Head of Design
All Turtles is a product studio dedicated to solving meaningful problems for people and companies alike. In the past six years, our deeply collaborative, world-class team of product experts has tackled a broad but highly selective range of projects, propelling early-stage startups and incubating our own innovative companies. From improving workplace communication to empowering employees or improving health outcomes, each project reflects a problem that matters deeply to us and reflects our point of view.
We are not an agency or a consulting firm. External companies cannot hire us to work for them. We invest cash and services in return for equity, or we provide services in return for a combination of cash or equity. These projects are then validated by external funding and/or paying customers and can transition from an equity-based relationship to one that is cash-based. This repeatable process optimizes All Turtles and its studio companies for both short-term and long-term viability. Success for All Turtles comes from success for our studio companies, full-stop. And this reality permeates all aspects of what we do.
As we approach our seventh year, we continue to pursue quality over quantity. As an organization, we’re focused on real impact per person – and per project – rather than scaling for the sake of scale or top-heavy decision-making. This leads us to prioritize individual ownership in our work, which often involves taking the initiative to incubate projects ourselves or rolling up our sleeves to get things done.
If you enjoy getting scrappy to make products and brands from scratch, partnering with talented and passionate founders, builders, and creatives, making a big vision your own through dialogue and thoughtful strategy, and doing purpose-driven work in a culture of clarity, confidence, authority, and enthusiasm, we should probably talk.
YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR
- Carrying the vision for product and brand design and how the team collaborates with other disciplines and studio companies.
- Managing WHAT we do and WHY we do it for product and brand design teams and their respective managers.
- Leading the design operations team in HOW we do what we do, shaping just enough process and helping the team clearly articulate priorities.
- Evolving and refining our design culture in collaboration with the team.
- Hiring and growing the team as needed.
- Building trusted relationships with founders.
IDEALLY, YOU’LL HAVE
- 5-10 years leading a design team of 15 or more.
- Experience working with early-stage startups.
- Experience managing a distributed team.
- A love of thoughtful product strategy, excellent user experience, and rapid iteration.
- A deep understanding of the power of brand and how it can come to life in a product.
- An appreciation for the immense role words play in user experience.
- A respect for proper use of typography, color, usability, and accessibility.
- A strong sense of concept development, in addition to communication, collaboration, research, problem-solving, and presentation skills.
- Experience leading teams through projects from inception to completion in a fast-paced environment, with a dedicated focus on quality and prioritization.
- Ability to work strategically across a variety of projects and an innate ability to know when to be more deeply involved and when to empower others to take the lead.
- Experience working with a wide range of products, brands, and people.
Our Principles
As a company, we realize that talent is evenly distributed throughout the world, but opportunity is not. We believe that you should work where you can have the best impact, and live where you can have the best life.
Compensation
The salary range for this position is $260,000-$280,000 for a full-time employee based in the United States, but it may vary depending on your specific skills and experience. We've invested the time and effort to develop salary levels for all of our roles, for both individual contributors and managers. These levels are based on national compensation data, and are weighted to be competitive in the most expensive markets in the US. Final leveling and cash compensation will be determined at the end of the interview process.
Benefits
In addition to base salary, our team receives equity and a variety of other benefits. We offer all US employees and their dependents comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, covering 90% of the premium for employees, and 70% of the premium for qualifying dependents. US-based employees may also participate in our 401k, and we also offer life insurance.
Everyone on the team is eligible for a bonus for meeting colleagues in person (an opportunity to build precious relationship capital with teammates), and our monthly distributed facilities supplement. The latter is money we add to everyone's payroll for you to set up a productive and distraction-free work environment, no strings attached, and no receipts required.
How We Work
We've recently decided to work seasonally–focused periods of work with limited breaks, followed by 2 consecutive weeks off all together, all at the same time. This means we work hard from early January to mid July, take a break, and focus on output from mid July through late December, and then take another break. It means other things too, but we'll explain it when we get into the interview process.
This Head of Design role is a full-time position reporting to the COO. Our distributed team works primarily across North American time zones. While this role is partly asynchronous, the ability to work hours that overlap with those time zones is preferred.
All Turtles is committed to creating and fostering a diverse team. We encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds and all walks of life to apply. We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations to all applicants throughout the application process.