How to hire a senior web designer

How to hire a senior web designer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior web designer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior web designer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior web designer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior web designer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a senior web designer, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A senior web designer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior web designers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list presents senior web designer salaries for various positions.

   Type of Senior Web Designer	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Web Designer	Web developers design and create websites. They are responsible for the look of the site... Show more	$26-55
   Web Application Developer	A web application developer is responsible for designing website and system applications following clients' specifications and business' needs. Web application developers utilize their expertise in programming languages and system codes, ensuring the efficiency and smooth navigation of the website... Show more	$31-52
   Web Producer	A Web Producer is responsible for monitoring the servers' performance and managing web traffic. Web Producers work with the system engineers in designing web features with a user-friendly interface for smooth navigation and transitions... Show more	$23-46

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Html Css
   • Sketch
   • UI
   • WordPress
   • HTML
   • CSS
   • JavaScript
   • Digital Marketing
   • Graphic Design
   • Visual Design
   • Website Design
   • User Interface
   • User Experience
   • Web Site

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage all QA sessions and assign fixes when necessary.
   • Lead redesign, code development, and transition of corporate website to WordPress.
   • Manage prototype content in wireframes when necessary.
   • Create a customize WordPress theme using PHP, JavaScript and XHTML/CSS for use on NCI's intranet.
   • Design and implement different layouts using HTML5 and CSS3.
   • Work with technologies such as JQuery and Ajax to make the website more attractive and user friendly.

   More senior web designer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior web designer job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A senior web designer salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a senior web designer in Kansas may be lower than in California, and an entry-level senior web designer usually earns less than a senior-level senior web designer. Additionally, a senior web designer with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average senior web designer salary

   $80,678yearly

   $38.79 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior web designer salary

   $55,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 19, 2025

   Average senior web designer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$110,196	$53
   2	Washington	$91,863	$44
   3	New Jersey	$85,518	$41
   4	Massachusetts	$81,090	$39
   5	New York	$78,726	$38
   6	Pennsylvania	$78,687	$38
   7	Maryland	$75,988	$37
   8	Virginia	$75,953	$37
   9	Ohio	$71,932	$35
   10	Utah	$70,935	$34
   11	Texas	$69,888	$34
   12	Illinois	$69,568	$33
   13	Michigan	$67,612	$33
   14	Georgia	$64,368	$31
   15	Florida	$63,809	$31
   16	Nebraska	$60,502	$29
   17	Tennessee	$60,184	$29

   Average senior web designer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Roku	$135,881	$65.33
   2	Gap Inc.	$113,774	$54.70
   3	Visa	$106,830	$51.36	3
   4	One Planet Group	$106,358	$51.13
   5	Bio-Rad Laboratories	$105,711	$50.82
   6	Activision Blizzard	$103,953	$49.98	4
   7	Expedia Group	$102,136	$49.10	57
   8	Zoominfo	$100,498	$48.32
   9	Jackson	$97,639	$46.94
   10	Poly	$97,412	$46.83
   11	Physicians Mutual	$96,244	$46.27
   12	Williams Sonoma	$94,212	$45.29	41
   13	Nextag	$92,712	$44.57
   14	Global Technology Solutions Group	$91,678	$44.08
   15	Illumina	$91,038	$43.77
   16	BuyerLink	$90,384	$43.45
   17	One Identity	$86,611	$41.64
   18	CSC Holdings LLC	$85,689	$41.20
   19	TISTA Science & Technology	$84,315	$40.54
   20	Flow Commerce	$82,850	$39.83

4. Writing a senior web designer job description

   A senior web designer job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a senior web designer job description:

   Senior web designer job description example

   RapidAPI is a team of creators building for developers. We are the world's largest API Hub where over 4 million developers find, test, and connect to 40,000 APIs (and growing!) - all with a single account, single API key, and single SDK.
   
   Our users range from independent developers to the largest companies in the world. We work hard to ensure it's easy for developers to build, discover, and connect to APIs faster while providing enterprise-wide visibility and governance. As a result, entrepreneurs and enterprises can concentrate on creating value and business outcomes.
   
   We operate at a significant scale, but the opportunity is even bigger. You have an unprecedented opportunity to make a massive difference and empower developers to build modern software through API innovation while doing the most critical work of your career.
   Your Role
   
   We are seeking a Web Designer to partner with our Growth team and design experiences for developer discovery, education, and acquisition, with a deep understanding of how to create high value and engaging experiences, from copy to media, short and long form. You'll be a foundational member of a team that we expect to grow as we ramp up, and will look to you to take on a role leading the overall design of RapidAPI.com, the face of our company.
   
   The primary focus of this role will be designing, developing, and iterating experiences for our public website that enable easy developer discovery and encourage signup and acquisition. You will work with Product, Marketing, Sales, and Developer Relations as you design product learning pages, discovery experiences, developer education material, marketing campaigns, referral programs, visuals, and tools & templates that accelerate developer adoption. Join us, and drive the design that will take API development to the next level for developers!
   
   You Will
   Design experiences for discovery and acquisition of API developers, and support those experiences from initial problem evaluation to design and testing through development to iterating on learnings. Develop tools and systems to maintain new and existing site content, components, and static or dynamic web pages that are inclusive, user-centered, accessible, performant, secure, and maintainable. Create and iterate designs used in A/B testing, experimentation, SEO, campaign management, developer relations, and community support. Discover problems and opportunities with research and analysis, and validate solutions with interactive prototyping and usability testing. Define, design, review, test and specify interfaces for developer experiences using participatory and iterative design techniques. Work closely with Product, Marketing, and Engineering teams, in an agile environment, to build efficient developer experiences within technical & time constraints.
   
   You Have
   Proficiency with a full range of design methods and techniques including user research, data analysis, journey mapping, task flows, scenarios, agile design iteration, rapid prototyping, and usability testing. Expertise with design, animation, CMS, and prototyping tools including Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, Lottie, Strapi, and more. A great eye for visual design and an understanding of unity, hierarchy, contrast, spacing, scale, consistency, color, fonts, and the principles of good design. Expertise in web standards (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), web template engines, and solid knowledge of responsive layouts, accessibility, and web performance. Solid understanding of user-centered design methodologies and usability principles. Experience working in a fast-paced organization with multiple designers as a part of a cross-functional agile delivery team. Capability to work within technical constraints, business requirements and tight deadlines. Solid ability to present work, explain your point of view, and incorporate feedback gracefully. Good communication and organization skills, and advocacy for design methodologies and processes.
   
   When applying, please provide a resume and portfolio or document that showcases your work that is relevant to the position.
   
   This is an opportunity to play a key role in a fast-growing and high-scale startup company distributed across the US, Europe, and Israel. You'll be taking our product to the next level within a high talent density team and out-of-the-box thinking. Having raised $150 million in a Series D investment round in 2022; you'll be working with a team that is scaling globally, fast.
   
   If this sounds like you, click apply below! We'd love to hear from you.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right senior web designer for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with senior web designers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit senior web designers who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   To find senior web designer candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as dribbble, authentic jobs, working not working, coroflot.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with senior web designer candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   If your interviews with senior web designer applicants aren't enough to make a decision, you should also consider including a test project. These are often the best, most straightforward, and least bias-prone ways of determining who will likely succeed in the role. If you don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior web designer

   Once you've decided on a perfect senior web designer candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new senior web designer. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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