Senior Director, Design

Quick Take: Axios is a digital media company that tells you what matters and why, to make you smarter, faster. We're hiring a Senior Director of Design to oversee all elements of Design at Axios.

Why it Matters: This person will be the most senior design leader at Axios that will oversee all of Product Design and Brand Design, and assure the quality and consistency of Axios products and that everything we do always looks and feels like Axios. Design permeates everything we do at Axios.

Go Deeper: This Senior Director will own the vision and communications for major design decisions across the team and organization to help execute an ambitious design vision. You will help designers to translate business and user needs into high-quality deliverables in a constant evolving environment. You will manage and invest in the growth of brand and product designers and organize work using proper tools and frameworks. 

The Details:

• You have overseen product and brand design. Managed, mentored, and grown teams. Cultivated a culture of design and a continuous drive to improve
• You have mastered your craft of good design and are able to articulate decisions to executives, peers, collaborators, engineers and stakeholders
• You can define frameworks, tooling, and processes to optimize and improve efficiency
• A connector and advocate across data, product, tech, business and design 
• An advocate for users, to push for and lead user research or end-user testing when it warrants and assure the tests are carried out in a manner that will yield a useful outcome
• A proactive approach your work with urgency that motivated others
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced and dynamic work environment and have a track record of leading through ambiguity
• Can communicate design decisions effectively at all levels in a way that clearly articulates the narrative of the decisions that culminated in these designs
• Able to take and receive feedback in a supportive and collaborative manner, always assuming best intentions
• Extensive experience with content management systems, marketing experiences, web, and mobile design products as well as developing and maintaining centralized component libraries 
• A strong portfolio of brand and product design efforts, with extensive experience maintaining design systems and conducting user testing
• Preferred, but not required, that you have led product designers who perform in-browser design 

Responsibilities:

• Directly manage and grow brand and product designers and their leadership
• Oversee brand design, product design, and designs produced by external agencies to assure consistency, quality, and effectiveness
• Provide guidance for product discovery with product management, business, and engineering teams, when necessary
• Lead your teams to move concepts into valuable and impactful products
• Evolve Axios brand principles
• Assure timely and high-quality output from your teams
• Partner with executives to help deliver on the needs for design across all of Axios
• Cultivate a healthy design process for the team, and be a key contributor in our department and company strategy and direction
• Support your team to deliver elegantly-simple solutions to the right problems 
• Support technical and leadership growth in team members and support their personal career goal
• Set team's goals that reflect the company and product values and vision
• Inspire and lead your team; take care for team performance and health, resource allocation, project prioritization, and build a strong culture of design excellence

Don’t forget:

• Competitive salary
• Health insurance (100% paid for individuals, 75% for families)
• Primary caregiver 12-week paid leave
• 401K
• Generous vacation policy, plus company holidays
• A commitment to an open, inclusive, and diverse work culture

Additional pandemic-related benefits:

• One mental health day per quarter
• $100 monthly work-from-home stipend
• Tele-mental health services 
• OneMedical membership, including tele-health services 
• Increased work flexibility for parents and caretakers 
• Access to the Axios “Family Fund”, which was created to allow employees to request financial support when facing financial hardship or emergencies 
• Virtual company-sponsored social events

Base salary for this role is in the range of $185,000-$225,000 and is dependent on numerous factors, including but not limited to location, work experience, and skills. This range does not include other compensation benefits.

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement

Axios is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, age, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.

This policy applies to all employment practices within our organization, including hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leave of absence, compensation, benefits, training, and apprenticeship. Axios makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.