Senior Manager, Product Design

Who We Are

Murmuration is a nonprofit organization that amplifies the power of civic engagement by providing data, digital tools, and research-driven insights to community-focused organizations so that together we can create an America where everyone can lead healthy, free, and dignified lives.

Every day, people are trying to shape our future for the better. Fighting for water that’s safe to drink. Schools that serve students equitably. Gun laws that make sense. And rallying people who care like we do. And yet too often the skillful organizers working to mobilize communities lack access to technology that could supercharge their efforts. Knocking on every door instead of knowing which will open most easily. And going up against outside interests that have half the heart, but twice the tools.

In communities across America, Murmuration’s partners are leveraging our data, tools, and insights to help thousands of organizers orchestrate millions of individual people to do big things together. Demand big things together. To create the world they want. Together.

About the Position

As the Senior Manager, Product Design leading the design and user research efforts for Murmuration's SaaS platform, you'll work with a talented team to develop the tools that help our partners drive impact in their communities. 

You'll manage, mentor, and coach a team of designers to design delightful and powerful experiences. You’ll lead the development of scalable design systems and operations and drive our user research strategy, ensuring that the voice of our partners is present at every stage of product development. Ultimately, you'll have helped build the most effective and intuitive platform for advocacy and political organizing.

You'll join our team of Product Managers and Product Designers developing a family of products across web and mobile – all focused on helping our partners increase civic engagement and create a more equitable future with greater opportunity for everyone.

Note: At Murmuration, we are committed to becoming an even more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. To this end, all staff members are expected to actively participate in DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging) programming.

Job Level: M4

What You’ll Do

• Effectively and empathetically lead a team of designers and user researcher(s), balancing capacity across active product initiatives;

• Make difficult prioritization judgment calls, leveraging 80-20 thinking to help the team stay laser-focused on the most critical initiatives;

• Determine necessary levels of fidelity and points of diminishing returns, being willing to alternately push the team toward rigor or scrappiness based on the situation at-hand;

• Develop and iterate on Murmuration’s design strategy to integrate multiple product lines into a unified platform through user experience design;

• Supervise and support Murmuration’s user research strategy and execution, ensuring the “voice of the partner” is incorporated at every point in our product development cycle;

• Oversee the iterative development of design systems that will stand the test of time, helping us level up our design operations and best practices;

• Provide coaching and hands-on-Figma feedback to each designer, ensuring that the standards of user interface and user experience design remain high (and rising);

• Collaborate with engineering and product management leadership to develop and iterate on research and development processes that balance speed and rigor;

• Streamline and evolve design operations, implementing tools, processes, and workflows that empower the design team to work efficiently while fostering creativity and collaboration across Product and Engineering teams;

• Collaborate with designers and user research on each product vertical to ensure that we’re keeping the big picture in mind; the external eye that sees the forest, less distracted by the trees; and

• Mentor and empower team members to help them reach their career goals, identifying opportunities to tailor responsibilities, assignments, and training to the areas where each individual is most interested in learning and growing.

Requirements

• 8+ years of advanced expertise in product design fundamentals, including visual design, UI design, interaction design, prototyping and information architecture;

• 6+ years of demonstrable experience in designing complex, live, technical products on teams using Agile software development methodologies;

• A strong understanding of desktop and mobile design principles, including best practices and inclusive design that consider the holistic user experience;

• A strong commitment to user-centric decision making, welcoming both qualitative user research and quantitative data gauging the impact of our products in order to enrich the iterative design process;

• Expertise with industry-standard design and collaboration tools such as Figma, Jira, and Miro (or equivalent);

• A bias for action and an entrepreneurial mindset: the ability to thrive working in fast-paced climates (e.g., startup or similar);

• Experience coaching and mentoring designers with the desire to grow further as a design leader and people manager;

• An ability to distill priorities in the midst of valid, competing perspectives – and guide a team to focus and think creatively about how to provide development teams what they need;

• Experience implementing and iterating on a complex brand in product design; and

• A passion for civic engagement and equitability.

Nice to Haves

• Experience with CRMs, political or advocacy campaigns, and/or civic organizing  products;

• Experience with analytics tools such as Pendo, Mixpanel, Fullstory, Google Analytics, or similar;

• Experience with data visualization;

• Experience developing visual identity and branding; and/or

• Familiarity in behavioral science or analytics (RCTs/experiment design, etc.)

Talented Senior Product Design Managers come from all walks of life and career. If you are passionate about civic engagement and technology, please apply, even if you do not check every box!

Location and Compensation

The Senior Manager, Product Design is a full-time, salaried position with a comprehensive benefits package (more detail below). It is based anywhere in the U.S. The starting salary range for this position is $120,000 - $150,000 and is commensurate with experience.

Our Culture of Care

We work hard to create a culture of care to ensure that our staff are best equipped to lead happy, healthy, and balanced lives. To that end, we offer a comprehensive benefits package which includes:

• Health, vision, and dental insurance with 100% of premiums covered for you and qualifying family members;

• Retirement benefits with a 5% employer match;

• A flexible unlimited PTO plan;

• Generous paid parental leave;

• Pre-tax commuter benefits;

• A company laptop;

• A flexible remote work environment;

• A home office setup stipend for all new employees;

• Monthly reimbursement for remote work expenses;

• A yearly professional development fund;

• Mental health and wellness benefits through Calm and Better Help; 

• Yearly in-person staff retreats; and

• A welcoming culture that celebrates diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

An Equal-Opportunity Employer with a Commitment to Diversity

Murmuration is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and as an organization committed to diversity and the perspective of all voices, we consider applicants equally of race, gender, color, sexual orientation, religion, marital status, disability, political affiliation and national origin. We reasonably accommodate staff members and/or applicants with disabilities, provided they are otherwise able to perform the essential functions of the job.

Note: Murmuration is two organizations working together to pursue our mission of amplifying the power of civic engagement: Murmuration Research Institute, a 501(c)(3) that conducts research to identify, design, and create the data, tools, and insights that build healthier and more equitable communities; and Murmuration, Inc., a 501(c)(4) that supports organizations working across the country on the nation’s most challenging issues with access to data, tools, and research that build healthier and more equitable communities.