Product Designer, Contract (Senior - Design Director)
The Need:
Instrument is looking for experienced freelance Product Designers to join upcoming digital product and experience work. These engagements may range from designing new athlete- or customer-facing experiences to translating a new visual direction into scalable templates, components, and documented design systems.
You’ll partner closely with designers, strategists, technologists, producers, and client teams to turn complex journeys into clear, useful, high-quality digital experiences. Depending on the engagement and your level, you may own a substantial workstream, strengthen and document a design system, or provide hands-on design leadership across a team.
We’re open to Senior Product Designers and Design Directors. Senior Designers should be able to independently own complex design work and contribute meaningfully to systems and team critique. Design Directors should also bring hands-on creative leadership, the ability to set a high bar across a workstream, and confidence guiding both teams and clients.
Please share a portfolio with examples of product, platform, responsive web, or systems work. We’re especially interested in seeing how you moved from a complex problem or journey to a cohesive experience—and what you personally contributed.
What You'll Do:
• Design polished, thoughtful digital product experiences across desktop and mobile
• Translate user journeys, product requirements, and creative direction into clear flows, interfaces, and prototypes
• Create, evolve, and document component-based design systems, including patterns, specifications, and reusable assets
• Apply design systems consistently across templates and surfaces while identifying gaps, inconsistencies, and opportunities to improve them
• Partner with cross-functional teams to balance user needs, brand expression, technical feasibility, accessibility, and delivery constraints
• Present work and articulate design decisions clearly in internal and client reviews
• Support quality through implementation, collaborating with engineering partners to ensure the intended experience carries through to build
• For Design Director-level engagements, guide design quality and direction across a workstream; mentor designers and build confidence with senior client partners
What You'll Bring:
• Significant experience designing digital products, services, or complex responsive web experiences
• A portfolio that demonstrates strong visual craft alongside sound UX and systems thinking
• Deep fluency in Figma, including components, variables, libraries, prototyping, and clear documentation practices
• Experience building or scaling design systems that are practical for teams to use—not simply beautiful libraries
• Comfort working from foundational strategy, information architecture, or an established creative direction and bringing it to life across interconnected experiences
• Strong understanding of accessibility and how to design inclusive, usable experiences across devices
• Ability to work independently, manage a scoped workstream, and communicate proactively in a fast-moving engagement
• Clear, constructive collaboration with other designers, strategists, technologists, producers, and clients
What We Offer:
Skills
As published by lever · 12 questions · 6 written answers
Basics
Resume/CV, Full name, Pronouns, Email, Phone, Current location, Current company, LinkedIn Profile URL, Website URL, GitHub URL, Other website, Which racial and/or ethnic category best describes you?Select all that apply, What gender identity do you most closely identify with?, Do you identify as transgender / gender diverse?, What are your pronouns?Select all that apply, What sexual orientation do you most closely identify with?, Do you live with a disability?, Are you a veteran/have you served in the military?
Pick from a list (6)
- Where do you live? optional
- Are you comfortable working core U.S. time zone hours (PST–EST)?
- How many professional years of experience do you have? optional
- Have you worked for an agency before?
- Have you worked on any product vision and/or roadmap work?
- Can you build wireframes?
Written answers (6)
- Please share your current freelance availability, including start date and weekly capacity. (Example: Available now at 40 hours/week; Not available until November 2026.)
- What is your average hourly or daily freelance rate?
- How did you hear about this job? optional
- If your portfolio is password protected, what is the password? optional
- What's your experience with Figma?
- Do you have a preference for product vision or execution work? Yes so please explain