Director of Product Design - job 1 of 3

Marco Polo is a video chat app created for one simple and significant purpose—to help people feel close.

We are looking for an experienced Director of Product Design to lead our growing Product Design team in building world-class products that help people feel close. A great candidate for this role is a strong people manager and UX/UI process designer. The person in this role will be responsible for overseeing the product design process from conception to launch in partnership with product managers and engineers. 

This role will initially report to our President and co-founder, who is also Head of Product and Strategy, and lead a team of Product Designers.

In this position, you will:

Create and up-level consistent design practices and processes: You’ll define, craft and evolve how product design operates at Marco Polo, ensuring we have clear and consistent UX and UI systems and standards. This will include strategy, tooling, user research practices, ideation processes, interaction design, and prototyping. You’ll actively seek out, propose and implement solutions that enable the design team to work more effectively. 

Lead our Product Design team: You’ll build, inspire and manage a talented team of product designers, ensuring we have the key roles needed to execute on our product roadmap. You’ll coach and empower the team to consistently deliver on the most important projects, on time, with high quality and within our design ethos. You will constantly seek opportunities to help the team up-level - both as individuals and as one cohesive team.

Contribute individually as a Design Strategist: You’ll design experiments and improve our methodologies for gaining user insights on new and existing product offerings. You thrive in asking ‘what’s possible that hasn’t been possible before?’, seeking to illuminate new business opportunities that achieve our purpose. When opportunities arise, you’ll help us balance creativity with practical usability. 

Collaborate with key stakeholders: You’ll partner effectively with teammates in Product, Engineering, Growth, Marketing, and Finance to ensure we are consistently delivering our product roadmap within our design system and ethos. You’ll leverage user research to uncover valuable insights into our customers, integrating them into our product and processes going forward.

Ideally, you have:

8+ years of UI/UX design experience in both mobile and web apps.

5+ years of experience leading a team of Product Designers in an embedded team structure.

Experience working at a consumer tech company

A deep understanding of end-to-end product design processes, including journey mapping, information architecture, wireframing, prototyping, user testing, and interface design.

A passion for people management. You love empowering and developing team members. You have a strong track record of creating team cohesion to enable the team to achieve great things. 

A passion for building high-quality customer experiences for multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Desktop, etc.) 

Successful track record of driving impact through UX solutions to meet key company OKRs and business metrics.

Deep knowledge of current UX methodologies, frameworks and tools. A strong track record of seeking alignment and building strong partnerships with Product, Growth, Engineering, Marketing and Finance teams.

Desire to look for ways to infuse your work with joy; you’re willing to put in the hours if necessary, but you level up the process so that next time you don’t have to.

You’ll love working here because:

We’re a purpose-driven company making a difference in the lives of millions of people.

We have been doing the remote work thing long before it became necessary. We’re good at it and we’ll make sure you are too!

We move quickly so you’re constantly learning and things never get stale.

We know good ideas come from everywhere, so we work to ensure every person feels safe to take risks and think outside of the box.

We offer competitive compensation, including equity, and we’ve got you covered when it comes to your health (medical, vision, dental), finances, and your family (paid family leave).

Does this sound interesting to you? If so, then we'd love to hear from you. We care deeply about diversity and inclusion at Marco Polo. If you’re on the fence about whether you’re a fit, go ahead and apply! Each application is reviewed by a real, live human who understands that each candidate’s unique lived experience is more valuable than buzzwords on a resume.

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A bit about us:

Marco Polo is private video chat for your real relationships - not the entire world. Our video chat app allows you to send a video message at your convenience, and your friend or family member can send back whenever they can. With millions of people already benefiting from this new way of using technology to nurture their relationships, we’re proving that we can reject harmful but profitable business practices and build products that are good for you.

In June 2020, we launched Marco Polo Plus, a subscription plan that offers a premium experience. We aim to be a sustainable business while remaining free in a way that upholds our brand promise to be good for you. Plus delivers on our promise to monetize without ads or selling user data. 

Though our backgrounds are diverse, we share a belief—lives flourish when people feel close. That common inspiration keeps us aligned with our purpose as a team, which is scattered across 16 states (so far), coast-to-coast throughout North America.

The distance doesn't slow us down. We keep the engine humming from our homes, co-working spaces, and coffee shops—connecting with daily Zoom calls, and retreats. Whether collaborating through Slack, video calls, or of course Marco Polo, our team knows how to keep connected—it’s what we do best!

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We can add teammates from anywhere in North America.