Design Lead
Portland / New York

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In 2-4 sentences tell us what about our offering + your experience would make a good match.

careers@teacher.studio

TEACHER is hiring a Design Lead focused on digital product work.

Role
  1. 5–10 years of experience.
  2. Salary range of $110,000–$150,000.
  3. New York or Portland preferred.

We think about the role of Design Lead in the following quantifiable ways.

Craft
  1. Strong, consistent design execution at a conceptual and production level.
  2. Visual, interaction, and systems design skills.
  3. Comfortable establishing & managing complex design systems. Knows when to bend them.
  4. Detail-oriented. Delivers clean files ready for development.
Product & Prototyping
  1. Skilled in digital product design.
  2. Additional expertise in motion design, photo direction, illustration, type design, 3D, or creative coding.
  3. Comfortable prototyping at multiple fidelities.
  4. Uses tools like Principle, Origami, or Figma to explore and validate ideas.
Communication
  1. Presents clearly to clients and teams.
  2. Frames design decisions through user and business needs.
  3. Listens well and turns feedback into stronger work.
Leadership
  1. Leads by example; inspires high-quality work.
  2. Fosters open, inclusive collaboration.
Project Awareness
  1. Manages scope, time, and expectations.
  2. Communicates clearly with PMs and stakeholders.
  3. Keeps work visible and team morale steady.
Mindset
  1. Confident, curious, humble.
  2. Fast, reliable, organized.
  3. 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
  1. You love design, above all.
  2. You are curious, dedicated, and endlessly motivated by craft.
  3. You operate confidently.
  4. You balance vision and precision.
  5. You can set direction while staying close to the details.
  6. You are comfortable moving between structure and improvisation.
  7. You communicate ideas clearly.
  8. You lead with empathy, build trust, and bring others along.
  9. You are deeply collaborative.
  10. 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
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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
  1. We seek out projects that utilize our full potential (strategy, art direction, motion, design, UX, development).
  2. We are drawn to organizations seeking new ways to solve old problems, or yet-to-be defined ways to solve new problems.
  3. 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
  1. Diversity inspires innovation.
  2. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
  3. 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
  1. Intro call (30 min)
  2. Portfolio review (60 min)
  3. Partner call (60 min)
  4. Job offer