Director, Design – Customer.io

97% 1-Year Employee Growth Rate | 170% 2-Year Employee Growth Rate | LinkedIn | $5.3M Venture Funding

What Is Employee Growth Rate & Why Is It Important?

Hi, I’m Brian, VP of Product & Design at Customer.io,

I’m looking for someone to lead product and brand design on our journey to help businesses form mutually beneficial relationships with their customers. We build customer engagement software used by 4000+ software-powered companies across SaaS, EdTech, IoT, FinTech, and more.

Most messages people receive are dull, mistimed, repetitive, and overbearing. This motivates us. We offer the industry’s most flexible automation platform for customer communication (email, mobile push, sms, etc) and our design challenge is to turn this canvas into an environment where people can dream up new ideas. We want our customers to challenge the status quo of messaging automation.

You’ll start with a team of 4 Product Designers and 2 Brand Designers, a Design System named “Fly”, and ownership to further develop our design function. You’ll be supported by our convictions about the value of design throughout the company.

To understand our business, check out this analysis describing our opportunity as the “Hubspot of Product-led Growth”. We’re ambitious, yet the way we achieve our goals matters. At Customer.io you’ll find a culture of innovation without the usual business model of prioritizing growth at the expense of profitability. We’re a fully distributed company of over 175 people from 29 countries. We truly care about creating an equitable work environment where people of all backgrounds are included.

Come build a world-class design team with us!

Your responsibilities will be…

• Leading, mentoring, and growing a team of product and brand designers as they contribute to the development of the areas they own from vision to implementation.
• Shaping the product roadmap and improving our development processes alongside Product Management and Engineering leadership. Assigning designers to cross-functional teams to achieve those goals.
• Hiring and working with leadership to develop team growth plans. You’ll determine how we balance experience levels, specializations, and strengths across the team.
• Telling the story of the business through the lens of design, representing design on our Leadership Team, and advocating for it across the company.
• Partnering with the marketing team to develop our brand strategy.
• Guiding your team through all aspects of the design lifecycle and regularly improving our processes so they’re as effective as they can be.
• Developing our approach to customer research to identify opportunities and quantify the business case for new projects.

What we’re looking for…

• People management experience and a love for nurturing people’s growth. We look for managers who succeed by nurturing each individual of the team toward their full potential.
• Product design background. Have worked as an individual contributor and are ready to mentor designers, role-model healthy critique, and have a developed sense of taste for making great software products.
• Systematic approach. We believe in building “operating systems” in order to grow intentionally while staying true to our principles. Our design system is owned by the entire team and constantly evolving so it accelerates us rather than slowing us down or hindering innovation.
• Confidence leading design for technical software. Many of our customers are software engineers or tech-savvy marketers. APIs are a key part of our product experience.
• A great listener. We’re a low-ego team that prioritizes building trust through speaking candidly and learning together.

About Customer.io

Our mission at Customer.io is to power automated communication that people like to receive. Today over 4,000 internet businesses use Customer.io to manage, send, and track performance of email, SMS, and push notifications. Unlike typical marketing platforms, Customer.io helps businesses increase relevance by using behavioral data: what people do or don’t do when logged in to a web or mobile app.

Benefits at Customer.io include:

We offer a starting salary of $180,000 – $202,000 USD depending on experience and subject to market rate adjustment.

Benefits at Customer.io include:

• Unlimited PTO – we recommend 20 vacation days (in addition to holidays and sick days) so that you can unwind, unplug, and recharge
• 100% medical, dental, vision, and supplemental insurance for you and your dependents
• 12 weeks paid parental leave – for birth, adoption, or foster care
• 401k retirement matching – up to 5% dollar for dollar match to retirement contributions
• Health and wellness allowance – Up to $200 USD per month that can be used for your healthy living needs, including gym membership, acupuncture, massage, or bike repairs
• Home office stipend – Up to $2,000 USD to help you get your home office set up so you can do your best work
• Internet + cell phone reimbursement – Up to $200 USD per month for your internet and cell phone plans
• Co-working space reimbursement – Up to $300 USD per month for those times you’d prefer to work in a co-working environment
• Learning + development – Up to $2,000 USD reimbursement per year to use on conferences, books, classes, or workshops – anything that will help you develop your skills
• 1 month paid sabbatical after four years at Customer.io – to treat yourself to a vacation, or spend however you choose
• 1 annual company retreat per year and opportunities to meet in smaller groups throughout the year
• Flexible schedule, work anywhere you want! – as long as you have a reliable internet connection and some overlapping work time with your manager, you can work where and when you want

All final candidates will be asked to complete an employment and education verification authorization form (which allows us to verify your job history and education listed on your resume) as part of our pre-employment process.

Customer.io recognizes the stifling impact of systemic injustice on diverse communities. We commit to using our influence to increase inclusion and equity within the tech industry. We strive to build an inclusive team culture, implement bias-free hiring practices, and develop community partnerships to expand our global impact.

Join us!

Check out our careers page for more information about why you should come work with us! We are passionate about our core values of Empathy, Transparency, Responsibility, and Awkwardness and are looking for new coworkers to share and build that passion!

How to apply

Apply at the link below and tell us why you’re interested in the position! In your cover letter, be sure to tell us the title of the last book you read. Portfolio links are encouraged even if they are a bit out of date – we totally understand!

Here’s what you can expect from our hiring process (though the order is subject to change):

1. 1. 30 minute video call with Symone, our Recruiting Manager
   2. 60 minute video call with Brian, our VP of Product & Design
   3. 60 minute Team Interview with two potential teammates
   4. 60 minute Working Session with the Design Team

Tagged as: >100% 2 Yr Employee Growth, 51-200 Employees, Hide US-Only Jobs, Venture Funded