📍 Job Overview
Job Title: Staff Product Designer
Company: #paid
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Job Type: FULL_TIME
Category: Product Design
Date Posted: 2025-06-09T00:00:00
Experience Level: 7+ years (Staff Level)
Remote Status: Remote OK (Toronto area)
🎨 Role Summary
- Lead end-to-end product design for high-impact features on a rapidly scaling creator marketplace platform.
- Drive the evolution and maintenance of a comprehensive, cross-platform design system.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with Product Managers and Engineers to define strategy and deliver user-centered solutions.
- Tackle unique design challenges inherent in the creator/influencer marketing space.
- Influence product strategy and represent the design perspective at executive levels.
- Mentor and provide craft guidance to other designers on complex initiatives.
🖼️ Primary Responsibilities
- Own the complete product design lifecycle, from initial discovery and research through final implementation and iteration.
- Partner closely with Product Management and Engineering teams to define project scope, roadmap, and measurable customer outcomes.
- Design elegant, intuitive, and user-centered experiences that effectively balance user needs with business objectives.
- Develop, maintain, and contribute to a scalable, cross-platform design system to ensure consistency and accelerate design velocity.
- Plan, conduct, and synthesize findings from user research and usability testing to validate design ideas and inform product decisions.
- Be accountable for the overall design quality and cohesion across the product line, advocating for design best practices within project teams.
- Continuously identify opportunities to improve design processes, rituals, and tools to enhance team efficiency and quality.
- Clearly articulate and present design decisions, rationale, and impact to stakeholders, including executive leadership.
- Collaborate closely with engineers during implementation to ensure the final product aligns with design specifications and quality standards.
- Proactively influence product strategy and the overall roadmap by bringing a strong design perspective to early-stage initiatives and discussions.
🎓 Skills & Qualifications
Education: While a specific degree isn't listed, a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), or a related field is typically preferred for a role of this seniority. Equivalent practical experience demonstrating a strong foundation in design principles, user-centered design, and research methodologies is also highly valued.
Experience: Minimum of 7+ years of professional product design experience, with at least 2+ years specifically leading complex, cross-functional design projects. A strong portfolio showcasing deep UX thinking, end-to-end ownership of complex software products, and experience working on scalable platforms is essential for demonstrating the required expertise.
Required Skills:
- Extensive experience with end-to-end Product Design for complex software applications, including mobile-first and responsive design.
- Proven ability to lead large-scale design initiatives and complex projects with significant impact.
- Deep expertise in developing and maintaining scalable Design Systems.
- Strong proficiency in conducting and synthesizing User Research and Usability Testing to inform design strategy.
- Excellent Stakeholder Management and communication skills, including presenting design decisions to executive audiences.
- Demonstrated ability to work autonomously and drive initiatives in ambiguous environments.
- Proficiency with industry-standard design and prototyping tools like Figma.
- Strong understanding of Accessibility and Inclusive Design principles.
- Solid grasp of Front-End Technologies and Design Handoff workflows to ensure smooth collaboration with engineering.
- Expertise in creating design artifacts such as prototypes, journey maps, and UX flows to communicate design rationale.
Preferred Skills:
- Experience designing for a two-sided marketplace or platform business model (like creator/influencer marketing).
- Experience providing craft guidance and mentorship to other designers.
- Familiarity with analytics and data-driven design approaches.
- Experience defining and refining UX processes, tools, and frameworks.
🎨 Portfolio & Creative Requirements
Portfolio Essentials:
- Showcase complex projects where you demonstrated end-to-end ownership, highlighting your role in discovery, research, design, and collaboration through implementation.
- Include detailed case studies that clearly articulate your design process, problem-solving approach, key decisions, and the impact of your work on user and business outcomes.
- Present high-fidelity visual designs and interactive prototypes that demonstrate strong craft, attention to detail, and an understanding of responsive and mobile-first design.
- If applicable, include examples of your contributions to or leadership in developing and maintaining design systems, showcasing components, guidelines, and documentation.
Process Documentation:
- Detail your approach to the research and discovery phase, including methods used (e.g., user interviews, competitive analysis) and how insights informed design decisions.
- Illustrate your ideation and iteration process, showing sketches, wireframes, multiple design options explored, and how feedback was incorporated.
- Explain your approach to validation and testing, including usability testing methodologies, prototype testing, and how feedback led to refinements.
💵 Compensation & Benefits
Salary Range: C$110,000 - C$160,000 per year (Estimated)
Based on industry data for Staff Product Designer roles in Toronto, Canada, considering the required experience level (7+ years, including 2+ years leading complex projects) and the company's size and industry. This range accounts for variations in experience, specific skill sets, and negotiation. The cost of living in Toronto is a significant factor in this estimate compared to other Canadian cities.
Benefits:
- Flexible Vacation Policy: Encourages work-life balance and autonomy over time off.
