Design DirectorPortland / New York / Remote
In 2-4 sentences tell us what about our offering + your experience would make a good match.
TEACHER is hiring a Design Director to lead digital product work and the teams behind it. Role- 8+ years of experience.
- Salary range of $150,000–$180,000.
- New York or Portland preferred.
Role
- 8+ years of experience.
- Salary range of $150,000–$180,000.
- New York or Portland preferred.
We think about the role of Design Director in the following quantifiable ways. Leadership- Leads full project teams, guiding both creative direction and delivery.
- Sets industry-leading vision for products and carries it through the finish line.
- Mentors and develops design leads and senior designers.
- Creates an environment where designers feel supported, heard, and motivated.
Craft- Consistently produces high-level, category-defining design work.
- Stays close to the work. Knows when to direct, when to make, and when to get into the details.
- Shapes the creative vision, translates abstract strategy into tangible, inspiring design direction.
- Deep understanding of product, brand, motion, and systems design at scale.
- Balances conceptual ambition with practical usability and accessibility.
- Ensures the design output represents the highest standard.
Strategy- Brings clarity to ambiguous problems and helps define what should be made.
- Connects user needs, business goals, brand, and technology into a clear point of view.
- Sees beyond the brief and identifies opportunities to push the work beyond.
- Moves comfortably between big-picture thinking and the details that bring it to life.
Systems Thinking- Sets visual standards and design languages that scale across teams.
- Guides teams in maintaining organized, accessible design libraries.
- Understands how brand, digital product, and motion systems interconnect.
Product & Prototyping- Guides teams in choosing the right fidelity and purpose for each prototype.
- Encourages experimentation with emerging tools and interaction models.
- Helps teams balance exploration and efficiency throughout the process.
- Additional expertise in motion design, photo direction, illustration, type design, 3D, or creative coding.
- Comfortable prototyping at multiple fidelities.
- Uses tools like Principle, Origami, or Figma to explore and validate ideas.
Communication- Communicates vision with clarity and conviction.
- Builds strong narratives that connect design decisions to strategy and outcomes.
- Inspires confidence in clients and teams through thoughtful storytelling.
- Listens deeply to feedback, interprets intent, and reframes it constructively.
- Shapes presentations that excite, educate, and align executive stakeholders.
Mindset- Confident, curious, humble.
- Fast, reliable, organized.
- Calm under pressure and always learning.
Leadership
- Leads full project teams, guiding both creative direction and delivery.
- Sets industry-leading vision for products and carries it through the finish line.
- Mentors and develops design leads and senior designers.
- Creates an environment where designers feel supported, heard, and motivated.
Craft
- Consistently produces high-level, category-defining design work.
- Stays close to the work. Knows when to direct, when to make, and when to get into the details.
- Shapes the creative vision, translates abstract strategy into tangible, inspiring design direction.
- Deep understanding of product, brand, motion, and systems design at scale.
- Balances conceptual ambition with practical usability and accessibility.
- Ensures the design output represents the highest standard.
Strategy
- Brings clarity to ambiguous problems and helps define what should be made.
- Connects user needs, business goals, brand, and technology into a clear point of view.
- Sees beyond the brief and identifies opportunities to push the work beyond.
- Moves comfortably between big-picture thinking and the details that bring it to life.
Systems Thinking
- Sets visual standards and design languages that scale across teams.
- Guides teams in maintaining organized, accessible design libraries.
- Understands how brand, digital product, and motion systems interconnect.
Product & Prototyping
- Guides teams in choosing the right fidelity and purpose for each prototype.
- Encourages experimentation with emerging tools and interaction models.
- Helps teams balance exploration and efficiency throughout the process.
- Additional expertise in motion design, photo direction, illustration, type design, 3D, or creative coding.
- Comfortable prototyping at multiple fidelities.
- Uses tools like Principle, Origami, or Figma to explore and validate ideas.
Communication
- Communicates vision with clarity and conviction.
- Builds strong narratives that connect design decisions to strategy and outcomes.
- Inspires confidence in clients and teams through thoughtful storytelling.
- Listens deeply to feedback, interprets intent, and reframes it constructively.
- Shapes presentations that excite, educate, and align executive stakeholders.
Mindset
- Confident, curious, humble.
- Fast, reliable, organized.
- Calm under pressure and always learning.
We think about the ideal person joining our small team in the following harder-to-quantify ways. About You- You love design, above all.
- You are curious, dedicated, and endlessly motivated by craft.
- You have strong taste and can articulate why something works, or doesn't.
- You are still a practitioner. Leadership hasn't created distance between you and the work.
- You operate confidently.
- You are comfortable with ambiguity and know how to create clarity for others.
