Senior Director, Product Design

Summary

Join Niche as a Senior Director of Product Design and lead our team in crafting exceptional user experiences for our education marketplace and SaaS tools. You will manage a team of designers and researchers, setting a design vision and leading a high-velocity, high-quality design operation. This key leadership role involves driving design strategy, overseeing the department budget, and ensuring team performance. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, focusing on product improvements and measurable impact. The role requires strong leadership, design expertise, and business acumen, with a focus on personalized user experiences and SEO integration.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in product design, with at least 5 years in a leadership role, ideally within a startup or fast-paced environment
• Proven ability to drive a team to execute and iterate designs quickly, employing a test-and-learn mindset to adapt and improve based on data and user insights
• Expertise in designing for Gen Z and Gen Alpha demographics, with a deep understanding of simplicity as a core design principle
• Strong mentor and team builder, experienced in developing design talent and setting performance goals that align with business objectives
• Assertive, hands-on leader able to drive high-quality design work while staying closely connected to the day-to-day process
• Highly efficient and process-oriented, with a knack for developing streamlined workflows that support a lean design team
• Business-minded approach, with proficiency in numbers and the ability to engage meaningfully with cross-functional stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain a compelling design vision for our marketplace and SaaS products, tailored for the unique needs of Gen Z and Gen Alpha users
• Lead, mentor, and grow a lean, high-impact team of Senior Designers and UX Researchers, providing hands-on guidance and fostering a culture of continuous improvement
• Assess talent rigorously while setting ambitious, clear goals for team members and creating an environment where designers are motivated to achieve their best work
• Actively engage in the design process by providing direction, reviewing work, and making detailed adjustments to ensure high-quality output
• Implement efficient, repeatable design processes that maximize productivity and minimize waste, ensuring our design team operates at peak efficiency in a fast-paced, test-and-learn environment
• Collaborate closely with partners across Product, Engineering, Marketing, Sales, Finance, Legal, Operations and Data to align design efforts with broader business goals
• Drive product improvements that lead to measurable impact, ensuring design initiatives are grounded in business needs and outcomes
• Lead the team in designing highly personalized user experiences that adapt to individual user behaviors, preferences, and demographics, leveraging data-driven insights to enhance engagement and retention
• Integrate SEO-driven design principles into the UX/UI strategy, ensuring that user interfaces and content layouts are optimized for search engine visibility without compromising usability or aesthetic appeal
• Lead and support the UX researcher in conducting high-impact user research initiatives. Ensure that research insights are continuously integrated into the design process and that user needs and pain points are central to design decisions
• Confidently present design vision and updates to senior leadership, demonstrating both design expertise and business acumen
• Manage the department’s budget, making strategic decisions to allocate resources effectively across projects

Benefits

• Full time, salaried position with competitive compensation in a fast-growing company
• Best-in-class 100% paid employee health plan, including vision and dental and supplemental coverage
• Flexible Paid Time Off Policy
• Stipend that allows you to build your work from home office in a style and function that suits your personal preferences
• Parental leave for all employees (12 weeks fully paid) in addition to short term disability for birthing parents
• Meaningful 401(k) with employer match
• We are a fully flexible workforce empowering our employees to choose to work remotely, in our Pittsburgh office or whatever combination suits you