Director of Product Design
We are looking for a thoughtful and driven Director of Product Design to join our growing, distributed team at Coforma!
Product design at Coforma serves as the bridge between research and delivery. We work towards business goals as well as user needs with a bias towards scalable systems. We benefit our clients by building holistic, informed design systems while ensuring the rapid delivery of iterative designs to agile development teams. We collaborate with research, content design, product management, engineering, project management, and client business owners, showing up as creative problem solvers who can unearth elegant solutions to complex issues.
As Director of Product Design, you will help us organize, direct, and communicate our design efforts with government agencies, nonprofits, and cause-based organizations. You are a skilled practitioner and a deeply empathetic listener, with relentless curiosity and drive to support and grow your team. Your passion for developing design strategies, informed by insights of real people and key business needs, will inspire and ground your peers. You’ll help us better understand the people we aim to serve, the needs of the organizations and agencies we work with, and the changes we can make to have a large and lasting impact.
$164,000—$180,000 Base Salary + Benefits + Growth Potential
Exact compensation may vary based on skills and experience.
The job posting for this role is set to close at 5:00pm PDT on Friday, June 23rd, 2023 unless an extension has been noted.
The desired start date for this role is late-July/early-August 2023.
What You’ll Do
You’ll serve as a senior member of the Design team and will work with Design leadership to help manage team health, focusing on the Product Design practice area. You’ll manage a set of product designers, providing guidance on how best to staff them to projects, directly coaching and mentoring them, and supporting their career path and development. You'll collaboratively run the product design practice area—which will include yourself, your reports, and your principal-level product design peers—to help ensure the practice is appropriately balanced, mutually supportive, and resilient. You’ll provide clear, strong, visible, and authentic leadership within the Design team and your practice area, and proactively seek active collaboration across practice areas and with other departments.
Simultaneously, you’ll produce work that inspires designers both inside and outside of the company. You’ll help set the bar for client interaction for day-to-day work and encounters, directly contributing and stepping in to support the designers who rely on you within projects where needed.
Client and Project Work
- Representing 75% of your time, you’ll provide clear, strong, and visible leadership within projects, often acting as the design lead
- Scope design needs for assigned projects whose parameters are often undefined, determining effort and cost
- Use insights to develop product design strategies, roadmaps, and measures of success that meet client needs
- Set and lead direction for the project team to build high quality design deliverables and accompanying documentation from kickoff to handoff, including: design systems, prototypes, UI designs, wireframes; occasionally, also lead design research and content design efforts
- Demonstrate strong process and a well-rounded knowledge of techniques, principles, tools, materials, and systems in Product Design and other design disciplines
- Lead planning and facilitation of meetings, workshops, and training sessions for clients, stakeholders, and internal teams
- Present work in various forums and formats for varied audiences
- Identify, analyze, and work through complex problems in a way that addresses business requirements and user needs—and coach your teams to do the same
- Model critical thinking, sound judgment, and the ability to consider multiple perspectives while keeping the big picture in mind
- Find novel solutions to project challenges and encourage others to do the same
- Build understanding and consensus to accomplish goals
- Help set the bar for client interaction, providing support to project reports and direct reports as needed
Management and Internal Initiatives
- Representing 25% of your time, you’ll manage a team of product designers who work across multiple projects. You’ll also collaborate with Design leadership to support team growth, health, and evolution
- Manage up to 6 product designers and guide them in their professional development through regular 1:1s and ad hoc support
- Develop and refine equitable practices and cultivate a diverse and effective team, helping your direct reports realize their potential and honoring each individual's unique experiences
- Ensure the health of the Product Design practice through staffing, hiring, recruiting, coaching, training, career support, and workplace sustainability
- Help establish and document Coforma Product Design practice strategy and process, working hand-in-hand with your Director and Principal counterparts
- Organize and lead the Coforma Product Design practice area in collaboration with Principals and in conversation with other Design Directors. Lead some Design department meetings, workshops, and training sessions as requested
- Act as a sounding board for design researchers, engineers, UX designers, and content designers at Coforma, coaching them through experiential challenges and helping to review and structure their product design work, as needed
- Share your expertise in Product Design, Design, and leadership by contributing to—and sometimes leading—thought leadership content for internal and external audiences (this includes: company-wide meetings, business development, and thought leadership)
- Participate in the continuous development and improvement of Coforma’s ways of working
Required Experience
- 10+ years experience with product design, web, interaction, and/or equivalent roles
- 5+ years of direct people management experience or project team leadership (or both)
- 5+ years of experience facilitating and designing product design workshops and presentations with clients or in a consulting roleExperience managing product designers or equivalent roles
- Experience and history of enabling access to products and services within teams and communities
- Familiarity and experience with fast-growing companies, with a bonus for experience within government contracting or professional service firms
- Passion for and experience with quality interaction design, usability, and accessibility
- Adeptness with gathering requirements and understanding the design needs of public sector clients
- Proficiency in crafting quality designs using design systems, atomic design, component design, comprehensive layouts, clickable prototypes, branded UI designs, microcopy, wireframes, annotations, and style guides
