Overview

Medium’s mission is to help people deepen their understanding of the world and discover ideas that matter. We are building a place where ideas are judged on the value they provide to readers, not the fleeting attention they can attract for advertisers. We are creating the best place for reading and writing on the internet—a place where today’s smartest writers, thinkers, experts, and storytellers can share big, interesting ideas.

Our mission hinges on design: designing a product that helps readers discover the stories that matter to them; designing an ecosystem that supports and rewards quality writing; designing an experience that respects intelligence and is worth paying for. We are building this future, one product release at a time, and looking to designers to help lead the way.

We are looking for a Design Director to lead the Reader Experience design team, developing a vision of the end-to-end experience for how readers engage with content on Medium and guiding execution on that vision. You will collaborate closely with the VP of Product Design on high-level strategy, and translate that strategy into clear guidance, process, and feedback for product designers. This is a high-impact role with the opportunity to shape how millions of people discover and share ideas every day.

What will you do?

  • Lead and grow a team of product designers and design researchers by setting clear goals, evolving our design process, bringing in best practices, building a strong team culture, and ensuring that they have what they need to be successful.
  • Partner with the VP of Product Design to develop strategic goals for the reader experience and work with your team to make that vision come to life.
  • Establish a design process that maintains a high level of creative execution and makes space for innovative, divergent exploration.
  • Work with product management, engineering, research, and data science to ensure a well-aligned and coordinated product development process.
  • Develop product design strategies that are informed by user research, business objectives, and strong design sensibility.

Who are you?

  • You have experience leading design teams working on consumer Internet products, experience on media-related products a plus.
  • You have a track record of mentoring and developing designers to do their best work. You value open collaboration and know how to cultivate a culture of trust.
  • You excel at bringing clarity and structure to ideas and can put in place strong processes to make them happen.
  • You are equally comfortable with big-picture strategy and pixel-level design feedback.
  • You have experience managing designers that work with cross-functional product teams in an agile / scrum environment.
  • You have a deep understanding of UX best practices in mobile and web applications.
  • You have strong portfolio of design work demonstrating end-to-end product design on products at varying points of the product life-cycle.

At Medium, we foster an inclusive, supportive, fun yet challenging team environment. We value having a team that is made up of a diverse set of backgrounds and respect the healthy expression of diverse opinions. We embrace experimentation and the examination of all kinds of ideas through reasoning and testing. Come join us as we continue to change the world of digital media. Medium is an equal opportunity employer.

Interested? We’d love to hear from you.