Lead UX Designer

Location: Chicago, IL area (hybrid — 2–3 days/week onsite) About The Role Our client, a Fortune 500 industrial distribution leader, is looking for a Lead UX Designer to own the end-to-end design of new customer-facing interfaces supporting their industrial vending and inventory management platform — a solution deployed directly at customer sites that allows field personnel to access products via card-swipe kiosks. This is a highly visible, high-impact opportunity to shape a product experience touching a broad field-based customer base. This role sits at the intersection of design, product, and engineering, and is ideal for a designer who wants to own the full user journey — from flow and content to interaction design — while also mentoring and elevating junior design talent on the team. What You'll Do Own the full user experience for new customer-facing kiosk/vending interfaces — including user flows, content strategy, interaction design, and visual designPartner closely with Product Management and Engineering to translate business and user needs into scalable, intuitive digital solutionsGuide, mentor, and provide design direction to junior designers on the team, raising the bar on craft and processBring a point of view on how AI can enhance and inform the product experience — this isn't an AI-heavy role today, but leadership is looking for someone who can help shape that evolution over timeContribute to a growing, high-visibility corner of the broader UX organization What We're Looking For Strong, hands-on UX design craft — this is a player-coach role, not a pure management positionPrior experience leading or mentoring other designers, even informallyComfort partnering directly with engineering and product stakeholders in an Agile environmentFull-time, in-house industry experience — candidates coming primarily from a consulting background have not been a strong fit for this team historicallyFamiliarity with or curiosity about applying AI/emerging tech to product design (a plus, not required)Must be local to the Chicago metro area or open to relocation Growth Opportunity While this role is scoped as a strong individual design lead, there is a potential longer-term path toward a formal people-management role for the right person.