Design Director

Deadline to apply: November 15, 2019

Big Cartel is an e-commerce platform that's been home to more than a million stores filled with all kinds of weird and wonderful products from around the world. We're 100% independent and focused on helping our customers make a living doing what they love. In 2018, we were recognized by Forbes as a Small Giant™, their award for America's best small companies. We're a tight-knit team of 30 or so who have a deep involvement in art, music and DIY projects. We exist to help make it easier for creative people to make a living from their work.

We're looking for a hands-on Design Director with strong UX/UI and brand development skills to help shape the future of this fun, weird, creative, inclusive, and generous company. 

What you'll do 

People management (sorta)

This is a leadership position with no direct reports, however, we've got designers working on product and marketing/brand looking for mentorship, guidance, and direction. A lot of this job will be working directly and regularly with those designers to help them produce high-quality work that is consistent across all of Big Cartel. You'll also help them grow their skills and generally feel fulfilled in their careers at Big Cartel. 

Leadership team

As a member of our small leadership team you'll have a voice helping to shape the type of company Big Cartel is, what we work on, how to do our best work, and how we can continue to build a sustainable company long into the future. We value our independence as a bootstrapped org that's turned a profit every year. We're not beholden to anybody but ourselves and we have strong principles and convictions. Your design vision and strategy will showcase who we are, and appeal to the independent artists we are building our tools for. 

Product design management

You'll collaborate closely with our Product Director to help shape feature projects before kickoff, and throughout each project cycle you'll ensure design quality, lead regular design reviews, and advocate for our users. You'll have a key role in documenting our processes and principles, helping our team with user research, and advocating for accessibility throughout our work. 

Brand management

With our leadership goals in mind, you'll help provide a long-term brand strategy in-line with who we are, where we want to go, and that is consistent with the product we are building. You'll represent Big Cartel's vision within the greater design community, and work closely with advertising, PR, social media, and our marketing site to ensure smart, consistent, and forward-thinking brand decisions.

What it's like to work with us

Big Cartel offers all employees excellent benefits like paid family leave, solid insurance, 401(k) with match, $2,000 charitable match annually, and a generous PTO policy that asks you to take 4 weeks off annually and provides a 6-week sabbatical every 5 years. We pay everyone in the top 5% of salaries for job title and level based on Radford data in the Mountain Region. This means everyone gets equal pay for equal work, it also removes the option to negotiate since that generally leads to bias and inequity. 

You can work remotely from anywhere in the United States that has a solid internet connection. This job does require travel (2 to 4 nights) at least 6 times per year, possibly more, but we try to keep it comfortable and minimal because we all have lives outside of work.

We value diversity and inclusion, not as a trend or marketing ploy, but because it makes work better for everyone and helps us build the best product possible. We also know our industry has a bad reputation when it comes to employees from underrepresented groups, and we want to do our part to change that. We are an equal opportunity employer and don't discriminate against any qualified applicants because of race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sex, sexual preference, sexual identity/orientation, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, marital status, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, military status, religion (or lack thereof), body size, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law or local ordinance.

Traits that we value

There isn't a checklist of must-haves for this role, but a broad list of skills we think this person will eventually have. We recognize that minimum experience requirements often disadvantage people who have been in toxic jobs or have been previously discriminated against (even if discretely), that's not us, so please still consider applying if you believe you can do this job well. 

• Clear communication - We are a remote company that values cross-team collaboration, and this role will require a lot of that. Communicating clearly both in writing and on calls will be essential for success. 
• Ready to lead - This is not a design job, this is a leadership role. While the occasional opportunity to stretch those design muscles may pop-up, this role is about leading our people and vision. 
• Taste for days - We're looking for more than good design, and want your help in nurturing our unique sense of style. Big Cartel isn't flashy, but we are fresh. We build tools for artists and creatives, so our brand needs to be appeal and reflect their independent spirits. 
• Candor comes first - Leading a company is fulfilling but also really hard and sometimes scary. Trusting that we're all being candid with one another and working towards a common goal is essential to making the best decisions for our team and company. 
• Experience in the right areas - To lead design across all of Big Cartel you need to have some experience with both branding and product design. There isn't a magic amount of experience that makes you suddenly qualified for this role, but we do need to know you can level up our brand and help our designers push out an incredible product.