Director of Product Design Product Design San Francisco, CA

Rippling; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Rippling is seeking a Director of Product Design to lead and innovate across design teams for their integrated HR, IT, and Finance systems. This pivotal role requires strong design leadership, systems thinking, and excellent communication skills to drive product excellence and foster collaboration.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional design experience.
• 5+ years managing and leading design teams.
• Experience in creating integrated product design systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead a top company initiative to build out Rippling products.
• Incorporate systems thinking in design.
• Create a culture of craft and quality in design.

Skills

Design Leadership

Systems Thinking

Communication

Team Management

Job description

Rippling gives businesses one place to run HR, IT, and Finance. It brings together all of the workforce systems that are normally scattered across a company, like payroll, expenses, benefits, and computers. For the first time ever, you can manage and automate every part of the employee lifecycle in a single system.

Take onboarding, for example. With Rippling, you can hire a new employee anywhere in the world and set up their payroll, corporate card, computer, benefits, and even third-party apps like Slack and Microsoft 365—all within 90 seconds.

Based in San Francisco, CA, Rippling has raised $1.4B+ from the world’s top investors—including Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Sequoia, Greenoaks, and Bedrock—and was named one of America's best startup employers by Forbes.

We prioritize candidate safety. Please be aware that all official communication will only be sent from @ Rippling.com addresses.

About the Role

Rippling’s Design team is a 40+ person org spanning Product Design, Research, Content Design, and Design Systems. We partner closely with Product and Engineering across HR, IT, Finance, Growth, and beyond—working on both 0→1 product innovation and scaling existing products globally.

As a Director of Product Design, you’ll lead a team focused on high-impact, cross-functional work while staying close to the craft. You’ll help shape intuitive, flexible, and elegant experiences across complex problem spaces, guiding the team through fast-paced execution and deep collaboration.

This is a key leadership role at a pivotal moment in our growth—with years of new product work ahead and a real opportunity to help shape the future of Rippling’s product and design culture.

What you will do

• Manage a business-critical team that’s a top company initiative to build out Rippling products, helping drive Rippling’s rapid growth and differentiation.
• Lead a team of designers working on critical product areas across Rippling.
• Incorporate systems thinking into the design of Rippling’s core capabilities so that they are both modular and stand-alone full-featured product experiences that are both powerful and easy to use.
• Create a culture of craft, quality, and execution by inspiring, motivating, and leading product designers across experience levels to do the best work of their careers.
• Work closely with our Product Management, Engineering, Marketing, and executive leadership to deliver best-in-class, innovative work that pushes the limits of possible.

What you will need

• You have 8+ years of professional design experience and 5+ years managing and leading design and creative teams.
• You have brought a relentless customer focus to high-impact, high-visibility projects.
• You’re a systems thinker and have led the design of an integrated suite of products or ecosystem of features.
• You excel at written and verbal communication and use these skills to persuade and influence stakeholders toward building innovative products that uniquely resonate with customers.
• You work collaboratively with Engineering, Product, and Marketing team members to drive strategy and design execution.
• You have led, recruited, and scaled design teams at both startups and established companies.
• You have experience systematically growing product designers' skills so they do the best work of their careers.

Additional Information

Rippling is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, or any other legally protected characteristics, Rippling is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities who need assistance during the hiring process. To request a reasonable accommodation, please email [e-mail]

Rippling highly values having employees working in-office to foster a collaborative work environment and company culture. For office-based employees (employees who live within a defined radius of a Rippling office), Rippling considers working in the office, at least three days a week under current policy, to be an essential function of the employee's role.

This role will receive a competitive salary + benefits + equity. The salary for US-based employees will be aligned with one of the ranges below based on location; see which tier applies to your location here .

A variety of factors are considered when determining someone’s compensation–including a candidate’s professional background, experience, and location. Final offer amounts may vary from the amounts listed below.