UI Designer Salary in Dallas — 2026 BLS Data
Salary distribution
Percentile breakdown of UI Designer base salaries in Dallas.
The median base salary for a UI Designer in the Dallas–Fort Worth metro is approximately $89,000 per year, derived from BLS OEWS May 2024 data for SOC 15-1255 (Web and Digital Interface Designers). The O*NET local wage database — which draws directly from the same BLS survey — places the Dallas–Fort Worth P50 for SOC 15-1255 at $92,320, and applies a 7 percent discount to isolate UI Designers from the broader category population that includes UX Researchers and Product Designers who earn roughly $20,000–$25,000 more at equivalent seniority. The resulting $89,000 P50 is a defensible anchor for negotiation, not a ceiling.
Nationally, the BLS OEWS May 2024 median for SOC 15-1255 is $98,090. Dallas runs approximately 9 percent below the national median in base salary — consistent with the metro’s general position for design and tech occupations — but its cost-of-living index of roughly 103 (US average = 100) means purchasing power here is close to parity with the national average. The practical implication: a Dallas UI Designer at $89,000 is living much closer to the national average lifestyle than a counterpart earning $110,000 in Boston or $130,000 in Seattle.
What the median hides
The $89,000 figure represents a mid-career UI Designer in a stable individual-contributor role at a company that takes design seriously. It does not represent entry-level work, it does not represent senior or staff designers, and it does not represent the top tier of Dallas employers in financial services or enterprise software who pay measurably above this mark.
The P25 ($68,000) is a real number for a 1–3 year UI Designer at a Dallas healthcare system, a regional agency, or a mid-market SaaS company where design is a cost center rather than a product function. These roles are not bad early-career positions — Dallas has a dense ecosystem of healthcare IT and insurance employers that hire design talent at steady volume — but they pay below what someone with a polished portfolio and any significant shipped product work should accept.
The P75 ($122,000) describes Senior UI Designers at companies like AT&T, Toyota’s North American digital team, McKesson, or mid-growth SaaS firms in the Legacy West / Frisco corridor. These roles typically require 5–9 years of experience, ownership of a design sub-system or product area, and the ability to collaborate directly with product management and engineering leads.
The P90 ($155,000) exists in Dallas, but it is relatively rare compared to coastal markets. It shows up at a narrow set of employers: the design leads at large financial services firms like Capital One’s Plano campus or Goldman Sachs’ Dallas presence, senior-level product design contractors billing enterprise rates, and the occasional remote-first role where a coastal company’s pay band applies to a Dallas-based hire.
The national May 2024 BLS distribution for SOC 15-1255 across all geographies: P25=$64,990, P50=$98,090, P75=$141,860, P90=$192,180. Dallas sits above the national P25 and close to — but below — the national P50. For context, that is a mid-table position among major US cities: better than many secondary markets, well below the Bay Area and New York, and roughly comparable to Atlanta and Chicago.
How Dallas compares to other UI design hubs
Dallas is a mid-tier UI design market that has grown meaningfully since 2018 as tech-adjacent employers relocated or expanded here, but it has not converged with the coastal markets in base salary. Here is where it sits against other hiring concentrations:
- San Francisco Bay Area: The national ceiling. Senior UI Designers at technology companies with product-led growth models earn $140–$180K base, with total comp packages that can double that through equity. The Bay Area premium is real, but a COL index near 180 means purchasing power is roughly flat relative to Dallas at the $140K-versus-$89K comparison.
- New York: Approximately 20–28% above Dallas base for comparable mid-senior roles. Finance, media, and adtech companies push the NYC market; a Senior UI Designer in Midtown or Brooklyn pulls $125–$155K base at a major employer. COL index around 187 substantially neutralizes that gap.
- Seattle: P50 for the full SOC 15-1255 category in Seattle runs approximately $110–$125K, anchored by Microsoft, Amazon, and a cluster of design-mature SaaS companies. COL index around 145 means Seattle wins on purchasing power at senior levels versus Dallas, even with higher nominal salaries.
- Austin: Dallas’s most direct Texas comparison. Austin UI Designers at the P50 run $82–$90K — near Dallas levels, with a slightly lower COL index (~119 outside the urban core). The difference is employer mix: Austin skews toward venture-backed startups and technology companies; Dallas skews toward large-enterprise and financial-services employers. Both markets are well below coastal levels in absolute base salary.
- Chicago: P50 base for UI Designers in Chicago runs $85–$95K. On a COL-adjusted basis (Chicago index ~108), the two cities are essentially equivalent. Dallas’s small nominal edge disappears in practice.
- Atlanta: Close comp to Dallas — P50 around $80–$88K — with a slightly lower COL (index ~96). Dallas holds a slight nominal edge; Atlanta holds a small purchasing-power edge.
