Lead, Design

United States Digital Space LLC; United States; Hybrid; USD 240,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health plans

OneMedical membership

Equity grant

Hybrid work model

Job summary

United States Digital Space LLC in the United States is seeking a Lead Designer for the Consumer Product team. You will shape the future of how neighbors connect within the platform, leading craft while shipping hands‑on work.

You’ll coach designers, run critiques, own the design capacity across seven product areas, and collaborate with executives to balance speed and quality. This role reports to the EVP of Product and includes equity and health benefits.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in UX design with a track record of shipping user-centered products and managing designers.
• Player-coach who also does hands-on work and protects IC time.
• Calibrated craft judgment: runs critiques, sets leveling, defends calibration decisions.
• Proficiency in Figma and tools for wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs.
• Experience contributing to design systems for consistency and scalability.
• Strong qualitative and quantitative research skills; translates into design decisions.
• Comfort presenting to executives with evidence-backed arguments.
• Fluency with AI-assisted design tooling and knowing its limits.

Responsibilities

• Run weekly design critiques and establish a clear review process for all project sizes.
• Set up regular 1:1s and growth plans for consumer designers and support promotions.
• Own design capacity model across seven product areas; manage a team of 5–6 designers.
• Represent design in product discussions where speed and craft conflict.
• Arbitrate design-system exceptions and decide when a component doesn't belong in the system.
• Ship hands-on design work in at least one high-impact consumer area.
• Participate in in-person company events and team-building activities.
• Build in-person relationships and contribute to company culture.
• Report directly to the EVP of Product as the senior design voice in Consumer.

Skills

UX Design

People Management

Design Critique

Figma

Design Systems

Research Methods

Executive Communication

AI Tools in Design

Tools

Figma

Job description

#TeamNextdoor

the company (NYSE: NXDR) is the essential neighborhood network. Neighbors, public agencies, and businesses use the company to connect around local information that matters in more than 350,000 neighborhoods across 11 countries. the company builds innovative technology to foster local community, share important news, and create neighborhood connections at scale. Download the app and join the neighborhood at the company.com.

Meet Your FutureNeighbors

As a Lead Designer on the company's Consumer Product team, you'll help shape the future of how neighbors connect with one another, their neighborhoods, and local businesses and events. You'll join a collaborative team of designers, product managers, engineers, and researchers working to evolve and improve the experience across our platform.

We're hiring a player-coach to lead craft for Consumer Design, someone who runs a rigorous crit, coaches designers toward their next level, and holds the line when speed and quality trade off, while still shipping hands‑on work themselves.

Deeply human-centered and mission‑driven, you're excited to create digital experiences that strengthen real‑world connections and empower neighbors to build stronger communities.

At the company, we operate in an AI‑first environment and expect every team member to actively use AI tools as part of their workflow. We aren't looking for prompt engineers; we’re looking for people who use tools like Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, and Glean to challenge their own thinking and take full ownership of AI‑assisted outputs.

We also offer a warm and inclusive work environment that embraces a hybrid employment model, blending an in office presence and work from home experience for our valued employees. The hiring team will go over these expectations with you if you are being considered for a role near one of our offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, New York, and London.

The Impact You’ll Make

Are you excited by the challenge of raising the craft bar for a design team, coaching designers toward their next level, and still shipping hands‑on work yourself? If so, this is the role for you.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Running weekly design critiques and rebuilding a healthy manager‑level review process so projects of every size get rigorous feedback at the right altitude
• Establishing regular 1:1s and growth plans for a team of consumer designers, and advocating for their growth and promotion during performance review cycles
• Owning the design capacity model across seven product areas, managing a team of 5 to 6 consumer designers. Owning the capacity model and the recommendation on where design headcount goes
• Representing design's point of view in product discussions where speed and craft are in tension, starting with a key decision about how neighbors filter and navigate content in the app
• Arbitrating design‑system exceptions, deciding when to say no to a one‑off component that doesn't belong in our shared design system
• Shipping hands‑on design work yourself on at least one high‑impact area of the consumer product
• Participating in in‑person the company events such as trainings, off‑sites, volunteer days, and team building exercises
• Building in‑person relationships with team members and contributing to the company's company culture
• This role reports directly to the EVP of Product and is the senior‑most design voice in the Consumer org

What You’ll Bring To The Team

• 8+ years of experience in UX design, product design, or a related field, with a strong track record of designing and shipping user‑centered products. Including experience directly managing designers through performance and promotion cycles
• A track record as a player‑coach, practicing designer and people manager at once, with the discipline to protect your own IC time
• Calibrated craft judgment: you can run a crit, make a leveling call, and defend it in calibration
• Proficiency in Figma and other design tools for creating wireframes, prototypes, and high‑fidelity designs
• Experience working with and contributing to design systems, ensuring consistency and scalability across surfaces
• Strong understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methods, with the ability to synthesize insights into actionable design decisions
• Comfort holding a design position in rooms with executives, backed by evidence rather than taste
• Fluency with AI‑assisted design tooling and a clear sense of where it helps and where it can't substitute for human judgment

Join us to design products that make a real‑world impact, strengthening communities and bringing people closer together.

Rewards

Compensation, benefits, perks, and recognition programs at the company come together to create our total rewards package. Compensation will vary depending on your relevant skills, experience, and qualifications.

The starting salary for this role is expected to range from$240,000 to $275,000 on an annualized basis, or potentially greater in the event that your 'level' of proficiency exceeds the level expected for the role. The salary range will be determined by the candidate’s geographic location.

We expect to award a meaningful equity grant for this role. With quarterly vesting, your first vest date will take place within 3 months of your start date.

When it comes to benefits, we have you covered! the company employees can choose between a variety of health plans, including a 100% covered employee only plan option, and we also provide a OneMedical membership for concierge care.

At the company, we empower our employees to build stronger local communities. To create a platform where all feel welcome, we want our workforce to reflect the diversity of the neighbors we serve. We encourage everyone interested in our mission to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, or any other trait that unfairly targets a group of people. In accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we always consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

For information about our collection and use of applicants’ personal information, please see the company's Personnel Privacy Notice, found here.