Senior UI Design Director

THE ROLE

Peloton is seeking a Senior Director, UI Design to to support the innovation, iteration, and optimization of our Bike, Tread, and Digital apps, as well as the development of future Peloton products.

This role sits on the Product Design & UX team, and works closely with the other roles on the team (UX Design, Product Design Ops, User Research, and UX Prototype Engineering) and their respective leaders as well as other Peloton teams including Product Management, Industrial Design, Engineering, Brand Creative, Content Production et. al.

This role is the first of its kind at Peloton. It will lead the UI Design team responsible for the visual design of Peloton’s product software platforms and features. The Senior Director, UI Design will be responsible for managing the existing team (which is currently 8 FT UI Designers) and for scaling the team through recruiting and hiring.This role will drive our visual standards, styles, elements, and systems, and ensure consistency and holism in the design of our software products.

Notably, this role and team focuses heavily on aesthetics and interaction: ensuring the look and feel of Peloton software for all Peloton Members across different platforms and screens is of the utmost quality and in line with the Peloton brand; and with special care taken to ensure usability, legibility, visual hierarchy, and accessibility. It collaborates heavily with other specialized roles that hold the baton at other stages in the process: notably Product Management (that defines the strategic roadmap, defines features, and prioritizes work) and UX (that defines functionality, user flows, edge cases and states, and generally “how features work”).

This role reports directly to the VP of Product Design & UX.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the UI Design team at Peloton.
  • The team’s UI Design purview extends across all of Peloton’s engagement Products: Peloton Bike, Tread, App (TV, iOS, Android, Web), Studio (User and Instructor apps), and Content Management tools – as well as any future software and hardware products and experiences we may build.
  • This team is responsible for all styles, UI elements, illustrations, iconography, animations, and other graphical elements that display in Peloton’s engagement software products.
  • This team typically works off of (and in tandem with) definitional documents and wireframe (or similar) artifacts from Product Management and UX roles and translates those specifications into pixel-perfect dev-ready design files.
    
    
• Provide mentorship and help develop individuals on the UI Design team.
  • Understand the unique personalities, goals, and working styles of each team member and adapt your management style to match.
  • Develop a plan for career pathing and development for team members.
  • Support team members and ensure they are happy and engaged at Peloton.
    
    
• Work to unblock UI Design team members and provide support in removing impediments and distractions.
  
  
• Shepherd and support UI Designers on larger and/or higher profile projects as needed. While not responsible for executing design, the relatively small team may need you to jump in and get hands on occasionally.
  
  
• Give feedback to UI Designers at various project stages (concepts, development of systems and elements, execution of screens, creation of animations and iconography, packaging and organizing files, UAT, et. al.) in design reviews, team critiques, and 1:1s to improve the output, efficiency, and quality of their UI execution and deliverables.
  
  
• Help guide UI Designers’ near and long-term planning of projects, and guide the design process – e.g. helping them to understand when to diverge and explore vs. converge on a solution.
  
  
• Evangelize the importance of quality UI execution and visual branding in Peloton’s software.
  • Work to get UI involved earlier in projects to ensure the design is deeply ingrained in the execution of the strategy and requirements.
  • Make a case for care and time to be paid to the interface in the implementation of features; how some features may require a wider look at the screen/systems.
  • Resource, plan, and push to carve out the appropriate amount of time for UI design projects.
  • Ensure UI Designers can come back and optimize and iterate on tested and released features and products. And work to get MVP descoped interactions, animations, and enhancements prioritized as fast-follows.
    
    
• Work with senior members of the UI Design team to build, evolve, and document Peloton’s UI Design systems to improve visual aesthetics and streamline designer onboarding, feature design, and dev implementation.
  • Style guidelines and standards for color, typographic, spacing, radius, etc. 
  • Style guidelines and standards for animation and interaction.
  • Style guidelines and standards  for illustrations, rending, and iconography.
  • Style guidelines and standards for scalability and localization.
  • Style guidelines and standards for accessibility and inclusion.
  • UI kits for each platform/screen size/interface mechanic (e.g. touch, remote, mouse and keyboard.)
    