- You can set direction while staying close to the details.
- You are comfortable moving between structure and improvisation.
- You communicate ideas clearly.
- You lead with empathy, build trust, and bring others along.
- You are deeply collaborative.
- You see gaps, and you step in. If something connects to your craft, your curiosity, or the bigger picture: you own it, raise it, or help shape it. We value initiative and proactive suggestions.
About You
- You love design, above all.
- You are curious, dedicated, and endlessly motivated by craft.
- You have strong taste and can articulate why something works, or doesn't.
- You are still a practitioner. Leadership hasn't created distance between you and the work.
- You operate confidently.
- You are comfortable with ambiguity and know how to create clarity for others.
- You can set direction while staying close to the details.
- You are comfortable moving between structure and improvisation.
- You communicate ideas clearly.
- You lead with empathy, build trust, and bring others along.
- You are deeply collaborative.
- You see gaps, and you step in. If something connects to your craft, your curiosity, or the bigger picture: you own it, raise it, or help shape it. We value initiative and proactive suggestions.
We think about TEACHER as a business, a creative company, and a place where you’ll spend a lot of your time, in the following ways. About Us- We are asked to solve problems and create experiences that have no analog in the market, and we take that seriously. Defining a new approach—and often the tools themselves—for each engagement is much harder than reheating ideas, but it is much more fun.
- We are design-first. Our taste and our craft are the single most defensible parts of our business, and ones we won't sacrifice for efficiency or scale.
- Our instinct to push beyond what's expected isn't occasional generosity or a sales tactic. Over-delivering builds trust and creates more space for creativity. It's become our operational standard because showing clients we're as invested as they are widens the aperture of our work in meaningful ways beyond making more money.
- We’re at our best when we're experimenting. While TEACHER has titles and roles and a well defined process, it is everyone's responsibility to find ways for technology to push our creative thinking into unexpected places. How you push, what tools you use, where new workflows fit your process … all of that is an individual journey. There is no prescribed method, just a shared commitment to the practice.
- TEACHER is a service business that earns revenue by billing for time. That creates an incentive to sell clients work they don't need, or work we might not be suited for. If the answer is a smaller project, no project, or a referral to a different studio, we say so, and trust the business side to take care of itself.
About Us
- We are asked to solve problems and create experiences that have no analog in the market, and we take that seriously. Defining a new approach—and often the tools themselves—for each engagement is much harder than reheating ideas, but it is much more fun.
- We are design-first. Our taste and our craft are the single most defensible parts of our business, and ones we won't sacrifice for efficiency or scale.
- Our instinct to push beyond what's expected isn't occasional generosity or a sales tactic. Over-delivering builds trust and creates more space for creativity. It's become our operational standard because showing clients we're as invested as they are widens the aperture of our work in meaningful ways beyond making more money.
- We’re at our best when we're experimenting. While TEACHER has titles and roles and a well defined process, it is everyone's responsibility to find ways for technology to push our creative thinking into unexpected places. How you push, what tools you use, where new workflows fit your process … all of that is an individual journey. There is no prescribed method, just a shared commitment to the practice.
- TEACHER is a service business that earns revenue by billing for time. That creates an incentive to sell clients work they don't need, or work we might not be suited for. If the answer is a smaller project, no project, or a referral to a different studio, we say so, and trust the business side to take care of itself.
We think about the projects we take on, the clients we work with, and the creative environment we're building, in the following ways Our Focus- We seek out projects that utilize our full potential (strategy, art direction, motion, design, UX, development).
- We are drawn to organizations seeking new ways to solve old problems, or yet-to-be-defined ways to solve new problems.
- We like to collaborate with any individual, team, or organization that values design, and most importantly, leads with it.
Our Focus
- We seek out projects that utilize our full potential (strategy, art direction, motion, design, UX, development).
- We are drawn to organizations seeking new ways to solve old problems, or yet-to-be-defined ways to solve new problems.
- We like to collaborate with any individual, team, or organization that values design, and most importantly, leads with it.
We think about hiring and our team in the following ways. Our Team- Diversity inspires innovation.
- We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
- We believe success is created by a diverse workforce of individuals with different ideas, strengths, interests, and cultural backgrounds.
Our Team
- Diversity inspires innovation.
- We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
- We believe success is created by a diverse workforce of individuals with different ideas, strengths, interests, and cultural backgrounds.
Given the volume of applications we receive, we're not able to respond to everyone individually, but we do our best. If you seem like a fit, the process is straightforward. Our Process- Intro call (30 min)
- Portfolio review (60 min)
- Partner call (60 min)
- Job offer
Our Process
- Intro call (30 min)
- Portfolio review (60 min)
- Partner call (60 min)
- Job offer