About us
Kiva (www.kiva.org) is an innovative non-profit focused on connecting people through lending to alleviate poverty and create opportunity. We run a global marketplace platform for crowdfunded microloans that serves the financially excluded. Our organization combines the culture and technological passion of an internet start-up with the compassion and empathy of a non-profit to address poverty at global scale. We aim to drive social impact and enable opportunity while providing a borrower-to-lender connection: “Loans that change lives.” In just 13 years, we have raised more than $1.1 billion in loan capital for 2.7 million borrowers in 83 countries. Our lenders fund over $10 million in loans every month. With offices in San Francisco, Portland, New York, Nairobi, and Bangkok, Kiva’s team includes 100+ employees and 400+ volunteers worldwide.
About this role
As a Senior Product Designer, you will serve a vital role at Kiva and be involved in all aspects of the product development process; from brainstorming the next big idea, to creating the vision for new features, to tweaking pixels right before launch. We appreciate designers who are constantly curious, think deeply, speak clearly, and embrace collaboration and feedback. This is a full-time position located in our San Francisco office. At this time, we can only consider applicants with authorization to work in the United States on a permanent, full-time basis; unfortunately we cannot provide visa sponsorship.
Key responsibilities include:
- Using your full range of product thinking, user research, interaction and visual design skills, you will partner with PMs, engineers, and other stakeholders to design user experiences from conception to launch and iteration
- Participate in concept development and design ideation with product managers and designers to help define product direction
- Lead and participate in cross-functional brainstorms, discussions, and design reviews
- Prototype and present ideas ranging from rough whiteboard sketches to wireframes to high-fidelity interactive prototypes to detailed design specs
- Partner with Engineering to ensure a high-quality implementation and user experience
- Lead broader design initiatives, such as improving or extending the design system or product development practices
What we’re looking for:
- 4+ years experience designing best-of-class digital products—consumer products, nonprofit, and financial services—ideally in-house
- Portfolio featuring examples of cross-platform interaction design work that demonstrates your problem solving process and design solutions
- Bias towards taking action, learning from customers, measuring success and iterating to improve
- Willingness and ability to pitch in on a wide range of design issues—product, user experience, interaction, visual, copywriting, illustration, storytelling—whatever it takes to ship the ultimate user experience to the people we want to reach
- Comfort working across the product development spectrum: ideation, strategy, concept work to pixel-level details, and implementation
- Ability to work cross-functionally and build successful team relationships across design, engineering, product management, marketing, etc.
- Ability to prototype and present ideas ranging from rough whiteboard sketches to wireframes to high-fidelity interactive prototypes
- Strong customer focus and ability to translate insights from user studies, customer feedback, site metrics into specific design solutions
- Ability to think at a high level about product strategy but also act quickly to deliver the tactical pieces to realize it
- Ability to initiate and execute user research, including customer interviews and usability tests
- Excellent verbal, written, and visual communication skills—willing to provide and receive constructive feedback as a part of the creative process
What we offer:
- An amazing mission: Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty across the globe
- An opportunity to improve real lives, solve hard problems, and change the world
- Friendly, supportive, and adventurous environment with a team of engaged colleagues
- Casual, but high performing work environment
- A comprehensive, industry-leading benefits package
- Opportunities to connect with and learn from colleagues and partners around the world
A diverse and inclusive workplace where we learn from each other is an integral part of Kiva’s culture. We actively welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives. We are an equal opportunity employer and a great place to work. Join us and help us achieve our mission!
We will only accept applications directly from candidates. Kiva will not be responsible for any recruiting agency fees, absent a formal agreement.