Senior Product Designer

We are hiring a Senior Product Designer at The Student Room, want to work on a product that is making a difference to young people and with a passionate team. If you have experience in transforming digital platforms through design and want to help us raise the bar at TSR then we’d love to work with you.

Who are we?

The Student Room Group (TSR) is the largest, most useful and best-loved online student community there is. Millions of students turn to us first for advice, info and support on work, learning and life’s ups and downs. That means we’re uniquely privileged to connect educators and employers to switched-on young people actively seeking out answers and meaningful connections.

We put users at the heart of everything we do, so we are always thinking of the best ways we can help solve problems and create opportunities for our student users and our university customers.

What does a Senior Product Designer at TSR do?

We’re looking for a senior product designer with a broad range of experience to help shape the future of, our digital products.

We’re seeking someone who has a proven track record leading product design, to help us create a cohesive overall experience of The Student Room and The Uni Guide. You’ll be responsible for all design artefacts that are produced, from discovery through to service design and detailed execution.

The Student Room has two multidisciplinary product development teams at the moment and the Senior Product Designer role will be responsible for overseeing design across both. We’re a small, tight-knit organisation so as well as leading design, you’ll also be expected to roll up your sleeves and get into the detail.

You’ll report to our Director of Product, and you will manage and support other designers. You’ll regularly work with the leadership team to ensure that the product design system supports the longer-term business goals and product vision. You’ll work closely and collaboratively with product and engineering colleagues in an agile way to ensure the day-to-day product development is consistently high quality. You will be the key voice of the user within product design and will be responsible for the creation of polished, accessible and easy-to-use products taking into account user and client feedback as well as data insights and market analysis.

If you have experience in transforming digital platforms through design and want to help us raise the bar at TSR then we’d love to work with you.

Skills & Experience

  • Experienced in leading the design for great digital products
  • Experience creating design systems to help enable teams to create experiences at pace
  • Experience leading and mentoring junior and mid-weight designers
  • Experience in understanding users deeply to get to the heart of the underlying problems the team is striving to solve.
  • Highly experienced with design tools – Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, Sketch etc.
  • Own the end-to-end design process, from problem definition and user research to low/high-fidelity prototyping and polished visual/interaction design
  • Ability to create prototypes to help rapidly test assumptions for new product ideas
  • Experience of working with user research of various kinds, and how it informs the product development process both qualitative and quantitative, e.g., setting up and evaluating surveys and interviews
  • A passion for user experience and digital design and up-to-date with the latest and emerging industry trends
  • Detailed understanding of prevalent design patterns particularly on mobile
  • Understanding of inclusive design and accessibility
  • Have experience driving design within an agile/lean team environment
  • Demonstrable experience of working in a cross-functional team alongside product, engineering, and business ambassadors to define problems and iteratively explore/ship solutions
  • Facilitate design thinking and practice across the product team and beyond, increasing the visibility and impact of design through writing, speaking, and workshops.
  • Experience developing concepts, designs, and illustrations that can be utilised across a range of marketing materials including social, email, web and print. Maintaining brand consistency, working with brand guidelines throughout all our marketing campaigns and channels

Desirable

  • Experience of designing experiences for online communities and/or social media
  • Working knowledge of front-end coding such as HTML, CSS and others
  • Previous experience working on digital products aimed at young people
  • Degree or equivalent within Digital Design or similar

This opportunity will suit someone who…

  • Collaborates well with others in a team
  • Communicates clearly and with compassion
  • Explores and proposes fresh concepts and ideas quickly
  • Can adapt to ever-changing internet usage trends among young people
  • Is solution driven and thinks outside the box
  • Is highly organised, and is not afraid to push back if needed
  • Can generate quick concepts and realise ideas
  • Can adapt to a broad range of artistic styles
  • Understands internet use and common user experience practices
  • Enjoys keeping up to date with the ever-moving internet landscape and popular websites, with a focus on youth sites
  • Works well under pressure with strong attention to detail

Working at The Student Room

We care about employee development, happiness, wellness, and work-life balance. We offer a welcoming, friendly, and supportive working environment, plus we enjoy lots of great benefits including:

  • 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays and your birthday day off
  • Flexible working hours and remote working arrangements
  • Group Life insurance
  • Generous pension scheme
  • Private healthcare
  • Healthcare cash plan
  • Cycle to work Scheme

Working hours: 37.5 hours per week, from Monday to Friday.

Salary: c. £45-50,000 per annum, depending on experience.

Hybrid working: we work remotely, or from our central Brighton office on a full or part-time basis

The Student Room is dedicated to providing an inclusive working environment that encourages diversity and equal opportunities for all. We are committed to supporting a team that is representative of a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and skills.

To apply for this position to join the team, please send a cover letter and your current CV to hr@thestudentroom.com

For the most up to date details regarding all of TSR’s current vacancies please visit http://tsrmatters.com/find-out-about-us/join-the-team

As part of our recruitment process, The Student Room collects, stores and processes personal data relating to job applicants. Please read our Job Application Privacy Policy to understand how we use and protect the information you provide, both in your application and at other stages of the recruitment process.