The Athletic is redefining what a sports app is. We need a design leader who is hands-on, opinionated, and genuinely obsessed with sports, with a clear vision for what the "essential sports app" becomes over the next several years.
This role is reporting into our Chief Product Officer.
This role is 100% remote for candidates based in the United States or Canada.
Responsibilities
- Product vision and prototyping the future. We want working prototypes and opinionated concepts that demonstrate what the next-generation sports app looks like, and where the biggest opportunity is for us to lead. You own the process and the design output behind ongoing strategic visioning with cross-functional leadership, driving toward decisions the exec team rallies behind.
- A strategic voice in product direction, with real weight in the business. You bring informed, data-backed points of view to planning, and help design shape where the product goes. You partner directly with the VP Eng, the VP Data, and the CPO on the business priorities and metrics that matter, and you make sure design has a seat at the table.
- Day-to-day craft leadership. You stay in the work: reviewing flows, jumping into Figma, and prototyping directly alongside your team.
- AI-native transformation of the design practice. You set the direction for how design works in an AI-native world, covering tools, workflows, and team structure, so that velocity and craft rise together.
- Org leadership and performance. You build, coach, and manage a design org (~10) that can operate at this level, with clear accountability for what each team and person delivers.
- Collaboration. You are part of the leadership team of The Athletic. As such, your role goes beyond “design” and you work hand in hand with the other leads (engineering, product, data, marketing, commercial etc.).
Requirements
- Someone who is a sports fan first, who uses the product, has opinions about it, and lets that passion show up in the work.
- A design leader with a track record of hands-on craft at senior levels. We want to see recent, personal work.
- Experience leading a design org through a step-change in how it works, ideally involving AI tooling and workflow, at a company shipping consumer product at scale.
- Strong, well-argued opinions about what makes a sports product, or a comparable habit-forming consumer product, great, along with the conviction to defend them in a room of product and engineering leaders.
- Comfort operating in ambiguity.
- Nice to have: experience starting or running your own company or side project.
- This is a remote-based role requiring some regular travel.
The annual base salary range for this role is $270,000.00 - $295,000.00 USD. The total compensation offered for this position may vary based on factors such as education, experience, skills, and location. It may also include non-cash rewards and benefits. The base salary range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.
We are excited to learn more about you and your experience. To keep our hiring process as fair and authentic as possible, we ask that you submit your own work and not use GenAI tools to generate substantive content during the application and interview process. If you are a candidate for a technical role, we will let you know what specific tools you are permitted to use for your technical assessment.
Skills Required
- Demonstrated experience as a senior, hands-on design leader with recent personal work
- Experience leading a design organization through a significant change in operating model, ideally involving AI tooling and workflows
- Experience at a company shipping consumer products at scale
- Strong knowledge of sports products or comparable habit-forming consumer products
- Ability to present and defend product and design opinions to product and engineering leaders
- Comfort operating in ambiguity
- Strong interest in and personal use of sports products
- Regular travel availability
- Experience starting or running a company or side project
What We Do
Here for every sports story that matters. -- The Athletic (http://theathletic.com) is a subscription-based media publisher of smarter sports coverage for die-hard fans. Founded in 2016, The Athletic’s all-star team of writers have produced thousands of quality stories for subscribers free of ads, pop-ups and auto-play videos. The Athletic now offers in-depth local coverage in 47 North American pro sports markets along with premium national coverage across MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA & more. Readers can count on original, authentic storytelling written by talented local and national sports journalists like Ken Rosenthal, Pierre LeBrun, Seth Davis, Stewart Mandel, Shams Charania and many more. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
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