- Demonstrated passion for continual learning
Required Skills
- Collaborative — will collaborate with peers, top executives, and high-level contacts; cooperate with staff across different teams, departments, and expertise
- Communicative — will communicate ideas and create personal relationships through highly skilled writing and in-person exchange, customizing the delivery to the audience
- Calm & Nimble — will analyze and navigate a fast-paced environment and ambiguity, changing priorities, and unexpected project challenges
- Organized Planner — will self-direct to prioritize projects, delegate appropriately, complete tasks on time, anticipate what could go wrong when planning and coordinating, thoughtfully mitigate risks, and document and share processes with others as needed
Preferred Experience and Skills
- 2+ years experience working on a remote team or remote freelancing
- 2+ years experience working in a consultatory environment
- Experience managing people within a cross-matrixed environment
- Prior professional services, government, or federal consulting experience
- Experience writing or editing requirements and performing design challenges for government proposals
- Experience conducting remote-only research, workshops, or validation sessionsExperience utilizing the United States Web Design System (USWDS)
Additional Requirements
- Internet — will prioritize and maintain access to strong, reliable internet for the remote nature of our work, except when on vacation or holiday
- Security — will keep the highest security practices to ensure privacy and security of Coforma and client information given the nature of our work, even when on vacation
- Travel Flexibility — on request and with advance notice, will attend in-person events such as meetings, workshops, and trainings as assigned for projects that require it
- Brand Representation — will represent Coforma professionally and sincerely, modeling the company values in all interactions
We Don't Care About
- Whether or not you have a degree of any kind
- Whether your educational major, if you had one, is related to this role
- Whether or not you have GitHub contributions
- Whether or not you have worked at a well-recognized company
- Whether you’re sure that you check every box perfectly
We Do Care About
- Your passions, professional or otherwise
- Your well-informed opinions about technology, teams, and processes
- You
$164,000 - $180,000 a year
Salary and Benefits
Yearly Base Salary: Directors at Coforma earn within the $164,000—$180,000 yearly compensation range, within our equitable pay scale for the 2023 year.
Professional Membership: Design team members are provided with AIGA memberships to support with training and upskilling, certifications, resources and inspiration, community building, and industry discounts.
Unlimited Paid Time Off: Available after the first 90 days of employment, you can enjoy unlimited paid time off, plus the last week of the year off every year.
Paid Holidays: Coforma offers generous paid holiday time off including Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Juneteenth, Indigenous Peoples Day, and US national election day.
Leave Coverage: We provide other kinds of leave which include paid sick leave, paid family leave, military leave, and bereavement leave, all available after 90 days of employment.
Medical Coverage: We offer multiple medical insurance plans for employees, paying for either 80% or 100% of the premium depending on the plan selected. Spouse and qualifying dependent care premium coverage is offered at 50% of the premium.
Dental and Vision Coverage: We cover 100% of the premium on dental and vision insurance for our employees. We also offer dental and vision insurance for your spouse, domestic partner, and child(ren), with family premium coverage coming in 2023.
401(k) Plan with Match: We match up to 4% of the employee’s salary in a Safe Harbor 401(k) Plan, allow immediate vesting, and also provide Roth options, all available after 90 days of employment.
We participate in E-Verify. Upon hire, we will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S.
This role is required to work from the contiguous United States.
We're Coforma
The stress of job searching can make you wonder if you’re enough. Studies have even shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs when they don’t meet every qualification. We believe that you ARE enough, and that it’s okay not to meet every requirement. We’re building a culture that’s authentic, inclusive, and diverse. If you’re excited to work with us but not sure you check every box, apply anyway! You may be just right for this role or another one.
About Us
We use creativity to get results for clients and the communities they serve.
We’ve honed a modern, agile, user-centered approach that elevates human needs through thoughtfully-designed systems and products.
From connecting families in crisis at the US border to improving the way governments consume COVID-19 mobility data through a more accessible and user-friendly tool, we’re dedicated to improving people’s lives through thoughtful technology products and services. Together. Our cross-functional team works closely with each other and with our government, nonprofit, and commercial partners to research, design, and build better products and services.
Coforma employs over 100 talented creators. Our leadership has decades of experience in improving government digital services from a civic service mindset, and a strong record of developing innovative technology solutions for government, enterprise, and nonprofits.
We thoughtfully integrate design into product development. We are experts in leading the design and development of products to meet business goals, build alignment, and deliver value through technically feasible and iterative design activities.
Business objectives and human beings are at the center of our work. We work very closely and collaboratively with our partners, from solicitation through to delivery, to ensure that the solution provides a high level of value to the business. Accessibility is never overlooked in our work, and our iterative approach validates the utility and delight of the final product.
Equal Opportunity & Inclusive Workplace
Coforma is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, pregnancy, disability, work-related injury, covered veteran status, political ideology, marital status, or any other factor that the law protects from employment discrimination. As a federal government contractor, all employees of Coforma are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by January 4, 2022. Background checks and other security clearances may be required for some roles as it relates to the nature of our client work.
Our team and our office aims to be an accessible and hospitable place to work. We welcome applicants, contractors, and employees who are committed to improving our culture and practices.