- Comprehensive Health Coverage: Includes competitive vision, dental, and health benefits for employees.
- Team Offsites and Working Hubs: Opportunities for in-person collaboration and team building.
- Company Socials: Fosters a positive team culture and connection, even in a remote-friendly environment.
- Learning & Development (L&D) Budgets: Investment in employee growth through training, conferences, or resources specific to design skills and leadership.
- RRSP/401K Matching Programs: Supports long-term financial planning for employees.
Working Hours: Standard full-time hours (approximately 40 hours per week). As a Product Designer, some flexibility may be required to collaborate with cross-functional teams or accommodate design sprints, with a focus on outcome delivery rather than strict hours.
🎯Team & Company Context
🏢 Company & Design Culture
Industry: Advertising Services / Creator Economy. #paid operates at the intersection of brands and creators, focusing on influencer marketing and content creation. This industry context means the design team works on platforms facilitating complex collaborations, transactions, and content management within a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Company Size: 51-200 employees (LinkedIn indicates 138 employees). A company of this size is typically beyond the early startup phase but still maintains a relatively flat hierarchy. For design professionals, this often means a significant opportunity for impact, direct access to leadership, and the chance to shape processes and culture as the team grows.
Founded: 2013. Founded over a decade ago, #paid has established itself in the market, suggesting a level of stability and maturity while still operating in a dynamic industry focused on innovation in the creator economy.
Team Structure:
- The design team likely works in a cross-functional model, embedded within product squads or teams alongside Product Managers and Engineers.
- Reporting structure likely involves reporting to a Design Manager or Head of Design, with opportunities to influence design direction and mentor junior team members.
- Strong emphasis on cross-functional collaboration given the nature of the product, requiring close partnership with sales, marketing, and customer success teams.
Methodology:
- Likely employs agile or lean methodologies for product development, with design integrated into sprint cycles.
- Emphasizes User-Centered Design principles, with a focus on understanding the needs of both brands and creators.
- Regularly utilizes design thinking approaches for problem-solving and innovation.
- Practices iterative design, incorporating feedback from user testing and analytics throughout the process.
Company Website: https://hashtagpaid.com
📈 Career & Growth Analysis
Design Career Level: This is a Staff Product Designer role, representing a senior individual contributor position. At this level, designers are expected to lead complex initiatives, influence product strategy, mentor other designers, and contribute significantly to the design practice's growth and maturity.
Reporting Structure: Likely reports to a Design Manager or Head of Design. This structure provides guidance while allowing significant autonomy and responsibility for design leadership within their assigned product areas.
Design Impact: Design has a significant impact on the product and business decisions at #paid. As a Staff Designer, you will be expected to drive measurable outcomes through your design work and influence the strategic direction of the platform for both creators and brands.
Growth Opportunities:
- Continued advancement within the individual contributor path towards Principal or Lead Product Designer roles, focusing on broader strategic impact and technical leadership.
- Opportunities to develop leadership skills through mentoring junior designers and contributing to team processes and culture.
- Exposure to unique challenges in the creator economy provides opportunities to build specialized domain expertise.
🌐 Work Environment
Studio Type: The job description mentions "working hubs" and "socials (yes, even remotely!)", indicating a hybrid or remote-friendly work environment with potential for occasional in-person collaboration or team events in the Toronto area.
Office Location(s): Primary location is Toronto, Ontario, Canada. LinkedIn lists additional offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami, suggesting potential for collaboration across different locations.
Design Workspace Context:
- While remote-friendly, the company likely provides resources and tools (e.g., collaboration software, design tools) to support effective remote design work and creative collaboration.
- Working hubs and potential office access in Toronto could offer dedicated creative spaces for focused work or team brainstorming sessions.
- Opportunities for interaction with the design team and other colleagues will likely involve virtual meetings, collaboration tools, and potentially in-person meetups or offsites.
Work Schedule: Flexible schedule is implied by the remote-friendly nature and flexible vacation policy. However, core hours may be expected for team collaboration and meetings, particularly with cross-functional partners in different time zones.
📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process
Design Interview Process:
- Initial screening call: Likely involves a recruiter to discuss your background, experience, and interest in the role. Be prepared to briefly touch upon your portfolio and relevant projects.
- Hiring Manager Interview: Deeper dive into your experience, leadership skills, and approach to product design. Be ready to discuss specific projects from your portfolio and explain your design process.
- Portfolio Presentation/Case Study Review: A dedicated session to walk through 1-2 key projects from your portfolio, focusing on your problem-solving approach, design decisions, collaboration, and impact. Prepare to articulate your design thinking clearly.
- Design Challenge or Whiteboarding Session: May involve a take-home assignment or a live session to assess your design skills, problem-solving abilities, and communication. Focus on demonstrating your process and rationale.
- Team/Cross-Functional Interviews: Meet with potential team members (designers, PMs, engineers) and potentially stakeholders to assess collaboration style and cultural fit.
