Archived listing. The details below describe a past opening.
Principal UX / Service Designer - In-Store & Retail Experience
Location: Atlanta, GA - 5 days onsite (required) Employment Type: W2 Contract Experience: 10+ years of relevant UX, Product Design, Service Design, or Customer Experience experience Focus: In-Store Experience, Retail Operations, Service Design & Experience Strategy
About the Opportunity
We're looking for an experienced Principal UX / Service Designer to help shape and improve complex, end-to-end retail experiences across physical stores, digital products, associate-facing technology, and operational workflows.
This role goes beyond designing individual digital products or features. You'll take a holistic view of how customers and store associates interact with technology, services, processes, and people throughout the retail experience.
The ideal candidate understands that delivering a seamless in-store experience requires connecting multiple touchpoints, systems, and operational processes. You'll help identify where friction exists, where customer and associate needs are not being met, and where opportunities exist to simplify workflows, improve efficiency, and create more intuitive experiences.
You'll combine service design, journey mapping, customer and associate research, systems thinking, and product design strategy to uncover opportunities and translate insights into actionable design recommendations.
We're looking for someone who can zoom out to understand the broader retail ecosystem while remaining hands-on in discovery, service blueprinting, experience mapping, prototyping, and design execution.
This is a senior individual contributor role requiring strong cross-functional influence, independent ownership, and the ability to drive meaningful experience improvements across a complex organization.
What You'll Do
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Lead service design and experience strategy initiatives focused on in-store retail experiences, customer journeys, and associate-facing workflows.
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Evaluate end-to-end experiences across physical stores, digital products, services, and operational touchpoints.
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Develop and evolve customer journey maps, associate journey maps, service blueprints, experience frameworks, and current-state/future-state workflows.
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Identify friction points, unmet needs, operational inefficiencies, and opportunities to improve the overall retail experience.
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Understand how customers, store associates, technology, and business processes interact throughout the shopping and service journey.
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Conduct or partner on research with customers and frontline employees to understand real-world behaviors, challenges, and workflows.
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Translate research findings, operational insights, and business requirements into clear experience opportunities and recommendations.
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Facilitate workshops and collaborative working sessions to align cross-functional teams around experience challenges and potential solutions.
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Partner closely with Product, UX Research, UX Design, Engineering, store operations, and business stakeholders.
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Help teams understand the relationships and dependencies between different systems, products, services, and operational processes.
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Identify opportunities to simplify complex in-store workflows and improve the usability of associate-facing technology.
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Explore opportunities to create more seamless experiences between digital and physical retail channels.
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Establish experience principles, frameworks, and strategic recommendations that guide product and service improvements.
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Influence product direction and experience priorities through research, systems thinking, and clear communication.
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Present complex journeys, systemic challenges, and recommendations to stakeholders and senior leadership.
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Translate strategic opportunities into actionable concepts, workflows, prototypes, and design solutions.
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Help elevate service design practices and customer-centered thinking across the organization.
What We're Looking For
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10+ years of relevant experience in UX Design, Product Design, Service Design, Customer Experience, Experience Strategy, or a related discipline.
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Strong experience within retail, in-store technology, store operations, or physical customer service environments.
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Demonstrated experience improving complex, end-to-end customer or employee experiences rather than focusing exclusively on individual digital interfaces.
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Strong hands-on experience with service blueprinting, journey mapping, experience mapping, and workflow analysis.
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Ability to connect digital products, physical environments, frontline employees, and operational processes into a cohesive experience.
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Strong systems thinking and an understanding of how interconnected products, services, teams, and business processes influence the overall experience.
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Experience conducting or leveraging research with customers, frontline employees, or operational users.
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Ability to identify both immediate usability challenges and broader opportunities for experience transformation.
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Strong facilitation, storytelling, stakeholder management, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
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Demonstrated ability to influence product and experience direction at a Principal level without formal management authority.
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Comfortable navigating ambiguity, defining complex problems, and bringing structure to competing business and user needs.
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Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on service design and UX execution.
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Experience translating research and strategic recommendations into actionable design improvements.
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Strong portfolio demonstrating complex experience mapping, service design methodology, systems thinking, and measurable outcomes.
Relevant Experience
We're particularly interested in candidates with backgrounds involving:
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Retail store operations and in-store customer experiences
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Associate-facing applications and frontline employee workflows
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Omnichannel retail and connected digital/physical experiences
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Store technology and operational platforms
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Customer journey management and service blueprinting
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Retail checkout, self-checkout, and point-of-sale experiences
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Customer service and support operations
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Inventory, fulfillment, returns, and order pickup experiences
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Enterprise service design and experience transformation
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Complex operational environments involving multiple user groups, systems, and touchpoints
Direct experience designing for physical retail environments is strongly preferred.
What Makes Someone Successful in This Role
The strongest candidates will understand that the retail experience extends well beyond a website, mobile application, or individual transaction.
They'll be able to look at an experience from multiple perspectives: the customer navigating a store, the associate supporting that customer, the technology enabling the interaction, and the operational processes happening behind the scenes.
They'll know how to uncover friction across those interactions and translate their findings into improvements that benefit both customers and employees.
This person should be comfortable spending time understanding real-world store environments, collaborating with frontline stakeholders, and identifying opportunities that might not be visible when looking at a digital interface alone.
At the Principal level, they'll also be expected to influence experience direction across multiple teams, communicate a clear strategic vision, and help connect individual product initiatives to the broader retail ecosystem.
Most importantly, we're looking for someone who combines retail domain knowledge, service design expertise, systems-level problem-solving, and hands-on execution.
Nice to Have
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Experience designing technology used directly by store associates.
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Experience with large-scale retail or omnichannel commerce organizations.
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Background in checkout, payments, POS, or customer service technology.
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Experience establishing or scaling service design and journey management practices.
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Experience facilitating cross-functional design workshops with senior leadership.
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Familiarity with Figma, FigJam, Miro, and other collaborative design tools.
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Experience with AI-assisted research, journey mapping, ideation, or prototyping.
The hourly pay range for this position (dependent on factors including but not limited to client requirements, experience, statutory considerations, and location) is $75.00 to $80.00/hr. Benefits available to full-time employees: medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, 401k and commuter benefits.
Synergis is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, gender identity, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, military/veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law.
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including but not limited to, the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.
For immediate consideration, please forward your resume to mpersons@synergishr.com
If you require assistance or an accommodation in the application or employment process, please contact us a mpersons@synergishr.com.
Synergis is a workforce solutions partner serving thousands of businesses and job seekers nationwide. Our digital world has accelerated the need for businesses to build IT ecosystems that enable growth and innovation along with enhancing the Total Experience (TX). Synergis partners with our clients at the intersection of talent and transformation to scale their balanced teams of tech, digital and creative professionals. Learn more about Synergis at www.synergishr.com.
