Senior Director of Product Design

About this Role

Strava is the leading social platform for athletes and the largest sports community in the world, with over 85 million athletes in 195 countries. If you sweat you’re an athlete, and Strava’s mobile apps and website connect millions of active people every day!

Reporting to the VP of Design, this role will be an integral part of bringing the vision of what the Strava product can be for athletes through driving strategic company-wide efforts and leading the Product Design Team.

In this role, you will collaborate across the company to continue to evolve the platform and processes that shape our product strategy, roadmap and the athlete experience on Strava. You will play a lead role in supporting the growth and development of a highly talented team that designs experiences our athletes love and rave about, align team development with company goals and values, continuing to evolve our design system, and championing the voice of the athlete throughout the organization.

Strava is passionate about supporting our athletes and each of our employees by building equitable and inclusive policies, programs, practices and experiences. It is important that our design leaders share similar passions and are committed to helping develop and incorporate inclusive and antiracist strategies into our culture, processes and product

You will be successful here by:

• Partnering closely with Strava’s VP of Design to ensure that our long term product strategy and roadmap is well aligned with the company mission, vision and business goals.

• Supporting, empowering, and giving space to designers and leaders to grow in their careers through more impactful contributions to Strava.

• Actively engaging in Strava’s antiracism commitment by contributing to progress and change across our workplace environment, our organizational structure, and our product experience.

• Building strong relationships and empathy for your cross-functional leadership partners, and working to align strategy and goals across functions so that Strava’s entire team can work in unison to serve our global community of athletes.

• Helping Strava’s product design team identify and excel in areas where we need to be great, while also kindly and gracefully saying “No” to lower priority ideas that might distract us from achieving our goals.

We're excited about you because you have:

• A growth mindset, passion for learning, and willingness to adapt and evolve your own perspective when collaborating with teammates who bring different backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise.

• Experience leading and supporting a design team through growth and change.

• Deep experience partnering across the organization to help teams with complementary skills and perspectives (e.g. product management, engineering, qualitative research, data & analytics, customer support) come together to form a full picture of a problem or opportunity.

• Exceptional communication skills (written and verbal), collaborative mindset, and ability to persuade and inspire project teams, peers and stakeholders of the value of a people-centered design approach.

• Deep passion and understanding for people-centered design and methodologies integrating multiple types of data (e.g. qualitative findings, market research, survey data, analytics, competitive landscape) into a singular strategic point of view.

• 5+ years experience managing, supporting and growing experienced design teams.

• Experience with navigating the balance and tradeoffs between serving product team roadmaps and company-wide roadmaps.

• Comfort in an environment where speed, rigor and quality must be balanced to meet project needs.

• Empathy and passion for understanding people and why they do the things they do.

• Deep, hands-on experience and shareable examples of leading a variety of design projects from start to finish, across all stages of a product lifecycle (discovery to go-to-market) leveraging business strategies, design thinking, and collaboration to balance user needs and business goals.

About Strava

Strava is Swedish for “strive,” which epitomizes who we are and what we do. We’re a passionate and committed team, unified by our mission to connect athletes to what motivates them and help them find their personal best. And with billions of activity uploads from all over the world, we have a humbling and audacious vision: to be the record of the world’s athletic activities and the technology that makes every effort count.  

Strava builds software that makes the best part of our athletes’ days even better. And just as we’re deeply committed to unlocking their potential, we’re dedicated to providing a world-class, inclusive workplace where our employees can grow and thrive, too. We’re backed by Sequoia Capital, Madrone Partners and Jackson Square Ventures, and we’re expanding in order to exceed the needs of our growing community of global athletes. Our culture reflects our community – we are continuously striving to hire and engage diverse teammates from all backgrounds, experiences and perspectives because we know we are a stronger team together.

In light of the global pandemic, Strava is currently working in a fully remote capacity. As always, we remain committed to fully supporting our employees, especially their mental health and wellbeing, through these challenging times. Despite challenges in the world around us, we are continuing to grow camaraderie and positivity within our culture and we are unified in our commitment to becoming an antiracist company. We are differentiated by our truly people-first approach, our compassionate leadership, and our belief that we can bring joy and inspiration to athletes’ lives — now more than ever. All to say, it’s a great time to join Strava!

Strava is an equal opportunity employer. In keeping with the values of Strava, we make all employment decisions including hiring, evaluation, termination, promotional and training opportunities, without regard to race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, physical handicap, mental disability, medical condition, disability, gender or identity or expression, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, marital status, height and/or weight.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

California Consumer Protection Act Applicant Notice

For more information on compensation and benefits, please click here.