Product Manager (design-led)

Subject; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Premium health coverage

Gym membership

Daily meals

Top hardware

Job summary

Subject is seeking a Visual Product Builder to own end-to-end design for a focused product pod, shaping both the look and the function in classrooms. You’ll translate user insight into features, define interactions, and contribute to the design system within a fast-moving edtech environment.

You’ll collaborate with engineers, content, and GTM to launch high-quality, student-first experiences, measure outcomes, and iterate based on data and teacher feedback.

Qualifications

• 4-7+ years of product design experience in consumer or SaaS environments.
• Portfolio showing end-to-end ownership: research, concept, interaction, visual craft, shipped product.
• Proven product thinking: written specs, roadmaps, or features beyond design delivery.
• Strong interaction design with motion, states, edge cases.
• Fluent in Figma; design systems and component thinking.
• Comfort with data: define success, read dashboards, pivot as needed.
• Clear communicator; specs readable with tight rationale.
• Bonus: edtech, consumer learning, or AI-native products.

Responsibilities

• Own pod-level product definition and end-to-end experience from user insight to shipped feature.
• Design interactions from concept to production-ready assets and maintain design language in the system.
• Lead cross-functional execution: FE engineers, content, GTM; enable internal teams for launches.
• Define AI-powered features with a clear mental model of capabilities and limits.
• Measure usage and outcomes; iterate based on data and user feedback.

Skills

Product design

Portfolio ownership

Product thinking

Interaction design

Figma

Data-informed design

Clear communication

AI/Edtech experience

Tools

Figma

Job description

LinkedIn Top 40 U.S. Startups (2025) | Time & Statista - America's Top EdTech Companies (2026)

The Mission

At Subject, we're building the Netflix of Education - Personalized. Localized. Accredited. Backed by Owl Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and industry leaders, and serving 100K+ students, we're building the world's most advanced Learning Intelligence System: studio-quality, standards-aligned learning that is delivered personally and proves outcomes.

The Impact

As a Visual Product Builder at Subject, you will own the end-to-end experience of a focused product pod - from the first pixel to the shipped feature, from the user insight to the product decision. You are equally at-home defining what to build and crafting how it looks and feels. Your work will directly shape whether students fall in love with learning and whether teachers feel the platform is actively working for them. This role sits at the intersection of design craft and product ownership, reporting to the Head of Product, embedded inside one of Subject's core pods from day one.

What You'll Own

Subject operates in focused pods, each owning one surface end-to-end.

1) Product Definition

• Define what your pod builds: translate user insight, data signals, and strategic intent into clear, scoped features
• Write tight specs that give engineers confidence and leave no ambiguity on edge cases
• Own the pod roadmap: prioritise ruthlessly, justify tradeoffs, protect the bar on quality
• Run lightweight discovery: user interviews, session reviews, teacher walkthroughs, close the loop between classroom reality and product decisions

2) Visual Design & Experience Craft

• Design every interaction your pod ships: from concept to high-fidelity, production-ready assets
• Hold the visual and UX bar: every screen that leaves your pod should feel intentional, premium, and student-first
• Build and maintain the design language for your surface; contribute to the Subject design system
• Prototype quick ly and test with real users before committing to engineering cycles

3) Pod Leadership & Cross-functional Execution

• Be the connective tissue between your FE engineer, the broader eng team, content, and GTM
• Enable internal teams: you brief support, write GTM materials, and prepare educators for launches
• Track usage and outcomes - set success metrics before you ship, monitor them after, iterate toward the result
• Run retros and feed learnings back into the roadmap

4) AI-Native Building

• Design and define AI-powered features - personalisation, grading assist, adaptive content - with a clear mental model of what the model can and can't do
• Use AI tools fluently in your own workflow: faster prototyping, richer research synthesis, tighter iteration loops
• Help push the frontier on what AI-powered learning actually looks and feels like*

Requirements

• 4-7+ years of product design experience in a consumer or B2B SaaS product environment
• A portfolio that shows end-to-end ownership: research, concept, interaction, visual craft, shipped product
• Demonstrated product thinking: you've written specs, shaped roadmaps, or led features beyond just design delivery
• Strong interaction design skills - you design with motion, states, and edge cases in mind, not just hero screens
• Fluent in Figma; comfortable with design systems and component thinking
• Comfortable with data: you can define what success looks like, read a dashboard, and change course based on what you find
• Clear communicator: your specs are readable, your design rationale is tight, your stakeholder updates don't require translation
• Bonus: experience in edtech, consumer learning, or AI-native products

The Mindset We Need

• Studio-quality bar: you hold craft and outcomes together - beautiful screens that don't work are not enough, and working screens that look mediocre are not enough either
• Full ownership: you feel the weight of your pod's surface - you don't hand off, you ship
• Speed with taste: you prototype fast, iterate in the open, and don't let perfect be the enemy of shipped-and-learning
• User obsession: you know your users by name and session - student engagement data and teacher feedback are your primary inputs
• AI-native operator: you already use Claude Code, Cursor, or equivalent daily - AI is in your workflow, not on your wishlist

The Commitment We're Looking For

This role requires exceptional dedication because students deserve our absolute best. We need someone who:

• Lives the mission and treats student and district outcomes as real stakes
• Thrives in intensity and takes pride in building something from nothing
• Works with presence: Los Angeles office, 5 days/week
• Can commit to 60 hours/week: this is a high-output, high-ownership role and the pace reflects the ambition

We're not looking for people who tolerate long hours - we're looking for people who find meaning in building something that matters this much.

Compensation

$150,000 - $160,000

Benefits

• Premium health coverage
• gym membership
• daily meals
• top hardware

Join Us

If you want to own a product surface end-to-end - designing it, defining it, and proving it works in real classrooms - Subject is where you do that work.