Who we are

Otter is on a mission to build a childcare platform parents can count on. We match caregivers and parents, handle booking logistics, and support transactions for recurring and last-minute childcare and we’ve recently relaunched in the Bay Area. Our team of ~10 is mostly remote, with some folks in SF. You can read more about us here and here.

Who you’ll be working with

Every day, you’ll work closely with our PM and our engineering team, including our CTO and co-founder, Chas Jhin, who previously led the engineering team at Cameo. You’ll also work regularly with our CEO and co-founder, Helen Mayer, who raised a $23M Series A from Sequoia as a team of one. For the first two months, you’ll partner with Kevin Twohy, who has been embedded on our team as a product designer and will transition our design system to you.

**What you’ll actually do here**

You’ll be joining Otter in the midst of a new market launch, inheriting an existing design system and product you’ll be responsible for maintaining and improving. From day one, you’ll get to design features and materials to help our team move faster. We follow an operations-led product development cycle, meaning that we validate things operationally before codifying them in product. This means that, if we’re working well as a team, every design you finalize will get shipped and you’ll get to see it in users’ hands. You'll also get the opportunity to help shape the design culture at Otter, and inform our process and ways of working.

**What you won’t do here**

Strategy, process design, or management - at least not at first. We’re actively doubling down on a PMF bet, which means most of our work is tactical and will remain that way until we earn the right to abstract a few levels up. We’re also small enough that communication is informal and fluid, and we want to keep it that way.

Who you are

You have over 4 years of experience as a designer and you’ve probably been a designer at an early-stage company, either full-time or freelance. You feel comfortable sketching out the UX flow for a new feature from scratch, as well as putting the final visual touches on high-fidelity interface designs for implementation. You love the idea of applying your design skills to help solve problems for your teammates. For example, you might hear about an ops process that’s becoming burdensome during a daily all-hands, then jump into specing a feature with our PM Hessam and review low fidelity mocks with our CEO Helen and our CTO Chas. You’re also passionate about Otter’s mission to build childcare that works for families and caregivers!

The salary range for a senior product designer at Otter is $165,000-200,000. Compensation is commensurate with experience, and we may consider a higher compensation band for a more senior candidate.

Please apply even if you don't meet 100% of the criteria. Nobody checks every box every time and we'd love to talk to you about how and why you can see yourself growing into this role. We're also very open to candidates with non-traditional experience, especially those who have taken time out of the traditional workforce to care for their children or other loved ones.

Otter embraces diversity. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and do not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, citizenship, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Otter Careers 2026

Closed positions