Posted today · be early
Associate Director, Product Design
Parallel
WorldwideremotePosted today
Skill Required
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Key highlights
- Remote role
- Compensation matches seniority level
- Paid real-world project during interview process
- 10+ years of product or UX design experience required
- Proven experience managing and mentoring design teams
- Portfolio of shipped products showing craft and strategic thinking
Role overview
Parallel partners with companies who care about building great products, helping them ship work that improves lives and moves markets. As an Associate Director of Product Design, you'll shape the quality of everything we make and grow the people who make it. You'll lead with vision, balancing hands-on execution with mentorship so teams deliver outstanding, high-impact design. You'll work closely with our clients, driving real business and user value while setting a clear standard for design excellence.
Responsibilities
- Balance leadership with hands-on design, working alongside teams to create and ship exceptional work.
- Bring deep expertise in product design, design systems, product strategy, and human-centred design to guide and sharpen the work.
- Actively raise the bar, giving clear, specific, actionable feedback to project teams.
- Be the trusted design advisor to clients: guide them through the process, present the work, manage feedback, and build strong relationships grounded in Parallel's point of view.
- Drive project success by applying service design and change-management thinking.
- Partner with the business team to scope work well and spot the right opportunities to grow an account.
- Build a collaborative, inclusive, high-performance design culture.
- Partner with Parallel's leadership to keep the team engaged and the culture strong.
- Hire, mentor, and develop designers, building a real pipeline of leaders on the team.
- Represent Parallel in the design community, attracting great talent and new work.
- Set the quality bar, push teams toward better thinking, and drive best practice across research, strategy, and execution.
- Champion excellent visual craft and stay current on trends, tools, and emerging tech.
- Keep design aligned with the product roadmap, release plans, and market positioning.
- Build a culture of constructive critique, inside the team and with clients.
- Use qualitative and quantitative signals to inform and validate design decisions.
- Advocate for clear, compelling communication that fits the brand and the experience.
- Build narratives that help clients understand and buy into the decisions.
- Lead teams to shape experience concepts that balance business goals, user needs, and genuine innovation.
- Hold the strategic and creative quality of every project, through execution and client presentation.
- Define scalable design systems built for usability, adoption, and the long haul.
- Confidently lead brand and strategy sessions, guiding clients toward strong creative directions.
Requirements
- 10+ years in product or UX design, with proven time managing and mentoring design teams through complex work at a high bar.
- Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to align and influence a room of different stakeholders.
- Experience working cross-functionally to drive business priorities and deliver real value.
- A portfolio of shipped products that shows both craft and strategic thinking.
- Everyday fluency with modern design tools and AI in your practice.
- Working knowledge of change management and service design.
- Active engagement in the design community through writing, talks, or panels.
- A commitment to inclusive design and a collaborative team environment.
Additional details
- The role is remote.
- Compensation matches the seniority we're hiring for.
- The bar is high and the role is senior, so we take the process seriously and move quickly.
- Expect a couple of conversations with the team, then a small, paid real-world project so we can see how you actually think and work.