Product Designer
Academia.edu is hiring a Product Designer
Academia.edu is profitable and growing, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have a goal of making a bigger impact on the world, and we’re looking for a remarkable Product Designer to help achieve this goal.
Life is short. Do something that matters
Join a company where what you work on changes the world for the better. As a Product Designer, you’ll be designing the next generation of our premium product offerings that help academics and researchers be more successful in their jobs.
About Academia.edu
Our mission is to accelerate the world's research. This increases the velocity of scientific achievement in every field, resulting in a positive social impact on humanity.
Our repository of academic papers enables everyone in the world to read scientific research papers uploaded to Academia for free. The platform also provides the means for professors, scientists, and researchers to collaborate on their fields of interest. We are proud to share that we have over 130 Million registered users and that number is growing by 3-4 Million a month.
Our business model is a premium subscription service. The success of our subscription premium products is critical to funding our mission to accelerate the world’s research.
We are a small team of ~55 employees with ~30 engineers. Our current plans call for us to launch several new products and still be self-sufficient and profitable this year. All this during some of the most challenging times in the past 100 years!
What you’ll do:
You’ll work closely with PMs, Engineers, User Researchers, and C-level Executives. You will be a full-stack "embedded" designer working closely with a dedicated PM, engineering lead, and ~5 engineers.
More specifically, you will:
* Design premium product MVPs. You’ll partner with user research to understand user needs, and work with the rest of the product team to design the next generation of Academia.edu’s premium products.
* Grow the premium MVPs you design. After launching an MVP, you will either iterate on your MVP, or optimize the marketing funnel that gives users access to your MVP.
* Launch experiments and iterate on your designs. You’ll launch multiple A/B tests and measure their performance. You’ll then iterate and discover new ways to increase outcome metrics.
* Be an active member of the Design Team. You’ll give and solicit feedback from other designers in order to continually raise our bar for quality.
About you:
* 3-5 years of hands-on experience in product design.
* A very strong background in UX.
* Good visual design skills.
* A portfolio (online or PDF) that demonstrates your experience, success, and creativity in your projects.
A few notes:
* You must be willing to work out of our San Francisco office when safe to do so until then it will be remote.
* This role reports to Academia's Design Manager, and is part of the broader Product, Design, and Research team led by Academia's Chief Operating Officer.
Nice to have:
* Experience in a test-driven environment (A/B testing and results analysis).
* Experience in producing designs that improve conversion rates or marketing experiences.
* Expertise in producing beautiful and performant visual designs.
* Experience building new consumer product offerings, and conducting user research to inform MVP definition and development.
* Experience leading discussions with PMs, engineering, other designers, and execs in evolving design proposals.
* Expertise in considering the technical difficulty of different designs, and in finding ways to test concepts as simply as possible.
* Expertise in communicating the value of our product offerings in a way that consumers want to pay for them.
* Experience with subscription products.
Benefits & perks
* Compensation & Benefits: Competitive salary, stock options, Flexible Spending Account (FSA) & DCA, & a 401k.
* Health & Self-Care: Paid medical, dental, & vision insurance for employees & their dependents. Flexible sick days, flexible hours, four weeks + 1 day (21 days) paid vacation, 11 holiday days, and paid parental leave. Standing desks.
* Convenience & Location: Catered lunches served daily, snacks & drinks. On-site showers & bike storage. The office is located just a short walk to public transportation.
* Learning & Development: Budget for professional development, team building, and events. Free books.
* Fun & Activities: Chess, foosball, piano, guitar, board games, juggling. Company retreat every summer. Weekly bootcamp with our personal trainer.
* Paid Sabbatical: Six weeks of fully-paid sabbatical leave for every four years you work here.
Diversity and Inclusion:
Academia is a proud equal opportunity employer and we are committed to hiring and supporting a diverse workforce. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
