150+ Design & UX Jobs in Kansas City, MO

Observed local pay looks decent but uneven. BLS puts the broad arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media group at an average of $38.36 per hour in Kansas City as of May 2025, while BLS estimated Web and Digital Interface Designers at $89,240 per year in the metro in May 2023. Directional pay signals on new openings are lower: Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows Missouri design, creative & ux openings at a mean offered salary of about $63,960 in August 2026 (n=312), versus about $75,574 nationally (n=39,125).

Full August 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 48 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $87,500 at the 25th percentile, $107,790 at the median and $148,608 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of September 25, 2026

Senior roles | Entry level | Remote | Posted this week

Live from the Callings.ai index of over 13 million postings, refreshed hourly and re-checked here nightly. Roles that close are dropped at the next refresh.

Showing 30 of 160 openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

Kansas City is a competitive market for Design, Creative & UX over the next 3-6 months. The metro unemployment rate was 3.6% in July 2026, but arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations were only 1.2% of local employment, and Missouri design, creative & ux postings were down 2.8% year over year in August 2026. We observed more than 20 postings across around 15 companies in the last 90 days, with most roles mid-level and about 75% on-site, so landing a role is realistic for targeted candidates but tough for remote-only or early-career applicants.

Best positioned: Mid-level designers who can commute for on-site or hybrid work and show Figma, Adobe, and AI-assisted workflow fluency have the best odds right now.

Main caution: The biggest mistake is treating Kansas City like a high-volume remote UX market; the visible local sample is small, and only about 15% of roles were entry-level.

From the August 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 160 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. Kiewit: 13 open roles
2. Garmin: 8 open roles
3. Garmin Ltd.: 8 open roles
4. Henderson Engineers: 8 open roles
5. Kiewit Corporation: 6 open roles
6. Black & Veatch Corporation: 4 open roles
7. Burns & McDonnell: 4 open roles
8. Hy-Vee, Inc.: 4 open roles
9. Jacobs Engineering Group: 4 open roles
10. VML, Inc.: 4 open roles

Where the openings are

• Kansas City: 72
• Lenexa: 23
• Overland Park: 23
• Olathe: 20
• Leawood: 3
• Shawnee: 2
• Independence: 2
• Grain Valley: 2

Work arrangement

on-site 105 (67%), hybrid 41 (26%), remote 10 (6%)

Where the demand is

Most real opportunity is in mid-level digital, product-adjacent, and visual design work rather than broad creative hiring. In the local sample, we observed more than 20 postings across around 15 companies over the last 90 days, with Garmin the most consistently active named employer at around 5 postings. The role mix skewed mid-career at about 60%, versus about 15% entry level, and about 75% of openings were on-site with about 15% hybrid and about 10% remote. That points job seekers toward employers that still value day-to-day collaboration and shipped work, not just speculative portfolios. Walsworth's open hybrid UX Designer role in Overland Park is a good example of the local pattern, and it specified a standard weekday hybrid schedule rather than a fully remote setup. Skills demand also blends UX and visual execution: Figma led local postings at about 45%, while Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Creative Suite, motion graphics, and InDesign each appeared in about a quarter of postings. There are still side doors. Remote UX/UI roles accessible from Kansas City showed up through employers like Qureos and Burjline Builders, so a metro-based search should include national remote listings. And nearby built-environment work may create niche demand in environmental graphics and wayfinding, with a 335-acre mixed-use proposal in Gardner and a Kansas City wayfinding bootcamp scheduled by SEGD on October 21, 2026.

• Mid-level UX, product-adjacent, and visual design at established employers (high): This is the core of the current market: about 60% of sampled roles were mid-level, most were on-site or hybrid, and Garmin and Walsworth are concrete examples of active employers.
• Adobe-heavy brand, motion, and production design (moderate): Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Creative Suite, motion graphics, and InDesign each appeared in about 25% of sampled local postings, which keeps visual production skills relevant even when pure UX openings are scarce.
• Remote-accessible UX/UI and wayfinding or environmental graphics niches (limited): Remote UX/UI roles are available from employers such as Qureos and Burjline Builders, while Gardner's mixed-use proposal and SEGD's Kansas City bootcamp point to a smaller adjacent lane in wayfinding and environmental graphics.

Where to focus: Focus first on mid-level UX, product-adjacent, and visual roles within commuting distance, then widen to remote national UX/UI openings and niche wayfinding work once your core search is running.

