At InStride, we’re pioneering a new approach to workforce education. Our mission is to enable employers to provide life-changing education to their employees in partnership with the highest-quality global academic institutions. We unlock business and social impact to transform companies and people for the future. 

We believe that a company’s richest resource is their employees, and that investments in people yield the highest returns for individuals, businesses, and society as a whole. That’s why every InStride employee is eligible to enroll in 1,700+ online certificate and degree programs through our Step Forward program. Unlike traditional tuition reimbursement programs, InStride covers your tuition upfront, regardless of your course of study, degree type, or school. The Step Forward program, along with InStride’s best-in-class employee benefits, are available to all employees from the day they join InStride. 

Read further to see how you can be part of the movement to drive businesses and society forward through life-changing, best-in-class workforce education.

Role Overview

InStride is looking for a dedicated Associate Director of Product Design to support our growing organization in building world-class products that create a meaningful impact on the world. You will play a key role in defining the product vision and be accountable for crafting a clear design strategy for how the features InStride's platform connect across employers, academic partners, and employees. You will build, deploy and mentor a team of dedicated product designers and UX professionals who will work across varying product domains of the InStride platform.

The ideal candidate is a dynamic, influential team leader who possesses a well-rounded design background with a strong visual point of view complemented by UX fundamentals. You can work cross-functionally to generate impactful insights, support product strategies, and take ideas from early-stage design concepts to a finished product. You have experience working in a diverse, fast-paced environment and are deeply aligned with InStride's mission.

Responsibilities

• Lead all aspects of product design and maintain a high bar of quality for their work through all phases of the design process
• Direct efforts to distill data and research insights, lead group conceptualization sessions, conduct design reviews, and provide design support through final implementation
• Work across the product teams to help simplify complex user problems, finding creative solutions driven by an intuitive user experience
• Partner closely with leaders in Product & Engineering to estimate, scope, plan and lead UX and product design work
• Lead product design & UX research efforts, as well as provide key partner input on relevant product analytics and market research initiatives
• Build experience/system maps, user flows, medium to high-fidelity wireframes, product research protocols, and synthesized research reports to support design solutions
• Champion collaborative working relationships between the design team and members of product, engineering, and marketing to deliver a cohesive experience to our users
• Advocate for our customers and possess a comprehensive understanding of how data and qualitative research inform building outstanding products
• Be hands-on and capable of rolling up your sleeves to work with product and engineering teams
• Lead, encourage, and develop a diverse team of product designers by raising the team’s level of design, decision making, and collaboration skills
• Proactively maintain a high level of knowledge and expertise in digital technologies, tools, and UX trends, regularly sharing insights with the team
• Lead process and documentation improvement initiatives

Ideal Profile

• 7+ years of industry experience (education experience a plus)
• 2+ years team management or team lead experience
• Proven history of impact through UX solutions to drive business value
• A hands-on leader with the tenacity to work autonomously in leading multiple work streams and design initiatives
• Demonstrated delivery products to market and iterating on those products over time to ensure success
• Extensive experience practicing user-centered UX design methods and techniques for SaaS software, transactional or eCommerce experiences
• Experience defining and using user research to drive design decisions
• Outstanding verbal communication skills, with experience addressing all levels of the organization
• Experience using Figma (or Sketch), UserTesting.com (or relevant user research software), Confluence, and JIRA preferred
• Portfolio or case study samples that showcase the products you’ve delivered to market, as well as the design processes that led to their launch
• Occasional travel may be required

InStride is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, ethnicity, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, medical condition, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance relating to an applicant's criminal history.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided a reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please discuss your requested accommodation with our HRBP.

Effective November 1, 2021, all new hires must be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus unless they have been granted a reasonable accommodation. If you are offered employment, this requirement must be met by your date of hire, unless a reasonable accommodation is approved by the People & Talent team in writing. 

If you are looking to apply for one of our Remote opportunities please know that InStride is only able to employ candidates from the following states.

Arizona

California

Florida

Illinois

Louisiana

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Missouri

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

Ohio

Texas

Washington

Wisconsin