Lead Product Designer

Working at Laika

At Laika, we are on a mission to transform an industry that’s never been known for innovation, but we aren’t letting that stop us. We love collaborating to come up with new ways to solve problems that would stump other teams, and have created a workplace where the best idea wins and we bring out the best in each other.

Our team is full of entrepreneurial people with a bias toward action, an insatiable intellectual curiosity, and a desire to learn and grow personally and professionally. By bringing remarkably talented people together, we have the opportunity to create something truly amazing for our customers and our team.

What We Do

Laika combines simple software with expert guidance to help SaaS companies manage security compliance, security audits, and enterprise procurement security diligence. Laika helps companies adopt stage-appropriate compliance practices that enterprises can trust and reduce the time and costs of security audits by 50% or more.

We are a rapidly expanding team based in New York. We were founded in May 2019 and have received investment from top investors including J.P. Morgan, PayPal Ventures, Canapi Ventures, and Bain Capital. We're growing customers and revenue like crazy and poised for continued break-out growth in 2022 and beyond.

About the Role

The Lead Product Designer will be a key member of our Product Design team as we elevate design at Laika. This individual is a product design expert with experience building successful B2B SaaS products. They will provide thought-leadership while driving user engagement through delivery of clean, usable, and inclusive design solutions through a human centered practice.  They will champion the voice of Laika’s customers, influence product strategy, and inspire the team around them as we accelerate experience-led innovation across our product teams.

The ideal candidate would be a human-centered design expert, uncovering user needs through research, while identifying product opportunities to deliver experiences with measurable success. They should have a deep understanding of industry UX / UI best practices, acting as an evangelist for quality design while strengthening our design standards. This person should be an effective and clear communicator, with the ability to tell a story while using data to support their decisions. Their process should be flexible with a bias for action, working closely with our product and engineering partners to establish efficiencies to focus effort where it matters most. 

This role will be reporting directly to our Head of Design, and will partner with designers, product managers, and developers to skillfully execute our product design strategy throughout the product development life cycle.

What You'll Do

• Drive solution design through an HCD practice across related product areas, from journey mapping through low-fi concepts into high-fidelity prototypes and pixel-perfect development-ready designs.
• Apply strategic thinking to design and deliver innovative end-to-end user experiences that optimize user needs, business goals, and technological realities. 
• Lead the presentation and discussion of solution design with stakeholders, storytelling through data to drive outcomes.
• Execute and implement design delivery standards through our design & collaboration tools (Figma), standardizing project, file, and delivery organization
• Leverage our design system while championing it’s adherence in design proposals to ensure design consistency across all products, engaging with peer designers to align visual and interaction standards
• Contribute and strengthen our design system and visual language standards
• Mentor and lead through meaningful feedback of design work from peers. 
• Perform usability research to uncover pain points and validate design decisions
• Partner with product and customer experience teams to uncover customer insights, lead design discussions, and influence strategy to help define and execute the product roadmap. 
• Be a systems thinker to strategize how your decisions affect the broader product. 
• Collaborate closely with design and product leadership to understand product vision and contribute to the overall direction of your product area. 
• Actively evaluate the product and look for opportunities to unify and improve the user experience across the platform

Skillsets/ Requirements

• 6 years experience designing & shipping engaging user experiences
• Skill with a variety of methods to explore and convey ideas and concepts at the appropriate degrees of fidelity (e.g. storyboards, wireframes, prototypes, etc.)
• Proficiency designing for measurable outcomes including the ability to participate in both generative and evaluative user research, 
• Confidence in using data to tell a story through design
• Ability to prioritize and execute across multiple product areas in collaboration with a talented & diverse team of designers
• Experience with SaaS and familiarity with Agile development processes
• Experience mentoring junior designers to ensure team-wide growth & success across a design practice
• Flexibility in process, balancing craft and speed
• Expertise with Figma and other industry standard design and research tools
• Ability to execute and collaborate in distributed a remote work environment
• Online portfolio that showcases skill as a product designer, while demonstrating how and why you arrived at your solutions

Bonus Points

• Experience solving problems for customers of B2B SaaS products
• Understanding of global data compliance and the role it plays in emerging technology
• Collaborated with other designers to scale a design system
• Proficiency executing customer journey maps & service design flows 

Compensation:

• The salary range for this position is $145,000 - $182,000 based on experience and skillset
• Immediate access to healthcare, dental, and vision
• Early equity in a fast-growing company
• Hybrid work from home model
• Unlimited PTO
• $800 stipend for home office equipment
• Quarterly wellness stipend
• Paid courses and certifications

Equal Opportunity

Laika provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Even if you feel you don’t meet every requirement, consider applying! Laika acknowledges the research which shows that women and people of color are less likely to apply for jobs when they don’t meet all of the stated qualifications. However, we’re looking for authentic innovators to blaze new trails and you just may be the right person for this or another role.