineers, and brand designers so hardware and software line up
What you'll bring
You'll need
- 2 to 3 years of professional UX/UI experience, at a studio, agency, or in-house team
- A degree in interaction design, HCI, graphic design, industrial design, or a related field
- Strong visual craft: type, layout, color, hierarchy, and an eye for detail
- A solid grasp of UX process, from research through testing
- Fluency in Figma, including components, auto layout, and interactive prototyping
- Hands-on experience using AI tools in your design process, and opinions about where they help and where they don't
- Clear communication, both in writing and when presenting to a room
- A portfolio that shows your thinking and your polish (more on that below)
Nice to have
- Front-end coding skills (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) or experience building in Framer or Webflow
- Motion design in After Effects, Rive, Protopie, or similar
- Experience designing for hardware, embedded screens, or regulated products like medical devices
- Work on a design system used by a real engineering team
- Comfort running usability sessions and synthesizing results on your own
Don't check every box? Apply anyway. We care more about how you think and how fast you learn than a perfect match.
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- Automotive2
- Electronics & Hardware2
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Entry Level Lead UX Designer Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get an entry level lead ux designer job?
Build a portfolio that shows your design process from research through final deliverable, not just finished screens. Entry level hiring managers at this level want to see how you think, so include case studies from coursework, internships, or personal projects. Demonstrating fluency with tools like Figma and showing user testing experience gives candidates a real edge over applicants who only submit a resume.
Which companies hire entry level lead ux designers?
Companies hiring entry level lead ux designers right now include TikTok, Photon, and Figma, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. At this level, hiring comes from a range of employers including tech companies, agencies, and larger enterprises building out their design teams with junior talent.
Are there remote entry level lead ux designer jobs?
Yes, though availability varies by employer and role type. About 32% of entry level lead ux designer openings are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, so candidates are not limited to their local market. Hybrid roles are common at larger companies, while fully remote positions tend to appear more often at product startups and design agencies.
Are these new grad lead ux designer jobs?
Yes, these listings include new grad, recent graduate, and junior roles that welcome candidates with little or no professional experience. A new grad friendly posting typically calls for zero to two years of experience and accepts internship work, academic projects, or a strong portfolio in place of full-time history. Look for language like "entry level," "junior," or "recent graduates encouraged to apply" as reliable signals.
Which industries hire the most entry level lead ux designers?
Entry Level lead ux designer roles concentrate in Technology & Software, Manufacturing, and Automotive, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. These sectors drive junior hiring because they are actively scaling digital products and need early-career designers who can contribute to research, prototyping, and usability work from day one.