Product Designer
Tidelift
Posted 5 years ago
What we’re building
At Tidelift, our mission is making open source software work better—for everyone. We see a world where open source creators can get paid for doing work they love, and software development teams get software they can depend on. We’re already supporting many of the most important projects in open source, and adding more all the time.
We're still small, but well-funded and growing. You will play a large role in tackling challenging problems and helping build the company, while learning alongside our experienced team.
How you can help
We’re looking for a product designer with experience designing software-as-a-service web applications.
A trained designer. We are looking for a breadth of design experience including formal design principles and typography, experience applying a brand identity and design system, and the ability to synthesize information to better inform design decisions.
You should have experience working closely with engineering and product teams to scope a feature, run a design process to explore solutions including testing solutions with users, and walkthrough features with engineering to make choices based on user goals and cost to build. Collaborating with engineering is not a hand-wavy thing here — we rely on each other to make the best decisions we can quickly, in service of the user needs.
You should have breadth of interests across product design considerations, including user needs, responsiveness, accessibility, information architecture, and other relevant practices.
User-centered design. We use lean research methods to explore product ideas, as well as run usability testing. You should be comfortable with, or at least curious about, these practices and how they feed into your daily work as a designer. Being comfortable with ambiguity, and leveraging research/rapid prototyping that put the user first are important characteristics in this role.
Focused on interactive design. We are looking for deep design experience translating user goals into comprehensive feature flows. Our ideal candidate would have the ability to craft clean CSS and HTML as their work product. We run a Vue-based design system, and it would be helpful if you could learn to make pull requests to update UI elements. You would also be delivering prototypes and user stories as a work product.
A creative partner. You will be a creative partner who helps us think through our product strategy and associated communications, so you should be comfortable collaborating with others with different backgrounds, job descriptions, and skill sets including product, engineering, sales, and marketing.
This team
This role sits in product development, and will report to the Head of Design.
We want a team where everyone cares about cares about users, design, building a business, and one another. This team assessment spoke to our developers, and we want the whole company to score highly on similar measures of engagement and work quality as our culture grows.
We’re also aiming for work-life harmony: we believe in doing good work, with urgency and pragmatism, but at a sustainable pace. We value big impact over long hours.
Our values
We’re trying to build a healthy, values-driven culture. We want to be:
- Optimistic: We see an amazing future ahead, and want to inspire others to share in it. This is both internal—building each other up and looking for the best in people—and external—we know open source is awesome, and we want to make it even better.
- Practical: We know words and ideas alone won’t change lives. We help people most by creating a pragmatic, viable, and sustainable business that works for everyone. So we care about usability, design, and honest assessment of costs and benefits.
- Additive: We want an environment that encourages and inspires growth, both for individuals and for the open source community as a whole. That means embracing a growth mindset, and valuing culture add over culture fit.
- Inclusive: We believe technology will be stronger when it better reflects the voices and ideas of society as a whole. So we want people from different backgrounds and experiences to not just be represented, but to be heard, valued, and flourish. We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment.
How we work
You can work remotely (within the US) or from our office in downtown Boston. About half of our team, including two of our founders, are remote, and we take employee experience seriously wherever you are based.
We believe in the urgency of our mission, and the importance of doing good work, but also know this is a marathon and not a sprint. Hours can be flexible within reason if necessary to meet personal needs (like child, medical, or elder care).
Compensation, benefits, and career
Compensation is competitive with other Boston-area startups, including health insurance, flexible vacation, 401(k), short-term disability, parental leave, and equity.
We invest in every employee’s growth, and support professional development that aligns with your goals and how you learn best.
How to apply
Fill out the form below, and include a link to your portfolio in your resume. We'd love it if you add a thoughtful note about your goals and your background. We’ll get back to you promptly!
Please note that we are not looking to hire contractors or outsourced development teams.