Product Design Director, Platform

A pioneer in K-12 education since 2000, Amplify is leading the way in next-generation curriculum and assessment. Our core and supplemental programs in ELA, math, and science engage all students in rigorous learning and inspire them to think deeply, creatively, and for themselves. Our formative assessment products help teachers identify the targeted instruction students need to build a strong foundation in early reading and math. All of our programs provide educators with powerful tools that help them understand and respond to the needs of every student. Today, Amplify serves more than 10 million students in all 50 states. For more information, visit amplify.com.
A pioneer in K-12 education since 2000, Amplify is leading the way in next-generation curriculum and assessment. Our captivating core and supplemental programs in ELA, math, and science engage all students in rigorous learning and inspire them to think deeply, creatively, and for themselves. Our formative assessment products turn data into practical instructional support to help students at every skill level build a strong foundation in early reading and math. Our programs provide teachers with powerful tools that help them understand and respond to the needs of all their students. Today, Amplify serves five million students in all 50 states!
Amplify's creative team is a group of designers, artists, and storytellers. We sketch, we write, we push pixels, we also love paper. We live for the big ideas, and we sweat the details. We work on digital, print, environmental, interactive, and animation projects. We have a strong hands-on and highly collaborative approach to both product development and graphic design systems and ensure ideas are realized to the highest standards of execution.
A Product Design Director at Amplify is responsible for leading and growing our product design practice and envisioning the whole of impactful educational experiences that amplify a teacher's capabilities and a student's learning.
Working directly with executive leadership, business owners and internal leaders with vision to move from strategy to execution, the ideal candidate is an innovative hands-on designer, a responsive product owner, an effective mentor, a standout colleague, a great storyteller, and a skilled business partner. You will play a key role in simplifying and enhancing complex and multi-platform systems, own methods and design processes, and inspire cross-disciplinary teams to push the boundaries of what's possible.
"Amplify's COVID-19 vaccination policy requires all staff to provide proof of vaccination for in-person meetings unless an approved exemption is provided."
Responsibilities:

• Identify Platform design opportunities, envision relevant new user experiences, build business cases, and create roadmaps with interdisciplinary teams
• Participate in business development activities including personas, design responses, program approaches, inputs to product teams, resource estimation and scheduling
• Collaborate with cross-discipline leads to provide guidance, mentorship, and skill-building to both members of your team and the greater design organization
• Bring a clear vision of how to orchestrate and steer a creative direction for products and projects of varying sizes
• Coach and manage career growth and trajectories for multi-disciplinary team members, including hiring key roles needed for product development
• Help shape and define our approach to experience and service design and evangelize internally and with external partners
• Lead thinking and problem-solving at the project level while managing expectations for the product teams and the business level drivers
• Bring a point of view and specific areas of interest within experience and service design or other industry trends, and share with team members and collaborators
• Champion design thinking and design craft at both project and company-wide level
• Actively develop and evolve Amplify's product design processes, capabilities and approaches

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in a related field
• 10+ years experience within a digital or product design field
• Strong management, and mentorship skills
• Proven leadership across subject areas, products, and channels within an organization
• Extensive knowledge of UI and UX practices
• Experience running teams and working across multiple products
• Experience engaging with sales and marketing
• Experience applying human-centered design and research to business problems
• Ability to influence, negotiate and coordinate across multiple groups and disciplines
• Strong presentation and communication skills and experience leading workshops and communicating ideas to executives
• Strong and effective interpersonal skills (written, verbal, and listening)
• Ability to lead collaborative discussion, listen closely, and provide honest, thoughtful feedback to colleagues
• Working experience on a product team from product concept through launch
• Deep familiarity with agile methods and team constructs

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with digital product design in education technology or a related field
• Enthusiasm for contributing to the landscape of literacy education
• Experience designing with Accessibility as a priority
• Demonstrated ability to work iteratively with customers to gather and document user experience requirements
• A formal education in Interaction Design, Communication Design, User Experience or related field
• Experience with interactive motion design or game development
• Any lived experience with teaching or tutoring students ages K-12

What we offer:
Salary is only one component of the Amplify Total Rewards package, which includes a lucrative 401(k) plan, incentive stock options, competitive health insurance and mental health options, basic life insurance, paid time off, parental leave, and access to best-in-class development programs. The gross salary range for this role is $150,000 - $157,500. This role is eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus that rewards individual and company performance.
We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To that end, we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.
Amplify is an Equal Opportunity Employer of Minorities, Females, Protected Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities.
This position may be funded, in whole or in part, through American Recovery & Reinvestment Act funds.
Amplify Education, Inc. is an E-Verify participant.