Lead UX Designer

About this role

Who We Are
Neighborly Software was built to help communities make a difference in the lives of low-income families and vulnerable populations. Our mission is simple, “Helping Communities, Help People.”

Headquartered in Atlanta, GA we offer a cloud-based technology platform for the administration and disbursement of governments funds for programs such as Housing, Economic, Community Development, Disaster Recovery/MIT, Home Energy Rebate Programs, and Housing Choice Voucher programs.

Role Overview

The UX Lead is the first dedicated user experience role at Neighborly Software. Our users — government agency staff, nonprofit administrators, contractors, and the residents and applicants they serve — rely on the platform to run complex, high-stakes programs where clarity matters. The UX Lead owns how that platform looks, feels, and flows.

This is a founding, individual-contributor role with no direct reports. You will build the design practice from the ground up — a design system and reusable component library, documented personas and user journeys, a standard style guide, and accessibility and responsive design as standing norms — while remaining hands-on with the design work itself. Because the role carries no team, it leads through influence: setting a direction that product managers, engineers, and QA choose to follow because the thinking is sound and the work makes theirs better.

Beyond producing design artifacts, you will set standards and hold the organization to them, guiding product, engineering, and QA toward a simpler, lower-friction experience. Success is measured in friction removed: fewer clicks, clearer workflows, visible status and feedback, and interfaces that embrace a “don’t make me think” philosophy. This is an opportunity to take the platform into its next phase and align the experience with where the company is headed.

Core Attributes:

• Owner — treats the platform experience as their responsibility end to end, and holds the stand...