Preparing for an interview at Synchrony Financial requires a strategic approach that highlights both your technical design skills and your ability to navigate a corporate financial environment.

Portfolio Presentation – Your portfolio is the single most important asset in this interview process. You must ensure it is polished, visually compelling, and structured to tell a clear story. Focus on showcasing your end-to-end process, from early wireframes and user flows to high-fidelity UI mockups and interactive prototypes.

Financial Domain Awareness – Designing for finance requires an understanding of trust, security, and clarity. You should demonstrate an awareness of how to design interfaces that make complex financial terms easy to understand for everyday consumers.

Collaboration in a Studio Environment – Be ready to talk about how you work within a creative studio framework. This means showing that you can take direction from creative leadership, collaborate with copywriters and developers, and maintain high standards under tight deadlines.

Resilience and Professionalism – The interview stages can sometimes move very quickly, or you may encounter unexpected situations, such as an interviewer keeping their camera off during a virtual session. Maintaining a poised, professional, and adaptable demeanor throughout these interactions is key to leaving a positive impression.

The interview process for a UX/UI Designer at Synchrony Financial is typically streamlined and direct, often focusing on immediate team fit and portfolio alignment. Candidates frequently report a relatively short timeline, with the company reaching out quickly to schedule conversations, sometimes even the day after initial contact.

The process generally begins with a standard recruiter screen to verify your qualifications, experience level, and alignment with the role's compensation structure. Following this, you will transition to technical and creative evaluations. This stage typically involves a virtual panel interview over Zoom with design managers or a Creative Director.

During these conversations, the focus remains heavily on a deep dive into your portfolio. You will be expected to walk through your past work, explain your design decisions, and discuss how you collaborate within a creative studio environment. Because the process can move rapidly, having your presentation materials fully prepared and polished prior to your first contact is highly recommended.

The visual timeline above outlines the typical stages a candidate progresses through during the Synchrony Financial hiring cycle. You should use this framework to pace your preparation, ensuring your portfolio is fully polished before the initial recruiter screen. Understanding this progression helps you anticipate the transition from high-level qualification checks to deep-dive creative discussions with the design leadership team.

To succeed in your interviews, you must understand the specific competencies the hiring team at Synchrony Financial is looking for. The evaluation targets three core pillars.

Portfolio and Visual Craft

Your visual execution and attention to detail are under intense scrutiny. The hiring team wants to see that you can create modern, clean, and engaging user interfaces that look professional and function flawlessly.

Be ready to go over:

• Typography and Grid Systems – How you establish visual hierarchy and structure layouts to handle complex data.
• Design System Consistency – Your ability to work within established design systems and maintain visual cohesion across multiple screens.
• Interactive Prototyping – Demonstrating how user flows translate into interactive, high-fidelity prototypes.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Responsive design strategies for complex financial tables and data visualization across mobile and desktop viewports.

Example scenarios:

• "Walk us through how you designed this specific checkout or credit application flow, explaining the visual choices you made to reduce user friction."
• "Show us a project where you had to adapt a legacy interface into a modern, responsive design system."

Creative Studio Dynamics

Synchrony Financial operates with an internal creative agency structure. They evaluate your ability to collaborate, accept feedback, and deliver high-quality assets in a fast-paced environment.

Be ready to go over:

• Feedback Integration – How you process and implement feedback from design managers and creative directors.
• Cross-Functional Handoff – Your methods for ensuring developers understand your design intent and specifications.
• Asset Management – Organizing and delivering design files efficiently within a shared team environment.

Example scenarios:

• "Describe a time when a creative director asked for a major design change late in the project lifecycle. How did you handle the request?"
• "How do you ensure your design files are structured so that another designer in the studio could easily pick up your work?"

Financial UX and Accessibility

Designing for a financial institution requires strict adherence to accessibility standards and compliance regulations. You must prove that your designs are usable for everyone and meet legal requirements.

Be ready to go over:

• WCAG Compliance – Ensuring contrast ratios, touch targets, and screen-reader accessibility are integrated into your UI designs.
• Clarity and Transparency – Designing interfaces that clearly communicate interest rates, terms, and payment schedules without misleading the user.
• User Trust – Visual cues and layout patterns that build user confidence during sensitive transactions like credit applications.

Example scenarios:

• "How do you approach designing a credit card application form to ensure it is both highly converting and fully accessible?"
• "Can you give an example of how you designed a screen to make complex financial disclosures easy for a user to scan and understand?"

As a UX/UI Designer at Synchrony Financial, your daily work will center on designing and optimizing digital products that support both the corporate brand and its retail partners.

You will be responsible for creating intuitive user flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups for web and mobile applications. You will regularly collaborate with product managers to understand business goals and translate them into functional, user-centric designs. Additionally, you will work closely with front-end developers to ensure the visual and interactive quality of the final product matches your design specifications.

Another major component of the role is contributing to and maintaining Synchrony Financial's internal design systems. You will ensure that all digital assets comply with strict brand guidelines and accessibility standards, while also retaining the flexibility required to integrate seamlessly with the branding of major retail partners.