Director, Design

REV; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Rev in Austin seeks a Director of Design to own Design as a function, establish a cohesive vision for the product experience, and elevate the quality of shipped work. You will lead critical design initiatives, coach an existing designer, and build strong customer feedback loops with Product and Engineering.

You’ll personally drive design from discovery through implementation while shaping standards, reviews, and cross-team alignment to deliver a polished, accessible experience across Rev’s

Qualifications

• Experience leading design across complex products and owning design quality.
• Exceptional taste with shipped work showing strong interaction design and customer impact.
• Ability to articulate a compelling design vision and translate it into standards, priorities, and shipped experiences.
• Hands-on design ability with proficiency in Figma and modern prototyping methods.
• Deep customer curiosity and experience building an ongoing feedback loop that informs decisions.
• Experience coaching others to improve craft, judgment, and independence.
• Active in design reviews with cross-functional teams; openness to feedback and critique.
• Strong partnerships with Product and Engineering leaders balancing customer needs and technical constraints.
• Experience building or improving design systems with accessibility and responsive design.
• Practical experience designing AI-powered products and using AI in design processes.
• An Austin location with ability to work in person with Build team and senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Own Design as the accountable leader for Design; set vision and quality across Rev’s products.
• Define design direction; uphold interaction, visual craft, usability, accessibility, and consistency.
• Create a cohesive product experience by aligning work across teams with Product and Engineering.
• Establish a regular customer feedback loop with discovery and usability testing; translate findings.
• Involve PMs and engineers in direct customer learning for day-to-day decisions.
• Lead high-impact design initiatives from problem to launch and iteration.
• Coach the existing designer through feedback and expectations to raise craft.
• Establish regular design reviews with leadership; invite feedback and drive decisions.
• Surface disagreements early and keep stakeholders aligned while moving work forward.
• Strengthen design systems and practices for speed with quality.
• Incorporate trustworthy AI experiences with transparency and user control.
• Use AI in design for research synthesis, prototyping, and iteration.

Skills

leading design across complex products

hands-on design ability

ability to articulate a design vision

customer discovery & usability testing

coaching and design development

design reviews & critique

strong partnerships with Product & Eng

conflict-resolution skills

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Interaction Design or related field

Tools

Figma

AI design tools (Claude Design, Builder.io)

Job description

There’s never been a more exciting time to be part of Rev.

Every role here plays a critical part in shaping the future of speech technology and empowering our customers to do more, faster. We didn’t disrupt the industry by playing it safe. We did it by embracing bold thinking, welcoming diverse perspectives, and giving our team the freedom and responsibility to innovate. At Rev, you won’t just have a seat at the table — you’ll help redesign it.

Come build what’s next with us

How this role will Serve, Own and Grow at Rev:

Rev is looking for an Austin-based Director of Design to own Design as a function, establish a cohesive vision for our product experience, and raise the quality of what we ship.
You’ll bring exceptional taste, strong product judgment, and a deep understanding of our customers. You’ll be accountable for design direction, craft, and consistency across Rev’s products. Working closely with Product and Engineering leadership, you’ll identify where the experience falls short, set clear priorities for improvement, and translate that vision into shipped work.
This is a hands-on player/coach role. You’ll personally lead critical design work from discovery through implementation while coaching our existing designer, strengthening their craft and judgment, and building practices that make great design repeatable. Your success will depend on both the quality of the experiences we ship and your ability to elevate the people building them.
You’ll also own the customer feedback loop. You’ll build ongoing customer relationships, understand their workflows firsthand, and lead discovery and usability testing. You’ll bring Product and Engineering into that learning, ensure findings inform product priorities and design decisions, and assess whether shipped changes solve the intended problems.
We’re looking for someone who actively seeks design reviews and welcomes thoughtful challenge. You’ll put work in front of others early, invite feedback from customers and colleagues, and use it to improve the experience. You’ll bring conviction without rigidity, address disagreements directly, and guide teams toward clear decisions and follow-through.