    
• Work with Design Ops and UI Designers to organize design files and artifacts, and component and iconography libraries. And ensure at scale that all the teams work is preserved, transferable, and up to date.
  
  
• Evolve Peloton’s UI Design processes and tools.
  • Leverage tools (for design, collaboration, organization, etc.) to raise efficiency and output.
  • Work with Designers and Design Ops to optimize UI Design processes.
  • Solidify our UI Design vendor relationships.
    
    
• Ensure that Peloton’s features are designed with accessibility and inclusion top of mind; and embed this approach into our design process for scale.
  
  
• Work with VP of Product Design and UX and other Product leadership to build a 5-year vision of the UI Design team.
  • What are the long term goals and roadmap of Peloton and where (at a high level) will UI Design be needed?
  • What does the UI Design team cover (vs. other related teams)?
  • What is the role of the UI Design team within the wider organization?
  • What is the appropriate scale and role distribution/meta allocation of the UI Design team and what sub-roles may be needed?
    
    
• Build a world class UI Design team and scale the group 2x-4x in the next 24 months.
  • Work with Recruiting to source, qualify, and hire the best UI Designers.
  • Host and attend industry events to create outbound interest among top UI Design talent.
  • Onboard new employees to the team’s culture and processes, and devote time to developing better processes that help designers to quickly and effectively understand each platform and Peloton’s UI design systems (including UI kits and style guides.)
  • Plan the long and short-term quantity and mix of roles and levels on the team, including developing middle-management layers.
  • Strategize allocation of headcount to match Peloton’s research needs and product development strategy.
  • Develop headcount budget.
  • Shape and nurture the team’s culture by bringing on the right persons.
  • Secure outside contractors when appropriate to supplement the team, especially for specialized tasks such as illustrations and renderings.
    
    
• Own the budget allocation for the UI Design team. Project and allocate funds:
  • UI Design tools and resources.
  • Design conference and event attendance.
  • Freelancers, contractors, and vendors.
    
    
• Develop the UI Design team’s brand in and outside of Peloton.
  • Develop strategies and standards for communicating updates on the UI Design team’s work and achievements on a regular basis.
  • Drive team communication around our focus, how to engage with the UI Design team, and the value of investing in UI Design.
  • Act as a thought leader in UI Design and build the reputation of Peloton as an organization committed to the craft.
    
    
• Understand the full picture of all UI Design asks to develop a forward looking, prioritized 3-6 month plan in collaboration with Product Design Ops.
  • Continuously intake new UI Design projects and understand the upcoming pipeline.
  • Suggest and evangelize UI Design initiatives (design enhancements and iterations, redesigns, visual rebrands, design debt, etc.) that the UI Design team deems critical that are not otherwise prioritized. 
  • Provide a high level size, scope, and potential approach to upcoming UI Design projects to aid in high level planning and allocation (with an understanding that individual designers will provide more detailed plans following allocation.)
  • Help ensure proposed projects are set up for success – ask the right questions, request more definition, and suggest timelines.
  • Break larger initiatives into phased approaches and organize design milestones and sub-prioritization teams.
  • Link similar design projects for efficiency in allocation and efficiency.
  • Handle changes to prioritization that require roadmap and/or resource updates.
    
    
• Allocate UI Design resources from your understanding on previous projects and team member skill sets and affinities.
  • Form a strategy for allocating resources, and flex your approach based on the overall needs (e.g. dedicated, centralized, flexible, hybrid, etc.)
    
    
• Collaborate with other visual design teams at Peloton (specifically the marketing creative team) to execute on feature launches, content, and engagement campaign launches.
  • Ensure accurate representation of engagement apps in marketing communications and advertising campaigns.
  • Provide templates and act as a stakeholder in creation of promotional assets that appear in the software UI.
  • Understand where we overlap vs. where we can carve out areas of ownership.
    
