Purpose
Produce a hiring-ready design job description calibrated to a specific level — junior, mid, senior, staff/lead IC, or design manager — with responsibilities, qualifications, and portfolio expectations that actually differ by seniority, plus an inclusive language pass that removes gatekeeping and biased phrasing. Solves the problem of JDs that all read the same regardless of level and quietly filter out qualified candidates.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Write a job description for a design role (product, UX, visual, brand, systems, research-adjacent)
- Level up or down an existing JD (e.g., convert a senior JD into a mid-level one)
- Standardize design job descriptions across the org so levels are consistent
- Fix a JD that isn't attracting the right candidates or is over-specifying requirements
- Rewrite a description to use inclusive, bias-checked language
- Create a manager or lead JD that separates people leadership from craft expectations
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Role title: The specific title (e.g., Product Designer, Senior UX Designer, Design Manager)
- Design level: Junior / Mid / Senior / Staff or Lead IC / Design Manager
- Discipline focus: Product/UX, visual/brand, design systems, interaction, or a mix
- Team context: Team size, who the role reports to, and whether it has direct reports
- Core problems the role owns: 2–4 concrete things this person will actually work on
- Tooling & workflow: Design tools, engineering handoff process, research maturity
- Compensation & location: Salary band or range, remote/hybrid/onsite, and location
If salary band is withheld, default to a "compensation philosophy" statement and flag that a posted range improves candidate quality and is legally required in several jurisdictions.
Instructions
Step 1: Calibrate the Level Before Writing
Anchor every downstream section to the level, using these distinctions:
- Junior: Executes defined tasks with support; contributes to features, not strategy; learning craft fundamentals. Requirements should assume 0–2 years and welcome bootcamp/self-taught paths.
- Mid: Owns features end-to-end with light guidance; makes sound craft decisions independently; 2–4 years.
- Senior: Owns problem spaces, not just features; drives craft quality for others; influences product direction; 4–7 years.
- Staff / Lead IC: Sets direction across multiple teams or a system; multiplies other designers without managing them; 7+ years. No direct reports.
- Design Manager: People leadership, hiring, growth, and team health as the primary job; craft oversight without being the primary maker. Separate this cleanly from Staff IC — they are not the same.
State the level assumption at the top of the working draft so responsibilities and qualifications don't drift.
Step 2: Write the Role Summary
3–4 sentences that answer: what problem the role owns, who they work with, and why the work matters. Lead with impact, not the company boilerplate. Avoid "rockstar," "ninja," "guru," and "we work hard and play hard."
Step 3: Draft Responsibilities (Leveled)
Write 6–9 responsibility bullets scaled to the level:
- Junior/Mid bullets describe execution and ownership scope ("Design and ship features across the product")
- Senior bullets describe problem ownership and influence ("Define the design direction for a product area")
- Staff bullets describe cross-team leverage ("Set standards and mentor designers across teams")
- Manager bullets separate people leadership ("Coach, grow, and hire designers") from team outcomes ("Own delivery and quality of the team's work") Start each bullet with an action verb. Do not reuse identical bullets across levels — that is the most common JD failure.
Step 4: Split Qualifications into Required vs. Preferred
- Required (4–6 items): Genuine must-haves only. Cut anything that's actually learnable on the job or nice-to-have.
- Preferred (3–5 items): Signals of strength, not filters. Apply the bias audit here: replace "X years required" with capability statements where possible, drop degree requirements unless legally necessary, and avoid stacking so many "requirements" that qualified candidates self-select out.
Step 5: Define Portfolio & Interview Expectations
State exactly what a candidate should show:
- What the portfolio should demonstrate at this level (process for junior/mid; impact and judgment for senior+; team outcomes and hiring philosophy for managers)
- Whether a portfolio review, take-home, or live exercise is part of the process
- One sentence on how the work will be evaluated — so candidates self-assess accurately
Step 6: Add Compensation, Logistics, and EEO Framing
- Post the salary range or band, or a compensation philosophy if no range is provided
- State location model (remote/hybrid/onsite) and any timezone or location constraints
- Include a brief, genuine inclusion statement — not boilerplate copied from another company
Step 7: Run the Inclusive Language Pass
Before finalizing, scan the full draft and correct:
- Gendered or coded terms ("he," "aggressive," "dominant," "young/energetic")
- Ableist or culture-fit gatekeeping ("stand for long periods" unless real; "culture fit" → "values alignment")
- Requirement inflation (long "required" lists correlate with fewer applications from underrepresented candidates)
- Jargon and internal acronyms a candidate wouldn't know
Output Format
- Structure: A complete, paste-ready job description in the order the sections appear below
- Length: 450–700 words
- Format: Structured document — short intro prose, then scannable bulleted sections
- Sections: Role Title & Level → Role Summary → What You'll Do (responsibilities) → Required Qualifications → Preferred Qualifications → Portfolio & Interview Expectations → Compensation & Logistics → Inclusion Statement
- Tone: Warm, direct, and specific — reads like a real design leader wrote it, not HR boilerplate
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] Responsibilities are unique to the stated level — none would read identically at a different seniority
- [ ] Required qualifications list has 6 or fewer items and contains only genuine must-haves
- [ ] Manager JDs separate people-leadership responsibilities from craft/delivery responsibilities
- [ ] A salary range or explicit compensation philosophy is present
- [ ] The inclusive language pass has removed gendered terms, culture-fit gatekeeping, and unnecessary degree requirements
- [ ] No placeholder brackets remain — company, team, and role details are filled in from inputs
Notes
- The single biggest JD failure in design hiring is a senior/staff description dressed up as a mid-level role (or vice versa) — level calibration in Step 1 prevents this.
- Staff IC and Design Manager are parallel, not sequential. Never imply that management is the "promotion" from senior; write them as distinct tracks.
- Shorter required-qualifications lists reliably increase application volume from underrepresented candidates — resist the urge to list everything.
- If the role is genuinely a mix of two disciplines (e.g., systems + product), say so explicitly rather than burying it in responsibilities; hybrid roles attract fewer but better-matched candidates when named clearly.
How to use this skill
This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.
Installing in Claude Code:
~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)
Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.
Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:
- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
- Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits
For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills