Counted October 17, 2026 · from employers’ own postings
Design & creative: 2,883 open roles, 179 entry level.
Designing what people see and use — product and UX design, research, graphic, brand, motion and creative direction.
1,193 of these postings state no level; the entry-level count is over the ones that do, plus any that ask for a year or less and are not titled senior. Pay is the median of posted bands, in USD, only where eight or more roles posted one. Only open roles are counted.
The roles, as the postings name them
Open roles and posted pay by role.
| Role | Open roles | Median posted band |
|---|---|---|
| Product Designer | 746 | $185K |
| Graphic Designer | 146 | $85K |
| Ux Designer | 93 | $155K |
| Creative Director | 75 | $199K |
| Brand Designer | 70 | $167K |
| Art Director | 62 | $137K |
| Designer | 57 | $103K |
| Director | 54 | $256K |
| Manager | 50 | $215K |
| Ux Researcher | 42 | $185K |
| Design Engineer | 38 | $199K |
| Associate Creative Director | 36 | $164K |
What each pays, on its own page: Product Designer, Graphic Designer, Ux Designer, Creative Director, Brand Designer, Art Director, Ux Researcher, Associate Creative Director, Product Design Engineer, Video Editor, Motion Designer, Visual Designer.
A role is the posting’s own title with its level, shift and schedule set aside, so “Registered Nurse – ICU (Nights)” and “Senior Registered Nurse” are one role. The twelve most posted; pay is the median of posted bands, where eight or more roles posted one.
The skills, as the postings name them
What the postings ask for.
| Skill | Postings | At entry |
|---|---|---|
| Product Design | 1,713 | 36% |
| Figma | 1,118 | 17% |
| Design Systems | 1,069 | 13% |
| Visual Design | 1,023 | 16% |
| Prototyping | 838 | 13% |
| Accessibility | 578 | 6% |
| Interaction Design | 549 | 8% |
| User Research | 539 | 16% |
| Typography | 531 | 10% |
| Product Strategy | 433 | 2% |
| Illustration | 429 | 18% |
| Wireframing | 381 | 12% |
A count of open postings naming each skill, the twelve most named; “at entry” is the share of the 179 entry-level postings that name it. Never a trend, never a score of you. Which of these you already have, and what you would learn first, is on your CareerVersion.
The ladder, by level
What each rung pays.
| Level | Open roles | Median posted band | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|
| INTERN | 61 | $66K | $52K–$79K |
| JUNIOR | 96 | $50K | $50K–$58K |
| MID | 23 | $127K | $103K–$145K |
| SENIOR | 722 | $159K | $129K–$185K |
| STAFF | 182 | $212K | $186K–$234K |
| PRINCIPAL | 102 | $208K | $175K–$233K |
| MANAGEMENT | 504 | $204K | $163K–$247K |
Levels as the postings name them. A rung shows a median only where eight or more postings at that level carried a band; the middle half is the twenty-fifth to seventy-fifth percentile of those bands.
Who is hiring
The employers with the most open.
| Employer | Open roles | Entry level |
|---|---|---|
| Costar | 62 | 51 |
| Capital One | 39 | — |
| Dentsuaegis | 33 | — |
| Lifted, an Upwork Company™ | 33 | — |
| Air Apps | 22 | — |
| ServiceNow | 22 | — |
| Luxe Media, LLC | 20 | 17 |
| Weekday AI | 20 | — |
| Disney (Disneycareerdc) | 16 | 3 |
| Salesforce | 16 | 1 |
Counted from employers’ own job boards. The twelve with the most open roles in this career tonight; “entry level” is how many of those ask for no prior experience.
Where the work is
20% of open design & creative roles are remote.
- Remote20%581 roles
- Hybrid13%361 roles
- On site59%1,713 roles
- Not stated8%228 roles
As the boards state it. Nothing in the postings supports a city-level figure, so none is given.
How this was counted
Every figure here is counted from 2,883 open postings read from 1,115 employers’ own job boards on October 17, 2026, and recounted every night. Pay is the band the employer posted — never an estimate, never a model: a level shows a median only where eight or more postings carried one, and 1,383 of these postings did. Titles are grouped by the words the postings use, with levels, shifts and schedules removed, so one role is one row. The same counts as Markdown are at facts.md.
Make design & creative your path — free.
A CareerVersion remembers your record and shows you three real design & creative roles and the three skills the market asks for, on your first screen.
Counted October 17, 2026 from 2,883 open postings; refreshed nightly. Facts as Markdown: facts.md.