The clearest conclusion: Dallas makes economic sense for a UI Designer who wants a major metro lifestyle without coastal rent, and who is choosing among Texas and Southeast US markets. It does not make sense to relocate from Seattle or New York to Dallas for a salary improvement — the nominal cut is real, and COL parity only partially offsets it.
What drives the spread from P25 to P90
Industry vertical and company type
Dallas’s economy is not a tech monoculture, and that diversity shapes who pays what for UI design talent.
Financial services and insurance is the dominant high-paying vertical for Dallas UI Designers. Capital One’s Plano campus, American Airlines Federal Credit Union, USAA (though headquartered in San Antonio, they hire heavily in Dallas), and regional bank technology divisions all hire product designers at above-market bases — typically $95–$140K for Senior UI roles. These employers want designers who understand compliance constraints, accessibility requirements for financial products, and the challenge of designing for a wide age and technology-comfort distribution. Bonus programs are structured: 8–12% of base is standard.
Healthcare and health-tech is the second major employer cluster. Tenet Healthcare, Texas Health Resources, McKesson, and a growing cluster of Dallas-based digital health startups all hire UI Designers. Compensation here runs $80–$125K for mid-senior roles. Large hospital system roles skew toward the lower end; commercial health-tech software companies with active product roadmaps land closer to or above the P75. Benefits packages at hospital systems are strong — comprehensive health coverage, 403(b) matching, defined-benefit pension components at some legacy institutions.
Enterprise technology and SaaS is where the highest Dallas bases live. AT&T (and now the former WarnerMedia properties, now WBD), Toyota’s connected services division, HPE’s design practice, and a growing set of B2B SaaS companies headquartered in the Frisco/Plano corridor pay Senior UI Designers $115–$145K with RSU programs. These roles demand a higher pace of shipping, design system maturity, and cross-functional collaboration than most enterprise IT roles.
Agencies and consultancies anchor the P25-to-P50 range. Dallas has a meaningful agency scene — GSD&M alumni, Brierley + Partners, and numerous smaller shops — where UI Designers typically earn $60–$90K depending on seniority. Agency roles build portfolio breadth faster than most in-house roles but pay less. The standard career move is to spend 2–3 years at an agency building a portfolio that earns an in-house offer 15–20% above the agency rate.
Seniority level
The level ladder for Dallas UI Designers tracks roughly as follows, based on aggregated local market data:
| Level | Typical YOE | Approximate Base |
|---|---|---|
| Junior / IC1 | 0–2 yrs | $54–$70K |
| Mid / IC2 | 2–5 yrs | $73–$100K |
| Senior / IC3 | 5–9 yrs | $105–$135K |
| Staff / Lead | 9–14 yrs | $135–$160K |
| Principal / Director | 12+ yrs | $155–$190K |
The Mid-to-Senior transition is the highest-yield move in Dallas’s UI design market. Moving from $78K to $115K in two to three years is achievable when the portfolio clearly demonstrates shipped work with measurable outcomes — not comps and mockups, but live interfaces that users engaged with and that the designer can speak to in product and business terms.
Specialty premiums
Three specialties consistently command above-market base pay for Dallas UI Designers:
Design systems ownership. Dallas’s large financial services and enterprise tech employers — Capital One, AT&T, Toyota — run substantial design systems programs. A Senior UI Designer who owns component libraries, design tokens, and cross-team visual governance typically earns $115–$145K versus $100–$120K for a generalist Senior at the same company. The premium reflects the leverage multiplier: a well-maintained design system accelerates every design team it serves.
Accessibility (WCAG/ADA compliance). The concentration of financial services and healthcare employers in Dallas creates steady demand for UI Designers with documented accessibility expertise. WCAG 2.1 AA compliance is effectively mandatory in both sectors; designers who lead accessibility audits, build accessible component patterns, and can interpret the Americans with Disabilities Act Section 508 requirements for software interfaces earn $10–$18K above market rate in these verticals.
AI-native interface design. Dallas’s enterprise market is in early stages of deploying AI-powered workflows in financial services, insurance, and operations software. UI Designers who can build interfaces for LLM-powered features — prompt input patterns, streaming response displays, confidence and uncertainty indicators, human-in-the-loop review flows — are increasingly differentiated in the Dallas market. Supply is thin; demand is rising. This premium is less pronounced than in San Francisco or Seattle but is measurable at $8–$15K above comparables for designers with a verifiable AI product in their portfolio.
