Product Design Director

About Faire

Faire is an online wholesale marketplace built on the belief that the future is local — independent retailers around the globe are doing more revenue than Walmart and Amazon combined, but individually, they are small compared to these massive entities. At Faire, we're using the power of tech, data, and machine learning to connect this thriving community of entrepreneurs across the globe. Picture your favorite boutique in town — we help them discover the best products from around the world to sell in their stores. With the right tools and insights, we believe that we can level the playing field so that small businesses everywhere can compete with these big box and e-commerce giants.

By supporting the growth of independent businesses, Faire is driving positive economic impact in local communities, globally. We’re looking for smart, resourceful and passionate people to join us as we power the shop local movement. If you believe in community, come join ours.

About this role

We’re looking for an inspiring Product Design Director to lead our Brand pillar. In this role, you’ll report directly to the Head of Product Design and collaborate closely with cross-functional partners in Product, Engineering, Sales/Ops, and Data. You’ll lead, manage, and grow a team of 5+ designers to shape and build experiences that empower thousands of retailers and brands to thrive in our marketplace.

This is a role like no other, at an especially exciting moment in Faire’s journey. Our business is thriving, our customer base continues to grow, and we believe the impact of this role can fuel our company to grow in unprecedented ways. You’ll be in a position to design and lead the Brand experience of our marketplace, making it easier for brands to build successful businesses on Faire for years to come. 

We're looking for candidates open to working in San Francisco, CA and New York City, NY.

What you’ll do 

• Enhance the Brand Experience: Lead the design and implementation of a seamless brand experience across the marketplace and brand app.
• Strategic Thinking & Visioning: Co-develop a comprehensive supply-side pillar strategy that aligns with business goals and customer needs.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Establish strong and effective partnerships with brand success, marketing, ops, product management, engineering, data science, and research teams to drive cohesive experiences.
• Build and Develop the Team: Lead, mentor, hire, and develop a team of product designers, fostering a culture of inclusion, craft, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Uphold the Craft, Improve the Process: Ensure the design bar is kept high across visual and interaction design, systems, and content strategy. Lead effective design reviews to provide constructive feedback, ensure design consistency, and elevate the overall quality of the design output.

Qualifications

• Mastery of Craft: A respected designer that has mastered their craft across visual and interaction design, systems, information architecture, content strategy, and is not scared to get into the details and work alongside their team.
• Org Building: A team builder with 8+ years of leading and managing ICs and managers, as well as experience in hiring top talent.
• Strategic Thinking & Visioning: A meticulous problem solver that can see and communicate the big picture in an inspiring way. Has the ability to translate high-level business goals into actionable strategies and design guidance based on customer insights.
• Track Record of Shipping: An experienced builder that knows what it takes to ship a product, and can set up the right processes to do so at scale.
• Strong Collaboration: An inspiring communicator that builds trust and is able to influence and bring alignment across the organization while ensuring design integrity and quality.
• Inspiring Mentorship: A mentor who is energized by growing others’ careers, developing senior designers, knows how to empower a team to drive their projects to success.
• Adaptability & Resilience: Ability to thrive in a dynamic and fast-paced environment, effectively managing competing priorities and shifting demands from various stakeholders.
• Customer Obsession: A passionate advocate for customer needs that can anticipate what customers want and why, making product decisions based on customer insights.
• Data-driven Decision Making: An expert at leveraging data and metrics to info