Director of Product Design

Who We Are

Ellevest is a fast-growing, venture-backed financial services start-up built by women, for women. Our mission is to get more money in the hands of women, no matter where they’re starting or how far they’ve come. We started by building the only gender-aware online investing platform that takes totally un-ignorable realities (like pay gaps, different salary curves, and women’s longer lifespans) into account. Then we added banking, learning, and money and career coaching services for Ellevest members, plus a full-service private wealth management service that helps high net worth people, families, and institutions align their financial power with their values.

Ellevest was co-founded by Wall Street veteran Sallie Krawcheck after she realized that the financial services industry was built by men, for men, systemically leaving women behind. During her Wall Street days, she served as CEO of Smith Barney, CEO of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, and CFO of Citi. Ellevest has raised $145 million from investors including Rethink Impact, Pivotal Ventures, Valerie Jarrett, Salesforce Ventures, PayPal Ventures, MasterCard, Khosla Ventures, Morningstar, and Venus Williams.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Ellevest is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. Data shows that diverse teams are more innovative, make better decisions, and lead to greater employee engagement. When hiring, we look for culture add, not culture fit. That means hiring people who bring new perspectives and different experiences to our team. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

About This Position

As the Director of Product Design, you will be a key contributor to the UX and visual design strategy that drives the vision and experience of the Ellevest product. 

You are wholeheartedly focused on the user, and believe that regular testing and iteration is the key to delivering a successful product. You value beauty and delight as well as clarity and simplicity, and understand how to use them to deliver an excellent experience. You have a good sense for when to apply established patterns and styles, as well as when to evolve them or leave them behind entirely (while updating our style guide and documentation accordingly). You will report to the Chief Product Officer and collaborate with senior leaders and business stakeholders across the organization. You will build and foster a culture of testing, iteration, and direct communication with customers.

You will develop a vision for scaling our product design team as we expand our offering and grow the business. You will bring inclusive leadership, technical expertise, and proven people development skills to bear on strategic decisions about our technical ecosystem, product roadmap, and product culture. This is a full-time position on our remote-first team. 

Day to day you will: 

• Lead the product design organization, developing and driving strategy and managing day-to-day operations of the product design team; coach, mentor and manage a team of existing Senior Product Designers and UX Writers.  
• Be an evangelist for UX and UI best practices and design excellence; develop, present, and defend ideas in front of the design, product and executive teams
• Ensure the Ellevest experience meets a high level of quality, drives innovative UI/visual thinking, and provide vision and strategic direction to the product design team
• Identify and articulate user needs, build prototypes to test internally and through user research, and refine solutions in the face of data and other findings
• Deliver creative design solutions for complex usability problems, with an eye for elegant typography and brand voice 
• Maintain a holistic view of the product and drive toward a simple and coherent experience
• Coach your team to work iteratively in a highly Agile and Scrum environment
• Collaborate with key stakeholders across the organization to maintain a consistent experience across all Ellevest touchpoints

We’re looking for: 

• 8+ years of Product Design experience for consumer brands on complex flows and use cases across customer journeys 
• An exceptional portfolio of (shipped) creative digital product design that showcases complex and creative UX solutions, exceptional visual design and solid information architecture
• Experience in building, contributing and leading a highly effective design organization at a tech company that has shown excellence in product design; strong point-of-view on modern, effective design processes and systems
• Experience building, managing and developing a diverse team of Product Designers and UX Writers 
• Evidence of successful collaboration with engineering, product and marketing teams; openness to receiving feedback and having your opinions be challenged
• Extensive understanding of prototyping methodologies and practices, user research methodologies and multivariate  testing 
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills — you can tell compelling stories about your designs and present your work confidently to any audience (engineers, PMs, executives, other designers, etc.)

Working at Ellevest

Ellevest was founded in New York City, but today, our fully remote team is spread across the whole United States. As a member of the team, you can expect to do work that directly impacts our mission and the lives of real women every day.

We’re also dedicated to building a work environment where everyone on our team can grow and thrive, with flexible working hours and time off; remote work policies designed for transparency and effective cross-team collaboration; ongoing team building and professional development; and more.

Do you think you could thrive in this role?

Please send us your application — even if you don’t check every single box. No two people’s career paths look exactly alike, and skill sets come in many different forms. We can’t wait to hear about yours.

Note: Instead of a cover letter, we ask you to answer the questions at the bottom of this application.