Roles worth searching next

• Front-end web developer or design technologist: This is a natural crossover for designers who can move from interface design into working prototypes; Kansas City had 500 Web and Digital Interface Designers in the BLS estimate, with a mean annual wage of $89,240, and live-prototyping skills are increasingly valued.
• UX researcher: UX research sits next to product design and can reward strong analytical communication; 67% of 2,062 U.S. UX researchers in one 2026 study earned more than $100,000, even though the hiring market was described as weak.
• Environmental or wayfinding designer: A proposed 335-acre mixed-use district in Gardner and SEGD's Kansas City wayfinding bootcamp point to project-based demand near real estate, signage, and place-making.
• Prototype developer or no-code product builder: AI-oriented UX work increasingly expects one AI-specific portfolio project and the ability to push live prototypes, which makes this a practical bridge toward product and engineering teams.

What postings ask for

• Figma (table_stakes | immediate): Figma appeared in about 45% of sampled local postings, making it the clearest baseline tool for Kansas City design hiring. Who: Everyone in this category, especially entry-level and career-switching applicants.
• Adobe Creative Suite (table_stakes | immediate): Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Creative Suite, and InDesign each showed up in about a quarter of sampled local postings, which means visual-execution depth still matters here. Who: Graphic, brand, marketing-adjacent, and hybrid UX or visual designers.
• Motion graphics (differentiator | immediate): Motion graphics appeared in about 25% of sampled local postings, so it can separate you from candidates who only show static layouts. Who: Visual designers, brand designers, and career switchers looking for a narrower wedge into the market.
• AI-assisted design workflow (differentiator | immediate): As of July 2026, 91% of designers reported using AI at least weekly and 75% daily, with common tools including Canva Magic Studio, Adobe Firefly, Figma AI, and Recraft. Who: Mid-career designers and anyone whose portfolio still looks fully manual.
• AI-specific portfolio project (premium | near-term): AI UX designers are expected to include at least one AI-specific project, such as an AI onboarding flow or chatbot UX redesign, to stand out. Who: UX, product, and conversational-interface candidates.
• Live prototyping or 'vibe coding' (differentiator | near-term): Modern AI UX roles increasingly expect the ability to recreate flows and push live prototypes using tools such as Vercel. Who: UX designers who want to move closer to product teams or front-end collaboration.

Questions about this market

What do Design, Creative & UX roles pay in Kansas City, MO-KS?

Observed local pay looks decent but uneven. BLS puts the broad arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media group at an average of $38.36 per hour in Kansas City as of May 2025, while BLS estimated Web and Digital Interface Designers at $89,240 per year in the metro in May 2023. Directional pay signals on new openings are lower: Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows Missouri design, creative & ux openings at a mean offered salary of about $63,960 in August 2026 (n=312), versus about $75,574 nationally (n=39,125). Because Kansas City's cost-of-living index was 86.6 relative to a national baseline of 100, solid but not coastal-level design pay can still go further here. The catch is that higher compensation appears concentrated in digital and product-style work, while one local estimate put graphic design pay closer to a $60,107 median.

Where is demand for Design, Creative & UX roles in Kansas City, MO-KS concentrated?

Most real opportunity is in mid-level digital, product-adjacent, and visual design work rather than broad creative hiring. In the local sample, we observed more than 20 postings across around 15 companies over the last 90 days, with Garmin the most consistently active named employer at around 5 postings. The role mix skewed mid-career at about 60%, versus about 15% entry level, and about 75% of openings were on-site with about 15% hybrid and about 10% remote. That points job seekers toward employers that still value day-to-day collaboration and shipped work, not just speculative portfolios. Walsworth's open hybrid UX Designer role in Overland Park is a good example of the local pattern, and it specified a standard weekday hybrid schedule rather than a fully remote setup. Skills demand also blends UX and visual execution: Figma led local postings at about 45%, while Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Creative Suite, motion graphics, and InDesign each appeared in about a quarter of postings. There are still side doors. Remote UX/UI roles accessible from Kansas City showed up through employers like Qureos and Burjline Builders, so a metro-based search should include national remote listings. And nearby built-environment work may create niche demand in environmental graphics and wayfinding, with a 335-acre mixed-use proposal in Gardner and a Kansas City wayfinding bootcamp scheduled by SEGD on October 21, 2026.

Which employers are hiring the most Design, Creative & UX talent in Kansas City, MO-KS?

Recent postings show the most activity from Garmin (5 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Design, Creative & UX roles in Kansas City, MO-KS be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 10% are remote and 15% hybrid, with 75% on-site. Use the Remote filter above to see only remote openings.

How current are these listings?

Openings come from the Callings.ai live index of over 13 million jobs, refreshed hourly. This page searches postings from the last 30 days; run the search yourself to filter by anything else in plain language.

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Other roles in Kansas City, MO-KS

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