Product Designer, Creator Services

SoundCloud is a next-generation music entertainment company powered by an ecosystem of artists, fans, and thriving communities. As one of the world’s most influential cultural platforms, SoundCloud holds a singular market position as both a music-streaming service with the largest catalogue of music, and an artist services and distribution business to help artists grow long-term, successful careers. 

Our Product Design Team creates experiences that serve hundreds of millions of users. We’re looking for a Product Designer with passion for, or experience in, creator services to join our team.

The Role

We are seeking an outcome-driven Product Designer with a specific interest and passion for music creator tools and services to join the SoundCloud Creator Services team in Los Angeles. SoundCloud offerings for creators consist of the historic SoundCloud services as well as the tools offered by Repost, which SoundCloud acquired in 2019. The ideal candidate will have experience with designing for an audience of experts in their craft that need a digital infrastructure to distribute, manage, and monetize the content they create. To be successful in the role, the candidate should be able to develop a strong empathy for creators by familiarizing with qualitative research and behavioral data focusing on the needs and desires of the SoundCloud creator community. An understanding of how engaging with fans is essential for creators in order to establish their own audience is required for the role. Familiarity, experience, and comfort with working in a fast-paced agile environment with frequently shifting priorities and a certain degree of ambiguity is required.

The Product Designer will regularly collaborate, either in person or remotely, with other designers, Product Managers, UX Researchers, Data Scientists and Engineers, in building and launching new products and features. They will take part in team level debates, where they will be able to challenge assumptions, provide critical feedback, and help building consensus. As individual contributors, they will be expected to take ownership of their own tasks, from early strategy and concepting to implementation and optimization. 

A strong passion for Universal Design, Accessibility and Inclusivity will be considered a plus.

Responsibilities

• Solve complex creator services problems by applying a diverse set of data, approaches, and tools and answering specific user needs with functional and emotional designs;
• Contribute to defining the design process for each of the specific challenges they are responsible for and manage their work autonomously throughout all phases of a human-centered and agile product development process; 
• Design a consistent user experience across the variety of SoundCloud and Repost creator services; 
• Support and collaborate with SoundCloud’s user research team and data scientists throughout a variety of research programs and behavioral analytics experiments to ensure product and feature solutions are relevant to customers; 
• Ideate a wide variety of solutions to a single, specific design challenge, illustrate them with storyboards, sketches, wireframes, prototypes and others, and iterate on them;
• Deliver final design assets on brand, on quality, and on time, according to the cadence of product development agreed with Product Managers;
• Communicate clearly and collaborate effectively with other designers, UX Research, Product Management, Engineering, and Marketing throughout the product development process;
• Present design solutions and envisioned user experiences with product teams, executives, partners, and others.

Requirements/skills

• Experience with designing consumer products for mobile and web, preferably for at least one large- or medium-scale consumer platform;
• Experience with managing autonomously their own work from early concepts to final implementation;
• Experience with working with a  cross-functional product development team by following all the team rituals and collaborating with all the different functional roles; 
• Experience with working in fast, agile product development teams preferably in a start-up environment;
• Experience with designing tools, dashboards, and services for creators, in particular for content monetization, will be considered a strong plus;
• Excellent communication skills and willingness to articulate with fellow team members the rationale and the trade-offs for proposed designs;
• Experience with the complexity of shipping large projects or products that require coordination with other functional roles;
• A User Experience Design Portfolio that demonstrates excellence in the product design craft, the understanding of a human-centered process, and the ability to ship real products.

About us:

• We are a multinational company with offices in the US (New York and Los Angeles), Germany (Berlin), and the UK (London)
• We provide a flexible work culture that offers the opportunity to collaborate and connect in person at our offices as well as accommodating work from home
• We are deeply committed to ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels of our organization and fostering a community where everyone’s voice, perspective and experience is respected and heard
• We believe a strong team is made by investing in employees through mentorship, workshops and enrichment opportunities

Benefits:

• Comprehensive health benefits including medical, dental, and vision plans, as well as mental health resources
• Robust 401k program
• Employee Stock Ownership Plan
• Generous professional development allowance
• Interested in a gym membership, photography course or book? We have a Creativity and Wellness benefit!
• Flexible vacation and public holiday policy where you can take up to 35 days of PTO annually
• 16 paid weeks for all parents (birthing and non-birthing), regardless of gender, to welcome newborns, adopted and foster children
• Various snacks, goodies, and 2 free lunches weekly when at the office

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at SoundCloud

SoundCloud is for everyone. Diversity and open expression are fundamental to our organization. With this foundation, we aim to build a social platform and global community for everyone to create, discover, and share sounds. We acknowledge the challenges in our industry and strive to develop an inclusive culture where individual contributions are valued. We are dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for everyone, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, migration background, national origin, age, disability status, or care-giver status. 

At SoundCloud you can find your community or elevate your allyship by joining a Diversity Resource Group (groups focused on people of color, LGBTQIA+ folks, and women). You may also participate in inclusive workshops, contribute to our Cultural Moments series, select organizations for the SoundCloud Community Fund to support, and more!