Senior Consultant - User Experience & Product Design

CompassX is a boutique business and technology consulting firm. We help Fortune 500 and high-growth clients deliver their most strategic initiatives, from enterprise transformations to digital and data-driven projects. With over 15 years of proven results, we’ve expanded across industries including financial services, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, consumer products, and quick service restaurants.

We are honored to be recognized as a three-time winner of Consulting Magazine’s Best Boutique Firms to Work For, and previously recognized as a “Best Place to Work” in Southern California and one of INC.’s 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.

We're looking for a UX consultant who leads with problem-solving and brings strong UX methodology to bear on it - not a visual designer whose primary output is Figma comps or style guides.

At CompassX, UX consultants work directly with enterprise clients to shape digital products, internal tools, and service experiences. You'll bring structure to ambiguous problems, run discovery with real users, and design solutions that are both technically feasible and genuinely usable - moving fluidly across research, interaction design, and prototyping depending on what the engagement needs.

The right person here is someone who has built real UX credibility but operates like a consultant: comfortable with ambiguity, able to work across the full design spectrum, and not precious about deliverable type.

What You'll Do

• Lead Discovery: Plan and facilitate user research - interviews, contextual inquiry, usability testing - to surface real problems before jumping to solutions.

• Design Across the Stack: Move fluidly between journey maps, service blueprints, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes depending on what the engagement needs. Own the end-to-end design arc.

• Build and Validate: Go beyond static deliverables where needed - build interactive prototypes, contribute to design systems, or work directly in tools like Figma, Tableau, or low-code platforms to get something in front of users faster.

• Translate for Technical Teams: Partner with developers, architects, and data engineers to make sure what you design is actually buildable - and that what gets built matches the intent.

• Communicate Design Decisions: Articulate your design thinking to non-design stakeholders: why this approach, what it solves, what trade-offs were made. Make design accessible without dumbing it down.

• Bring AI Into the Work: Use AI tools to accelerate synthesis, prototype generation, and design iteration - and help clients think through how AI changes their product and service design.

What You'll Bring

• Generalist UX Range: 5–8 years across UX research, interaction design, and/or design build. You've done at least two of the three well - and ideally all three.

• Consulting or Client-Facing Experience: You've worked in an agency, consultancy, or embedded client delivery context. You know how to operate with ambiguity, shifting priorities, and real stakeholder pressure.

• Enterprise Design Context: Experience designing for internal enterprise tools, workflows, or platforms - not just consumer-facing products. You understand organizational complexity and design within it.

• Prototyping & Build Fluency: Proficiency in Figma is expected. Familiarity with Tableau, Power BI, or low-code tools is a strong plus for engagements with a data visualization component.

• Research Rigor: You know how to run a proper user interview, synthesize findings, and turn messy qualitative data into design direction - not just pretty journey maps.

• AI-Forward Mindset: You actively use AI tools to accelerate design work and bring a point of view on how AI is changing product and service design.

• Local Presence: Based in LA or Orange County, with the ability to be on-site at client locations in the SoCal area.

Benefits

• Competitive salary with performance-based bonus
• PTO, holidays, and sabbatical program
• Health, dental, vision, and life insurance
• Retirement plan with company match from day one
• Learning and professional development support
• Small-firm culture with direct access to leadership

Our consultants say CompassX is a place where they can truly find their own path. As part of a smaller firm, they see the impact of their work, have an identity, and know their voice matters. They value the freedom to take the reins of their careers, shape their client work, and maintain a direct line to leadership.

With CompassX’s focus on serving local Southern California clients, consultants not only build lasting relationships but also see the results of their work in the communities where they live.

At CompassX, you won’t just follow a path - you’ll create one.