Head of Design

Job Description

At A Glance

Us: Default alive startup of 60+ people. Remote team, mainly based in the UK. YC alumni. Creating a web-based platform for behavioural research. 3x yearly growth, all driven by word-of-mouth.

We’re on a mission to connect people around the world to make trustworthy data more accessible and facilitate world-changing research.

You: Head of Product Design / Design Lead / Design Manager with experience leading the creative vision at both the team and company level with a desire to lead product design at a fast-growing startup.

The Role

We're looking for an experienced design leader to lead the creative vision for the design team and organisation. This is a unique role and has huge potential for impact. You'll be working closely with the founding team to help craft and execute on product design in a fast-growing startup. Day to day you'll be responsible for coaching our talented Product Designers and User Researchers. You will advocate for and help to elevate the role of Design across the business.

We now have more than 10,000 active researchers and 170,000 active participants using our product, with more than 11 million responses collected during 2020 alone. We recognise the value of good design and have identified user experience as a central tenet to our product strategy. We believe that rapid iteration and a pragmatic approach to design will be essential to success in this area.

We care deeply about building an inclusive and diverse team. We offer flexible hours, an open, friendly culture and meaningful share option allocation. Our team is currently fully remote due to the coronavirus pandemic, with plans to provide flexible co-working spaces when possible.

What you'll do:

• Lead a team of Product Designers and User Researchers. The number one responsibility of your role will be to coach and mentor your team, creating an environment where they're empowered to do their best work.
• You’ll execute on the design of intuitive, high quality user experiences. Although management is a core component of the job, this will be a hands on role where you'll lead by example.
• Collaborate with Design and Prolific leadership on design direction. Strong communication, documentation and presentation skills are required. You'll be working closely with your counterparts in Product, Tech, Growth and Support to shape a data-driven vision for the end-to-end user experience.
• Grow the team. You'll identify and develop leaders within the team and take responsibility for staffing new teams as we grow.
• Set up processes when needed. We’re growing fast and learning as we go and from each other as we build the team. You’ll help us add the right amount of structure and process as we grow.
• Evangalise design across the organisation. You'll generate impact through best practices, user obsession and pragmatism.
• Define a creative vision for for the product. You'll drive the team to consider what an 10-star experience for our users could look like, then work with them to make it a reality.

You should apply if:

• You have experience in leading, coaching and mentoring teams of UX & design professionals in a high-growth tech startup.
• You have a proven background in design and are well-versed in in data-driven product design and development.
• You have broad UX experience, including user research, prototyping and testing.
• You’re passionate about inclusive design and accessibility, and have experience designing for diverse user groups.
• You're a fantastic communicator with experience working at all levels of an organisation.
• You possess humility, optimism and a desire to learn and grow fast.

This role isn't for you if:

• You haven't led design as part of an in-house, fast-growing product company before. We know there are many great design leads working for design agencies, but due to the importance of this role we require past experience in a similar environment.
• You need established processes to already be in place. We're growing fast and learning as we go, from each other as we build the team, but also through trial and error. We need an experienced design leader to help us add the right amount of structure and process as we grow.