Director of Product Design (San Francisco, CA)
ABOUT RETOOL:
Nearly every company in the world runs on custom business software: Gartner estimates that up to 50% of all code is written for internal usage. This is the operational software for refunding orders, underwriting loans, moderating content, managing marketplaces, rolling out new features, onboarding employees, analyzing transactions, providing customer support…the list is nearly endless. For most companies, building and maintaining all of these tools demands a lot of engineering time—scarce, expensive resources better put to use on customer-facing products.
At Retool, we’re designing a new type of development environment that makes it dramatically faster and easier to build all of this software. Retool unifies the ease of visual programming with the power of code, while abstracting away the tedious and repetitive tasks of development. We believe that the future of software development lies in being a force multiplier for developers and technical builders, helping them move considerably faster and build a lot more software. It’s akin to a new version of Visual Basic, HyperCard, or Flash—with a bit of Figma and some future-of-programming vibes thrown on top. Today, our customers span from small startups building their first operational tools, to Fortune 500 companies building mission-critical apps for thousands of users across their business.
WHY WE’RE LOOKING FOR YOU:
We're seeking a Director of Product Design to lead an extraordinary team of product designers, shaping their work and processes to ensure high quality and timely execution of Retool’s goals and product vision. Your influence will extend beyond the design realm, as you’ll partner closely with your product management and engineering counterparts to effectively communicate the objectives, insights, and status of product work to the rest of the organization. You’ll help scale the product design function at Retool, recruiting and developing the careers of product designers, while building an environment where design changes the trajectory of our customers and our business.
IN THIS ROLE YOU'LL:
- Work closely with our Head of Design to model Retool's operating principles, cultivate an inclusive and empowering workplace with a clear organizational structure, and devise practical strategies that help us achieve concrete and measurable objectives
- Help establish an outstanding design practice, influence product strategy, plan and ensure product execution, and uphold a high quality bar
- Lead with clarity and vision, motivating and coaching designers to deliver the best work of their career by building a demanding, but supportive environment
- Help to create repeatable systems and processes for product design to deliver high quality work at an ambitious velocity
- Improve our process for attracting high-quality product design candidates and refine our career growth frameworks
- Partner with our other design leaders to facilitate close collaboration and operational support between product design, brand design, and design engineering
- Share ownership of product outcomes with your engineering and product management partners, reenforcing a “three-legged stool” operating model
- Create alignment by communicating objectives and progress across the company and to senior leadership
THE SKILLSET YOU'LL BRING:
- A body of work that demonstrates high quality and meaningful business impact—you know what great design looks like, and how to enable your team to produce just that
- 12+ years of professional design experience with 4+ years of leadership experience, including managing individual contributors and managers
- Experience setting product design direction in a cross-disciplinary, multi-team environment at all altitudes, from strategic direction down to detailed UI design
- Strong systems and conceptual thinking, paired with direct communication that's concise, articulate, and capable of inspiring a team
- A history of deep collaboration with product and engineering functions, empowering design to lead with vision and drive holistic product experiences that significantly impacted the business' trajectory
- An obsessions with customers, and direct experience building processes for developing customer understanding in collaboration with sales, customer success, and marketing partners
- Proven expertise in attracting, nurturing, and retaining top-tier talent, cultivating well-rounded and inclusive teams that expand with the company's growth
- The inspiration and drive to radically rethink how software is built, and shape the future of programming
Retool offers generous benefits to all employees. For more information, please visit the benefits and perks section of our careers page!
At this time, Retool is only set up to employ in the US and UK.