Also called: Staff Product Designer, Lead Product Designer
The most senior hands-on designer, solving the hardest design problems across a whole product.
They map out complex flows like how a bank app handles fraud alerts, prototype ideas in Figma, and test them with users. They mentor other designers and influence product direction. It's a top job for designers who don't want to manage people.
Estimate; big tech pays at the top of this range.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 10 years after high school. Bachelor's in design or HCI plus 8+ years of experience.
Ways in: 4-year college, Self-taught. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Graphic Design.
Growing faster than average (about 7% over 10 years). Follows digital designer projections.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI drafts screens and flows quickly; untangling the hardest cross-product problems and steering teams stays senior human work.
Classes: AP Psychology, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Studio Art.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-1255.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.