Summary

As our second product designer, you will join a team of highly autonomous, senior ICs developing software capabilities for the firm’s investing and operating functions, as well as external-facing products for the firm’s partners, portfolio, and investors. You will architect powerful tools that drive a16z’s investment opportunity discovery and diligence. You’ll also design network building, process management, and AI-powered products that support this overarching mission. 

As a critical member of ASG, you’ll work closely with a tight-knit group of engineers in a fast paced, startup-like environment with a high speed of iteration. You must be comfortable driving multiple projects at a time and building for a range of user personas. You should be a high-horsepower, detail-oriented, and product-focused designer with an obsession for crafting elegant, frictionless interfaces and workflows. 

You will have a significant impact on not only our software, but the culture of design & technology at the firm itself. You will also represent our team’s work across the organization, and be responsible for driving white-glove user research, engagement, and product marketing. This is a high-consequence, fast-moving role that requires a clear design understanding, the propensity to implement, a mindset of shipping quickly, and the ability to educate our team and firm on the impact of design choices we make.

If you are passionate about designing technology that creates a meaningful shift in how relationships are formed, capital is allocated, and enduring technology companies are built, this is the role for you.

This role requires an in-office presence 2-3 days a week in our San Francisco, CA office. 

To join our team, you should be excited to:

1. Build, move fast & learn. We ship new and unique technology quickly and often
2. Distill ambiguous problems and highly nuanced workflows into intuitive solutions
3. Design in the 0-1 phase of the product development lifecycle, as well as the 1-10 iterative phase 
4. Own each step in the design process, from conception and research to implementation, all the way through deployment, maintenance, and future iterations
5. Prototype concepts in Figma or other tools to communicate interactions, animations, and your design vision
6. Contribute to our design system, bringing the conviction of your own design language to bear on our products
7. Collaborate and bring positive energy to each interaction with our team and cross functional partners
8. Communicate holistically & systematically about how our user experience will achieve desired quantitative and narrative goals
9. Create some of the most impactful products of your life, and in the investment and technology industry at large

Minimum Qualifications

1. 3+ years in product design, in mid-level IC roles, building elegant, narrative, and consequential experiences for high-IQ users. Strong candidates are likely to have a background in enterprise software that drives high-stakes decision making or other environments with analytical rigor
2. Proven history of rapid shipping and iteration at a startup or fast paced environment, owning the end-to-end design process without the support of a large design org
3. Fluency in Figma and a passion for building detailed, scalable components
4. Willingness to context switch and design across many surfaces simultaneously
5. High EQ: Strong customer empathy; you think critically about how our features impact our users, firm, investors, and community
6. High IQ: Able to autonomously create novel approaches to complex, unsolved problems and communicate them effectively to non-technical audiences
7. Experience building consumer or mobile products is a major plus
8. Working knowledge of the latest AI design tools, web technologies & front-end architectures
9. Ability to operate like a PM, demonstrating first principles thinking and sound judgement to refine roadmaps, requirements & designs
10. An open, collaborative, I-win-when-the-team-wins approach to problem-solving
11. Confidence to operate under ambiguous and fast-moving problem spaces, often cross-functionally
12. Low ego, high empathy, and the capacity to collaborate effectively with diverse teams

The anticipated salary range for this role is between $269,000 - $314,000, actual starting pay may vary based on a range of factors which can include experience, skills, and scope.

Skills

• Communications Skills
• Critical Thinking
• Product Design
• Team Collaboration