    
• Work with Peloton’s Content and Production team at Peloton to understand content framing and thumbnail design, and ensure the way that content is shot fits aesthetically and functionally with the UI and it’s “safe” areas across platforms.
  • Give feedback on set design and lighting.
  • Help to execute custom thumbnails for feature content and programs.
  • Develop start and end cards in collaboration with the creative team.
    
    
• Work with Peloton’s Product Engineering team to improve the interplay between design and engineering execution.
  • Ensure good collaboration practices exist between UI Designers and Engineering teams for kickoffs, breakdowns and UAT.
  • Ensure UI designers feel a sense of ownership over features they design as well as the product that gets shipped.
    Push UI standards for development and addressing design debt.
  • Campaign for the importance of implementing design to spec (“as designed”) and ensure that look and feel isn’t deprioritized,
    
    
• Continuously collaborate with other Product and Design roles (UX, Prototype Engineering, Research, and Product Management) and look for ways to improve cross-team processes.
  

ABOUT YOU

• Distinctly visually minded.
• Balances refined aesthetics with a strong understanding of software interfaces and UX.
• Has a user-centered approach to product design.
  
• Comfortable juggling a wide range of responsibilities at the same time.
• Has a collaborative, low-ego approach to working with others.
• Has a systematic, component and style based approach to UI design that ensures consistency (while not being afraid to depart from existing components when needed.)
• Process driven, but flexible to unique scenarios, projects, and personnel.
• Incredible attention to detail and meticulous organization
• Continually looking to optimize and improve UI design output.
• Balances direction with empowerment.
• Can lead team members with a variety of working styles
• Quickly adapts to unexpected changes in scale, priorities, and pace.
• Thrives in uncertainty and can excel in the “first of the role” environment; self-starter.
  
• Experienced in planning, building, mentoring, and developing a UI Design team.
• Experienced in attracting and hiring UI Design talent.
  
• Experienced with a variety of UI design subdisciplines and deliverables including style guides, UI kit, and design system development; animation; rendering; illustration; iconography; typography.
• Experience in designing for accessibility and inclusivity.
  
• Experienced in working with user researchers, UX designers, copywriters, engineers and product managers to drive strategy, vision, and execution.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 8+ years of experience in UI/Product Design including:
  • Recent experience in a product development setting within a consumer tech and software company.
  • 5+ years managing UI Design teams, including at least 2+ years managing teams of 5 or more.
• A portfolio of relevant UI Design work, executed either by yourself or a team that you led, that conveys an ability to drive a systems-based visual design style into highly usable and highly functional applications.
• Bonus Qualifications
  • Experience managing a UI Design team that completed projects on:
    • Integrated hardware/software consumer products.
    • Content/media–based products
    • Localized products across international markets.
    • Mixed-interaction software applications (touch, remote, mouse and keyboard) and mixed-platform and screen sizes.

 

ABOUT PELOTON

Founded in 2012, Peloton is a global interactive fitness platform that brings the energy and benefits of studio-style workouts to the convenience and comfort of home. We use technology and design to bring our Members immersive content through the Peloton Bike, the Peloton Tread, and Peloton Digital, which provide comprehensive, socially-connected fitness offerings anytime, anywhere. We believe in taking risks and challenging the status quo by continuously innovating and improving. Our team is made up of passionate brand ambassadors, and we know that together, we go far.

Headquartered in New York City, with offices, warehouses and retail showrooms in the US, UK and Canada, Peloton is changing the way people get fit. Peloton has been named to many prestigious industry lists, including Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies, CNBC's Disruptor 50, Crain's New York Business' Tech25 and Fast50, as well as TIME's Genius Companies. Visit www.onepeloton.com/careers to learn more about joining our team.