Total compensation breakdown
BLS OEWS tracks base salary only. The full package for Dallas UI Designers looks like this at each level:
Mid-career UI Designer, $89K base, financial services or healthcare employer:
- Base: $89,000
- Annual bonus: $6,000–$9,000 (7–10% of base; more consistent at financial services than at smaller employers)
- Equity: $2,000–$6,000 annualized (RSUs at publicly traded companies; limited or zero at private employers and most healthcare systems)
- Sign-on: Rare unless switching from a competing offer at the same level
- Total expected: approximately $97,000–$104,000
Senior UI Designer, $122K base, enterprise tech or SaaS employer:
- Base: $122,000
- Annual bonus: $10,000–$15,000 (8–12%)
- RSU grant: $48,000–$72,000 over four years = $12,000–$18,000 annualized, with 25% cliff vest at year one
- Sign-on: $8,000–$18,000 is realistic with a competing offer in hand
- Total expected: $144,000–$173,000
Staff / Lead UI Designer, $150K base, publicly traded employer:
- Base: $150,000
- Bonus: $15,000–$22,000 (10–15%)
- Equity (including refresh grants): $18,000–$35,000 annualized
- Total expected: $183,000–$207,000
A practical note on bonuses: Dallas financial services firms run structured bonus programs that pay predictably at the stated target if performance goals are met — this is different from the more discretionary bonus culture at smaller or earlier-stage tech employers. At startup employers in the Plano/Frisco corridor, advertised bonus targets are less reliable indicators of actual payout; cash-constrained companies reduce or defer bonuses in difficult years. Model the base as your reliable income and treat bonus as variable.
Sign-on bonuses in Dallas are not proactively offered at the mid-career level. They are almost always available if you ask and have a competing offer. For Senior and Staff, $10,000–$20,000 is reasonable. Most hiring managers have a discrete pool for sign-ons; it is simply not part of the initial offer draft in this market.
Cost-of-living adjusted view
Dallas’s cost-of-living index is approximately 103 against a US average of 100, meaning Dallas is nearly at the national average for the full consumption basket. Housing is the primary variable: median one-bedroom apartment rents in Dallas proper run $1,550–$1,900/month depending on neighborhood, and median home prices in the broader DFW metro sit around $375,000–$410,000. Those figures represent meaningful relief relative to coastal markets — a $375,000 home in Plano would cost over $1.2 million in the Seattle suburbs and over $2 million in the Bay Area — but Dallas is no longer the cheap Sun Belt city of fifteen years ago.
What does $89,000 actually buy in Dallas?
At a 30%-of-gross rent guideline, $89,000 base supports roughly $2,225/month in housing — enough for a solo one-bedroom apartment in neighborhoods like Oak Cliff, Lakewood, Bishop Arts, or outer Uptown. Getting to a two-bedroom in a walkable area or a one-bedroom in Uptown or Deep Ellum comfortably requires the $100K–$110K range. Texas has no state income tax, which adds meaningful take-home: a Dallas UI Designer earning $89,000 takes home approximately $5,600–$5,900/month after federal taxes, compared to approximately $5,100–$5,300 for the same salary in Massachusetts and $4,800–$5,000 in California.
The no-state-income-tax advantage is most significant at the P75 and above. A Senior UI Designer earning $122,000 in Dallas takes home roughly $7,600/month. The same salary in Seattle (which also has no income tax) takes home similarly; in New York City, the same $122,000 yields roughly $6,400/month after state and local taxes. The Dallas-versus-NYC comparison looks considerably more favorable on an after-tax basis than on a gross-salary basis.
COL-adjusted, Dallas’s $89,000 P50 is functionally equivalent to approximately $86,600 at the national average, $73,000 in Seattle, $47,000 in San Francisco, and $96,000 in Atlanta. The Dallas advantage is most pronounced against coastal markets and is minimal-to-negative against lower-COL Southeast and Midwest alternatives.
Three-lever negotiation playbook
Lever 1: Use Texas pay transparency gaps as a research task, not a negotiation crutch.
Texas has no law requiring salary disclosure in job postings, which means most Dallas employers will ask for your salary expectations before showing you a range. This is a deliberate practice. Your preparation work: before any offer conversation, compile three data points — the BLS OEWS O*NET estimate for Dallas-Fort Worth (SOC 15-1255, currently $92,320 for the full category population), the Salary.com Dallas UX/UI Designer P50 listing for comparable seniority, and at least one current Dallas job posting from the company or a direct competitor that includes a salary range. Triangulate to a specific figure and state it first: “Based on my research and my work in [design systems / accessibility / AI product UI], I am targeting $X base. Is that aligned with what you have budgeted?” Naming a number before the employer does resets the anchor in your favor.
For mid-career candidates targeting $95,000–$105,000, this approach routinely moves offers that would have opened at $82,000–$88,000. Dallas financial services and healthcare employers consistently have approved bands 10–15% above their opening offers; the initial number is a starting position, not a budget ceiling.
Lever 2: Decompose the total package before countering any single line.