Responsibilities:

• Ownership of Design: Serve as the accountable leader for Design at Rev. Set the product design vision, establish clear expectations, and own the quality of the customer experience across our products

• Design direction and quality: Define what great customer experience looks like at Rev. Set and uphold standards for interaction design, visual craft, usability, accessibility, and consistency

• A cohesive product experience: Connect work across teams into a clear, intuitive experience. Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to prioritize and address the design and usability problems that create the most friction for customers

• The customer feedback loop: Establish a regular cadence of customer conversations, workflow observation, discovery, and usability testing. Translate findings into priorities and design decisions, validate the impact of shipped improvements, and use what you learn to guide iteration

• Customer understanding across Build: Bring product managers and engineers into direct customer learning. Help teams develop an ongoing understanding of customer needs and apply that understanding in their day-to-day work

• Critical design initiatives: Personally lead high-impact work from problem definition through exploration, prototyping, implementation, launch, and iteration. Stay close to the details that determine the quality of the finished experience

• Coaching and design development: Coach our existing designer through close collaboration, actionable feedback, and clear expectations. Build their craft, judgment, and ability to independently deliver strong work

• Design reviews and critique: Establish regular reviews with Design, Product, Engineering, and Build leadership. Actively seek feedback on your own work, invite challenge early, and turn critique into better decisions and stronger execution

• Alignment and conflict resolution: Surface disagreements early, understand the underlying concerns, and make tradeoffs clear. Know when to compromise, when to hold the quality bar, and when to escalate with a recommendation. Keep stakeholders aligned and the work moving

• Design systems and working practices: Strengthen shared components, patterns, and practices so teams can move quickly while delivering a consistent, polished experience.

• Trustworthy AI experiences: Establish thoughtful approaches to uncertainty, transparency, user control, correction, and recovery. Help teams identify where AI meaningfully improves the customer experience

• Effective use of AI in design: Develop practical ways to use AI for research synthesis, exploration, prototyping, and iteration while maintaining a high bar for judgment and quality

Qualifications:

• A track record of leading design across complex products, taking ownership of design quality, and influencing direction beyond your own projects

• Exceptional taste, demonstrated through recent shipped work with strong interaction design, visual craft, and meaningful customer impact

• The ability to articulate a compelling design vision and translate it into clear standards, priorities, and shipped experiences

• Substantial hands‑on design ability, including proficiency in Figma and modern prototyping methods, with the willingness to personally tackle critical design problems.

• Deep customer curiosity and experience building an ongoing feedback loop that connects direct research, usability testing, and product data to decisions and iteration

• Experience raising the quality of other people’s work through coaching, critique, and clear expectations

• An appetite for design reviews and feedback. You can show how input from customers and colleagues improved your work, and you’re comfortable sharing unfinished ideas, explaining your reasoning, and changing direction when the evidence calls for it

• Strong partnerships with Product and Engineering leaders, with the ability to balance customer needs, business priorities, and technical constraints

• Proven conflict‑resolution skills, including examples of addressing consequential disagreements directly and guiding teams to decisions and follow‑through

• The confidence to advocate for quality, the openness to change your mind, and the judgment to distinguish essential improvements from personal preference

• Experience building or improving design systems, with a strong foundation in accessibility and responsive design

• Practical experience designing AI‑powered products and using AI in the design process.

• An Austin location and the ability to work regularly in person with the Build team and senior leadership

Nice to Have:

• Experience with AI products, B2B SaaS, legal technology, media workflows, speech technology, or conversational intelligence

• Familiarity with AI‑enabled design and prototyping tools such as Claude Design, v0, Builder.io, Replit, Lovable, or Base44

• Familiarity with GitHub and AI‑assisted development tools such as Claude Code or Cursor, particularly when collaborating with Engineering or developing functional prototypes

• Experience using Linear or a similar platform for project and product‑development tracking

• Experience using Mixpanel or a similar product‑analytics platform to evaluate user behavior and inform product decisions

• Experience working in a fast‑paced startup or similarly dynamic, resource‑constrained environment

• A bachelor’s or master’s degree in Interaction Design, Human‑Computer Interaction, or a related field

What Success Looks like:

Rev has a clear owner of Design, a cohesive product design vision, and a visibly higher standard of customer experience. Products feel intuitive, consistent, polished, and trustworthy, and priority usability problems are addressed through shipped improvements.

A regular customer feedback loop shapes product and design decisions. Teams engage directly with customers, apply what they learn, and assess whether the changes they ship improve real workflows.

Our existing designer grows in craft, judgment, and independence. Design reviews consistently improve the work, disagreements lead to clear decisions, and teams move forward with shared direction.

You’ll lead the design discipline through vision, craft, coaching, and accountability while remaining actively involved in the work.

Location Requirement:

• If you're based in Austin, TX, this is a hybrid role with an expectation of being onsite 2-3 days per week at our office located at: 1717 W 6th St, Suite 310, Austin, TX 78703. #LI-Hybrid