UX Designer

UX Designer

EF Education First is looking for a UX Designer to join our growing UX team supporting our EF World Journeys travel brands, Go Ahead Tours and Ultimate Break. Please include a cover letter and a link to your portfolio with your application. 

Who you are: 
You are an experiential design nerd who understands how to balance practical with blue sky and loves to ask “why?” You crave the challenge of reconciling complex user needs with even more complex business needs. You own your ideas and run with them. When you’re stuck—you believe there’s a creative way around almost any obstacle. And at the end of the day, you haven’t lost your sense of humor. You trust your gut. You love what you do and want to collaborate with a diverse team. You crave the opportunity and growth of a large company but the flexibility and camaraderie of a small one. 

In this role, you’ll: 

• Use your UX design skills to empathize with users and conceive intuitive experiences for them across our digital ecosystem, with primary focus on our operational enablement systems. 


• Work side-by-side (physically and virtually) with a cross-functional team of other UI/UX Designers and Writers, Product Managers, Engineers, Product Analysts, and business stakeholders to build and optimize our digital experiences: 
  
  
  
  • Understand the user journey and advocate for an exceptional user experience that solves real business problems 
  
  
  • Conduct user research using appropriate methodologies to support discovery, concepting, execution, and reflection product development phases 
  
  
  • Translate quantitative and qualitative insights into design ideas and concepts using experience maps / flows, wireframes, and interactive prototypes 
  
  
  • Think creatively and analytically while understanding the opportunities and constraints of multiple devices and platforms 
  
  
  • Present ideas in both formal and informal settings to get stakeholder buy-in 
  
  
  • Work with and continue to evolve our components-based design system, as well as 3rd party design systems  
  
  
  • Receive feedback from stakeholders gracefully and take an iterative approach to design solutions 
  
  
  • Be comfortable managing multiple projects simultaneously 
  
  
  • Use tools like Figma, Miro, Confluence, and Jira 
  
  


• Proactively take initiative on project-based work and adopt UI/UX best practices  

Must-haves: 

• 3+ years professional experience in a UX, UX/UI, product design, or service design role 


• Experience with user-centered methodologies and design thinking  


• Strong visual problem-solving skills 


• Solid understanding of interactive design 


• Hands on experience conducting user research such as user interviews, surveys, field studies, usability testing, A/B testing, and/or other methods, analyzing results, and summarizing insights 


• Ability to effectively communicate your design decision-making as they relate to business goals and user needs 


• Enterprise-level system design experience 


• Responsive web / mobile app experience 


• An “I’ll figure it out” attitude and approach 


• A portfolio featuring multiple digital design projects and supporting artifacts 

Nice-to-haves: 

• Degree in Interaction Design, Communication Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Design, Psychology, or related field preferred 


• Knowledge / Advocacy of WCAG 2.1 Accessibility best practices 


• Travel industry experience 


• Contribution in 3rd party tool / vendor assessments to inform buy/build/license decision-making 


• eCommerce experience 

What you can expect as a new hire: 

• During your first week, you’ll: 
  
  
  
  • Get to know the UX and Operations Enablement Product team members you’ll be working with 
  
  
  • Begin to get a sense of the business, brands, digital products, and internally facing platforms 
  
  
  • Learn about our technology platforms at a high-level and product roadmap 
  
  
  • Ask lots of questions! 
  
  


• During your first month, you’ll: 
  
  
  
  • Understand who’s who on the other teams we work closely with 
  
  
  • Have gained confidence with our brands, UX flows and design systems 
  
  
  • Have a high-level understanding of the business and customer base 
  
  
  • Be ready to start taking ownership of a UX project or two 
  
  
  • Contribute to peer reviews 
  
  


• During your third month, you’ll: 
  
  
  
  • Be comfortable working within our product and brand guidelines 
  
  
  • Grow your understanding of our customers (internal and external) through research and user testing 
  
  
  • Work with a Senior designer or independently to develop UX design concepts and executions on multiple web platform, website or mobile app projects 
  
  
  • Collaborate with Product & Engineering on the Opportunity-Discovery-Solution process 
  
  
  • Contribute to the design system and help maintain component organization  
  
  

Why you’ll love working here:  
Work in our beautiful Zurich office where you’ll enjoy comprehensive professional development and a wide range of benefits ready for our team members to enjoy at the office, at home, during weekends, after work and with friends & family, including: 

• Discounted passes to local destinations and tourist hot spots such as Mt. Titlis or Kunsthaus Zurich 


• Full reimbursement of the SBB ‘halb-tax’ travel card, covering country-wide public transportation 


• Free membership for our newly built gym or get involved with our variety of sports teams 


• Seasonal and monthly office events including holiday parties, ski trips, and pay-day happy hours 


• Discounts on a wide range of local restaurants, shops, hotel stays and EF products 


• 15% off in-house childcare service (more info. available) 


• Option to work in the office full-time or hybrid 


• Relocation support, if applicable 


• Diverse and inclusive workplace 


• Collaboration on choice of technology 


• One flight home per year for those who relocate to Zurich for the position

About EF Go Ahead Tours 
We believe you’re never too old to be a student of the world. For 30 years we have guided individuals across the globe through carefully crafted group travel. Our travelers range from young professionals to retirees, solo travelers to entire families, travel enthusiasts to those stepping off their first flight. We believe that the best way to learn about the world is to experience it. Every day we come to work hoping to help as many people as possible do just that. 

About EF Ultimate Break 
EF Ultimate Break inspires young adults to participate in life-changing travel experiences across the globe. EF Ultimate Break is a division of EF Education First and is the easiest way to travel abroad for anyone 18-35 years old. Every trip gives travelers the chance to make friends, explore new places, and immerse themselves in different cultures – on fun, affordable, life-changing adventures.  
 
About EF Education First 
At EF we believe that the world is better when people try to understand one another. Since 1965, we have helped millions of people see new places, experience new cultures, and learn new things about the world and about themselves. Our culturally immersive education programs—focused on language, travel, cultural exchange, and academics—turn dreams into international opportunities. 
 
When you join EF, you join a multicultural and diverse community working across more than 600 schools and offices in 50 countries, all with one shared mission of opening the world through education. Whoever you are, whatever you are passionate about—we welcome you and want you to bring that to work every day. EF is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to inclusion and belonging across race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, identity, parental status, experience and everything else that makes you unique. 

Founded in Sweden in 1965, EF has schools and offices around the world, including hubs in Boston, London, Mexico City, São Paulo, Shanghai, Stockholm, Zürich, and more. Learn more at https://ef.com.