Director, Product Design

Kettle; United States; Remote; USD 190,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Kettle is seeking a Director of Product Design to set vision, design features, and establish scalable UX/UI patterns across platforms. Directors are designers and doers, leading and contributing as the senior practitioner on the team.

You will guide strategy, collaborate with Strategy, Production, and Development, and mentor designers while building strong client relationships. This role balances hands-on work with team leadership in a dynamic environment.

Qualifications

• Extensive product design and interaction experience in agency environments designing iOS/Android apps, websites, and internal tools.
• Experience leading UX and UI design across the lifecycle from definition to shipping.
• Strong communication skills with senior-level clients and executives.
• Experience delivering user-focused solutions across Financial Services, Telecom, Consumer Tech, etc.
• Experience mentoring designers at all levels.
• Fluency with AI tools in design practice and rapid prototyping.

Responsibilities

• Guide high-level strategic decisions around product design and experience.
• Define IA, user journeys, wireframes, interactions, and handoffs to development.
• Balance leadership with hands-on design and drive design excellence.
• Lead product design stream, break projects into tractable work and transfer learnings.
• Partner with Strategy, Production, and Development teams.
• Build strong client relationships aligned with business goals.
• Adapt to varying working styles from quick optimization to blue-sky visioning.
• Mentor designers and support career growth.

Skills

Product design

Design leadership

Client communication

Cross-domain UX

Mentoring

AI tools

Job description

Kettle designs digital products with soul, for some of the most ambitious consumer brands in the world. Our work lives at the intersection of product thinking and brand storytelling; products that are just as considered in feeling as they are in function.

We are looking for a Director of Product Design to join and help lead the Product team. In this role, you'll set product vision, design new features, and enhance existing ones while establishing scalable UX/UI patterns across platforms. Our Directors are designers and doers, both leading and managing, and contributing directly to the work as the most senior practitioner on the team.

Candidates should have:

• Extensive product design and interaction experience in either agency or related environments designing iOS and Android native applications, websites, and internal tools
• Design leadership experience across the product design lifecycle, including experience leading both UX and UI design workstreams, from early-stage definition through to shipping
• A clear communication style, with proven experience collaborating with senior-level clients and presenting to executive leadership
• Experience delivering user-focused solutions across a range of categories (Financial Services, Telecomm, Consumer Tech, etc.)
• Experience managing and mentoring junior to senior level product designers
• Fluency with AI tools as part of your design practice and workflows, including designing AI-enabled features, vibe coding, and rapid prototyping; you use them to move faster, think broader, and explore more, not just as a novelty

We’d like to know that you can:

• Guide high-level strategic decisions around product design and experience
• Contribute to the entire product lifecycle from start to finish, starting with defining IA, user journey, wireframes, to designing user interactions and handoff to development
• Balance leadership of the team with hands‑on design work, guiding projects towards design excellence
• Lead the product design stream of work on projects, understanding how to break larger projects down into smaller tracts to hand off to designers and bring learnings from one workstream to another
• Partner with teammates of different disciplines including Strategy, Production, and Development
• Build strong client relationships with a solid understanding of their business needs, goals, and how those intersect with the consumer's experience
• Adapt to different working styles and processes, from quick‑turn optimization to blue‑sky visioning
• Manage and mentor designers of all levels, helping them chart their career path and provide opportunities to grow

The target range of compensation is $190k - $220k. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and location.

At Kettle, we care deeply about diversity, acceptance, and belonging across our offices. With effort placed on to creating dialogue, community, and expression outside of binaries, we would love to know how you prefer to be addressed. This is completely optional, but if you're comfortable sharing this information, please let us know your pronouns.

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As set forth in Kettle’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

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