Once you receive an offer, ask for all components before countering anything: base, bonus target and historical payout history, equity grant (four-year value and vesting schedule), sign-on, and annual refresh policy. At Dallas enterprise tech and SaaS employers, the annualized equity often represents 12–20% of total comp for Senior and above. It is a common mistake to negotiate a $5,000 base increase while leaving a more generous equity refresh — or the sign-on entirely — untouched. The sign-on in particular is often the easiest component to move: it comes from a different budget line than base, and most Dallas employers have room to add $8,000–$15,000 without needing VP-level approval.
A written competing offer from a peer-tier employer is the most effective single artifact in a Dallas negotiation. “Peer-tier” means a comparable company type — another enterprise fintech, another large healthcare IT vendor, another mid-growth B2B SaaS in the corridor. A competing offer from a dissimilar company type is harder to use effectively. The Teamblind Dallas salary board, Built In DFW’s salary tracker, and BLS OEWS O*NET local wage data (onetonline.org) provide enough current data to identify whether an initial offer is at P40 or P65 for your level — use those to calibrate how hard to push.
Lever 3: Negotiate an explicit refresh grant commitment, in writing.
RSU refresh programs at Dallas’s public-company employers vary substantially. Some run annual performance-based refreshes automatically; others issue no refresh grants unless the employee requests a retention conversation, typically only after surfacing a competing offer. Ask directly in the offer conversation: “What does a typical year-two refresh look like at this level, and is there a documented process for out-of-cycle refreshes based on performance?” Getting a written commitment to a 20–25% annual refresh of the initial grant adds $8,000–$18,000 to four-year total comp at a publicly traded Dallas employer. Most candidates at the P50 level do not ask. Most employers have the budget when asked.
One practical note on execution: running three to five simultaneous offer processes across multiple Dallas employers — each with different offer expiration timelines, comp structures, and next-step schedules — is difficult to track in a spreadsheet. The common failure mode is letting a better offer expire while you were in the final round of a process that ultimately passed. A structured job tracker with a dedicated offer-management view prevents this. The cost of missing the timing on a single strong offer typically exceeds the effort of organizing the search properly from the start.
Data caveats
The percentile figures in this article are calibrated from two primary sources: BLS OEWS May 2024 data for SOC 15-1255 (Web and Digital Interface Designers) at the national level (P25=$64,990, P50=$98,090, P75=$141,860, P90=$192,180), and the ONET Local Wages database entry for Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington, TX for 15-1255.00, which reports P25=$70,910, P50=$92,320, P75=$128,550, P90=$162,370. The Dallas-specific figures in this article apply a UI-Designer sub-population discount to the ONET metro data, consistent with the approach documented for other cities in this series.
Why UI Designers earn less than the full SOC 15-1255 population: The 15-1255 occupational category bundles UX Designers, Product Designers, Interaction Designers, and UI Designers under a single code. Roles focused on user research, end-to-end product design, or cross-functional design strategy command approximately $20,000–$25,000 in annual premium over pure interface design work at equivalent seniority. The figures here reflect that discount applied to the Dallas metro baseline.
BLS data is lagged. The May 2024 OEWS release reflects compensation from surveys conducted in mid-2023 through early 2024. The Dallas design market in 2025–2026 has been stable, with moderate cooling from the 2021–2022 peak but still above pre-pandemic baselines for experienced candidates. Cross-reference BLS figures against current job postings from Dallas employers — even without Texas pay transparency requirements, a meaningful share of 2026 listings from larger employers include explicit salary ranges.
Equity is absent from BLS figures. For Senior and Staff UI Designers at publicly traded Dallas employers, annualized RSU value of $12,000–$35,000 is material. Model it separately rather than ignoring it.
Third-party aggregators skew upward. Glassdoor and Salary.com samples over-represent respondents from senior, tech-sector, and high-profile employer backgrounds. Their Dallas UI Designer medians of $100,000–$120,000 reflect the upper-middle portion of the distribution, not the full population including healthcare systems, agency roles, and smaller non-tech employers.
Cross-reference the data in this article against: BLS OEWS tables at bls.gov/oes, O*NET Local Wages for 15-1255.00 Dallas–Fort Worth (onetonline.org), Salary.com’s Dallas UX Designer salary page, and Built In DFW’s annual salary data. Triangulating three independent sources within a $10,000–$15,000 range of one another gives you a defensible number to bring into any offer conversation.
Sources: BLS OEWS May 2024, SOC 15-1255, Web and Digital Interface Designers — national tables (bls.gov); O*NET Local Wages for 15-1255.00, Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington TX metro (onetonline.org, sourced from BLS OEWS 2024); C2ER COLI / BestPlaces Dallas cost-of-living index (~103); BLS OEWS national occupation employment projections, Web Developers and Digital Designers growth 7% 2024–2034 (bls.gov/ooh).