Staff Product Designer

About the role

Outsmart is a mission-driven, early-stage startup reimagining higher education for the age of AI by creating an entirely new collegiate experience that expands access and opportunity. Backed by $38M from top venture firms including Khosla Ventures, Forerunner, DST Global Partners, and Lightspeed, the company is led by former Duolingo executives and a founding team that also includes Emmy Award winners. With a strong culture centered around high-impact, detail-oriented team members, Outsmart is already seeing significant traction, generating 1–5 million weekly organic views on social media.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end design for major areas of the Outsmart student experience
• Turn ambiguous product problems into clear strategies, flows, prototypes, and polished experiences
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering from early exploration through launch and iteration
• Mentor and manage designers, helping them grow while raising the quality of their work
• Lead critiques and create a culture of thoughtful, direct, and productive feedback
• Help establish design processes that allow a small team to move quickly and maintain a high quality bar
• Use research, data, experimentation, and rapid prototyping to inform product decisions
• Evolve Outsmart’s design system and overall product language
• Help grow the design team and shape its culture as the company scales

Qualifications

• 8+ years of product design experience, with significant experience designing consumer-facing digital products
• Previous experience managing and developing product designers
• A portfolio demonstrating exceptional product thinking, interaction design, and visual craft
• Experience owning complex products or major product areas from strategy through launch
• A strong track record of shipping products used by real customers at meaningful scale
• Excellent Figma and prototyping skills, with a willingness to stay deeply hands-on
• Strong collaboration with Product and Engineering, including comfort navigating technical and business constraints
• Experience using AI tools to accelerate design, prototyping, and exploration
• Strong communication skills and the ability to influence product direction across disciplines
• High standards for craft paired with the judgment to know when to ship and iterate
• A low-ego approach to leadership, collaboration, critique, and feedback

Skills

• Experienced product designer and design leader who has shipped exceptional consumer products and managed other designers
• Combines strong product thinking with excellent visual and interaction design skills
• Comfortable moving between big-picture product strategy and the smallest details of an interaction
• Gives clear, constructive feedback, develops designers, and creates an environment where great work can happen
• Comfortable with ambiguity, moves quickly, and brings structure to problems without adding unnecessary process
• Genuinely curious about AI, actively using new tools to prototype, explore, and rethink how products and design teams can work
• Bonus: experience with consumer education, social, gaming, or other highly engaging products

Pay

Salary Range: $175,000–$225,000

Benefits

• Competitive salary, equity, and benefits
• Healthcare for you and your dependents (medical, dental, and vision)
• Parental leave for any full-time employee (birthing, non-birthing, and adoptive parents)
• 15 PTO days per year, a winter break, and 12+ paid company holidays per year
• Remote work days
• Lunch provided in-office daily
• Working with super talented people who want to make a difference in the world