About Morningstar

Morningstar brings inspired problem-solvers together with one goal in mind: to help investors reach their financial goals. At our core, we’re one of the world’s top investment research and data companies. Our investment data and research enable us to deliver analytics and insights with a purely independent view, and we leverage the latest in technology and design to deliver an array of solutions that best meet our users’ needs. This foundation of research, data, technology, and design uniquely positions us to provide a complete set of services to investors on a global scale, ultimately helping people make better decisions about their money or the money they manage for millions of people daily.

Our design culture

The Morningstar design team is dedicated to creating thoughtfully designed financial products and services that support people making the best investing decisions for themselves and their clients. We do this by not only creating the look and feel of a product, but also driving product direction: prioritizing the biggest opportunities to support our users and the business, while maintaining a strong sense of product ownership and its resulting success. The design organization is made up of several disciplines—visual, UX, communications, content, and research—which are united to help each other, and the whole company, grow. We’re always seeking designers who are motivated, driven to deliver user-centered outcomes, and equally committed to craft and compassion.

About the Design Lead position

We’re looking for an enthusiastic, energetic Design Lead to join our team in building Morningstar’s flagship software product, Morningstar Direct. This product is an industry standard that investment professionals worldwide use to build, test and market new investment vehicles every day. Backed by our industry-leading research and driven by our mission to empower investor success, our team creates innovative product solutions and benchmarking tools that reflect our experience with creating useful, covetable products that support the investing audience. We seek an individual who can bring a calm, savvy perspective and strong conceptual skills to help us create the next era of investing experiences that define expectations within our vertical. This position reports to the Head of Design for Direct. 

Primary Focus

A Design Lead has demonstrable experience with applying strategic thought to create clear design solutions, informed by context drawn from their partners in business, technology, and other roles across our community. 

General Responsibilities include:

• Guiding others in solving complex problems of diverse scope, requiring an in-depth analysis of multiple factors with a high variability level.
• Model meticulous attention to detail while consistently delivering high-quality solutions that balance all of these factors.
• Drive the user experience, lead the team towards a solution, and coordinate the work of other designers with support from other design, product, marketing, and engineering leaders.
• In addition to solving complex design problems, a Design Lead also supports team alignment, strategy, and prioritization creatively and effectively.

Management + Leadership responsibilities include:

• Balancing personal workloads with guiding others to deliver high-quality work within constraints and across the end-to-end user experience.
• Ensures solutions fit within the broader organizational and brand context.
• Communicating problem spaces, constraints, and quality expectations to others on the team.
• Reinforcing design and quality standards during work review, and seek opportunities to advance those standards.

You'll also do things like:

• Collaborate with product owners, marketers, designers, and engineers to support the end-to-end vision of the customer experience.
• Clearly articulate design decisions and share your process with stakeholders and other designers.
• Participate in critiques, workshops, design studios, and other design activities.
• Adapt your work and approach to meet changing priorities as they occur.
• Have a desire to solve challenging information, communication, and systems design problems.

Qualifications

Basic qualifications:

• Bachelor s degree or equivalent experience
• 5-7 years of relevant experience in designing products and digital experiences

Preferred qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in graphic design or equivalent experience/training in the graphic arts
• Strong knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, Sketch, InVision
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
• Knowledge of HTML and CSS