Director of Product Design

Qualia•San Francisco, CA

1d•Remote

About The Position

At Qualia, we've built the leading B2B real estate technology that transforms the home buying and selling experience into a simple, secure, and enjoyable process. Our SMB and Enterprise products bring together users from across the real estate ecosystem---homebuyers and sellers, lenders, title and escrow agents, and real estate agents---onto a single shared digital closing platform, providing greater clarity and transparency to real estate transactions. Today, through our business customers across the country, millions of consumers use Qualia to close on homes every year. We’re looking for a Director of Product Design who will both manage and mentor a talented design team, and take on individual contributor work tackling complex, highly technical problems from concept through launch.

Requirements

Minimum of 8 years of experience in Product Design, including at least 3 years directly managing Product Designers
Strong track record of building high-performing teams and coaching designers toward growth and leadership
Able to visualize and articulate a clear design strategy to cross-functional partners
Excellent written and verbal communicator, confident in managing high-stakes conversations with leadership
Proven ability to create clarity and focus in complex, ambiguous problem spaces
Operational mindset with experience improving team processes and decision-making workflows
Maintain a core strength in one or more Design disciplines, leading through your expertise
Portfolio of case studies showcasing how you've led teams to deliver high-craft experiences from inception through launch
Demonstrated ability to transform user experiences by balancing visionary thinking with near-term, actionable execution
Experience delivering 0–1 products from concept to launch, bringing bold ideas to life
Skilled at navigating large-scale, complex, and ambiguous projects across multiple teams
Comfortable working in fast-paced, startup environments
Embody a learning and growth mindset
Comfortable with the level of learning and ambiguity required to navigate fast-evolving fields

Nice To Haves

Preference for background in front-end engineering

Responsibilities

Own overall team performance and health, including resource allocation, project prioritization, and fostering a culture of high-quality design
Coach and mentor designers on both soft and hard skills, supporting their development and career growth
Cultivate a team culture rooted in craftsmanship, user-centered design, and continuous improvement
Actively practice and champion customer-centric thinking across the organization
Promote alignment and build trust across cross-functional teams by clearly communicating complex issues and fostering collaboration
Proactively solicit and provide feedback within the design team and across the broader product org to continually raise the bar for quality
Be a contributor to the organization’s strategic direction
Support both strategic vision and team execution, with excellent design sense
Provide strategic, visual, and systems-oriented feedback across end-to-end flows to ensure experiences are simple and delightful
Oversee complex design initiatives across multiple workstreams, maintaining high quality and clearing blockers to ensure timely delivery
Take broad, conceptual ideas and turn them into useful, valuable products for our users
Proactively identify new user problems and opportunities, working closely with research and data to define paths forward
Develop the roadmap for implementing, progressing, and steering design systems
Orchestrate our transition to “design as code” workflows
Create systems and enablement plans that democratize rapid prototyping