Design Director, Project Lead - Boston, United States - Upstatement

Description

This is a temporary contractor role with the potential of becoming permanent position. This position is fully remote.

As a Design Director, you'll play a central role throughout the entire project — establishing the design vision that delivers benefits both to clients and their users by creating meaningful ways for them to interact, always ensuring that our work has the intended business impact.

Lead teams and engage clients through the entire project.
Plan and run a design process that delivers on core business goals.
Design solutions that unlock opportunities for teams and clients.
Explain the value of every decision, win over stakeholders, and fulfill the creative strategy.
Navigate complex business, user, and team needs with empathy.
Last but not least:

People who succeed here are empathetic teammates who are candid, kind, caring, and embody our core values . We believe that diverse, inclusive teams make the most impactful work. Upstatement is deeply invested in ensuring that we have a supportive, growth-oriented environment that works for everyone.
Why Upstatement

Upstatement is a digital product studio with an editorial mindset. We use the tools of design, engineering, and journalism to enrich lives and create a more just society.

Our 40-person team works with established leaders (MIT, ESPN, PBS, Microsoft) and emerging companies who are about to change the world.

We are members of the kyu Collective

and combine the energy of a boutique studio with the business maturity of an established global innovation leader.
Work with ethical and mission-driven organizations.
Collaborate in a high-trust environment that empowers creative ownership.
Build a portfolio you can be proud of.
Blossom in a small studio culture full of top talent and peers who help you grow.
Find your path at a place that prizes flexibility:

We encourage experimentation, support role switching, and help people balance between maker/manager and lead/support.
What You'll Do

On Projects:

Deliver portfolio-worthy work:

As a hands-on designer and team leader.

Engage clients:

Demonstrate expertise that builds long-term relationships. Relentlessly explain the why behind every decision, win over stakeholders, and fulfill the creative strategy throughout the project lifecycle.
Collaborate with and

d evelop others:

Coach cross-functional teams to achieve their best, providing mentorship and opportunities to own tasks that build expertise.

Drive research:

Develop a deep understanding of each client's goals, business context, user behavior, and opportunities. Run interviews, workshops, and analysis.

Define the why:

Establish a foundational strategy through design that will unlock goals and drive future creative output. Inspire content creators, engineers, product managers, and clients with your ideas.

Make from the start:

Use your strength as a designer and communicator to synthesize insights that inspire any room to believe in your vision — and act on it.

Navigate complexity:

Resolve tensions between clients, users, and teams effectively and with empathy.

Promote expertise:

Collaborate with business development and marketing teams to attract top talent and client prospects.

Expand capabilities:

Make every project more impactful than the last. Grow our network of project partners, from freelancers to agencies.

Continuously improve:

Plan, run, and refine the way design projects go at Upstatement, documenting and sharing best practices, so they set the new standard.

About You

7+ years of hands-on design and project leadership experience at a digital agency or equivalent.
Independent design leader with a portfolio of work demonstrating business impact across products, and websites.
Expertise in leading research programs - ethnographic interviews, workshops, competitive audits - that result in impactful design executions.
Capable of breaking down complexity and understanding the business context of each client. Identifying the big opportunities and articulating the why behind every decision.
Displays craft by designing around new concepts. Helps clients succeed with tools and guidelines.
Ability to motivate and manage a multidisciplinary team.

Ensures the team's work is always aligned with the core idea and creates space for them to make decisions and grow.

Transforms design concepts into user interfaces and establishes comprehensive design systems.
Strong communicator and active listener with the ability to inspire any room to buy into the team's vision. Maintains strong relationships with collaborators and client stakeholders, even when challenged. Expert at change management.

Sets the pace of velocity and efficiency through every step of the process, course correcting based on feedback and improving how we work together.

Support business development initiatives as a creative representative
Compensation

The appropriate rate will be discussed and determined during the interview process based upon candidate experience and availability.
Interview Process

Our goal is to get to know you in a low-pressure, friendly environment — and to give you ample opportunity to learn more about us, too.

Our typical process includes these types of experiences:

A resume screen and introductory phone/video chat
A take-home exercise where you'll have the opportunity to demonstrate your communication and problem-solving skills
Additional conversations with potential future team members, the hiring manager, and leadership
Our goal is to create an environment where you can interview at your best. Our interview process is fully remote, conducted via Zoom calls.

If we can provide any assistance or accommodations during your time with us, please let us know at .

All requests are treated as privately as possible and have no impact on candidate eligibility.
Interested in applying?

Send us a resume, cover letter,

and

anything else that helps us understand what makes you awesome.
Women, people of color, LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, and members of other underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

Upstatement is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against candidates on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, or veteran status.

Upstatement is committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyone

—

you are welcome here .


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For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.
Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Upstatement's Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

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A "disabled veteran" is one of the following:

a veteran of the U.S.

military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S.

military, ground, naval, or air service.
An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S.

military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S.

military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

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