- Final Interview(s): May involve meeting with design leadership or executive stakeholders to discuss strategic impact and alignment with company goals.
Portfolio Review Tips:
- Curate your portfolio to highlight projects that demonstrate your ability to lead complex initiatives, work on scalable platforms, and contribute to design systems.
- Structure your case studies to clearly articulate the problem, your role, your process (research, ideation, testing), key design decisions and rationale, and the measurable impact of your work.
- Ensure your visual presentation is polished and professional, showcasing strong craft and attention to detail.
- Be prepared to discuss the technical constraints and collaboration challenges you faced during implementation and how you overcame them.
Challenge Preparation:
- If given a take-home challenge, allocate sufficient time to demonstrate your full design process, not just the final solution.
- For whiteboarding sessions, focus on articulating your thought process, asking clarifying questions, and collaborating with interviewers.
- Practice explaining your design decisions and rationale clearly and concisely, considering different stakeholder perspectives.
ATS Keywords: Product Design, UX Design, UI Design, Staff Product Designer, Design Systems, User Research, Usability Testing, Prototyping, Wireframing, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Responsive Design, Mobile Design, Collaboration, Stakeholder Management, Design Strategy, Design Leadership, Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, Design Handoff, Agile Methodology, Lean UX, Design Thinking, Case Study, Portfolio, Creator Economy, Marketplace, SaaS, Cross-Functional Teams, Problem Solving, Communication, Mentorship, Accessibility, Inclusive Design, Front-End Technologies, Journey Mapping, User Flows, Information Architecture, Analytics, A/B Testing.
🛠 Tools & Technology Stack
Primary Design Tools:
- Figma: Expected proficiency for UI design, prototyping, and collaboration. This is the industry standard and likely the primary tool for creating and maintaining the design system.
- Other potential tools (not explicitly mentioned but common): Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator) for specific asset creation or visual design tasks.
Collaboration & Handoff:
- Tools integrated with Figma or similar platforms for seamless handoff to engineers (e.g., Zeplin, Abstract, or integrated Figma features).
- Collaboration platforms like Slack, Zoom, or Google Meet for team communication and virtual meetings.
- Project management tools (e.g., Jira, Asana, Trello) for tracking tasks and collaborating with cross-functional teams.
Research & Testing:
- Tools for conducting user interviews (e.g., Zoom, Google Meet).
- Platforms for usability testing (e.g., Lookback, UserTesting.com).
- Tools for creating and analyzing surveys (e.g., SurveyMonkey, Google Forms).
- Analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude) for understanding user behavior and measuring design impact.
👥 Team Culture & Values
Design Values:
- Empowering Creators: The company's mission is centered around empowering creators, suggesting a design value that prioritizes understanding and meeting the needs of the creator user base.
- Authentic Collaborations: Focus on fostering genuine partnerships between brands and creators implies a design value that emphasizes trust, transparency, and seamless interaction within the platform.
- Innovation in the Creator Economy: Operating in a rapidly evolving space suggests a design value that encourages exploring new solutions, taking creative risks, and staying ahead of industry trends.
- Trust and Transparency: Highlighted as core to their approach, this translates to design values that prioritize clear communication, intuitive interfaces, and reliable platform functionality.
Collaboration Style:
- Cross-functional collaboration is essential, working closely with Product Managers, Engineers, and potentially Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success.
- A culture of feedback and critique is likely, where designers share work in progress and provide constructive feedback to each other.
- Knowledge sharing and contribution to a shared design system and documentation are expected to maintain consistency and elevate team performance.
⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities
Design Challenges:
- Designing for a two-sided marketplace with distinct user needs (brands and creators) requires balancing competing priorities and designing flexible solutions.
- Scaling the platform to accommodate a wide range of use cases and different types of creators and brands presents complex design challenges related to flexibility, customization, and information architecture.
- Staying ahead of the rapidly evolving creator economy and social media landscape requires continuous learning and adaptation of design approaches.
- Maintaining design quality and consistency across a growing platform and potentially multiple teams while evolving the design system.
Learning & Development Opportunities:
- Opportunity to deepen expertise in designing for marketplace dynamics and the creator economy.
- Utilize L&D budgets for attending industry conferences, workshops, or online courses to enhance design skills or learn new technologies.
- Potential for mentorship opportunities, both as a mentee seeking guidance and as a mentor providing support to more junior designers.
💡 Interview Preparation
Design Process Questions:
- Be prepared to walk through your end-to-end design process for a complex project, explaining each stage (discovery, research, ideation, testing, implementation) and your rationale for key decisions. Use examples from your portfolio.
- Discuss how you prioritize design tasks, manage ambiguity, and collaborate effectively with Product Managers and Engineers throughout the design lifecycle.
- Explain your approach to conducting user research and usability testing, including how you recruit participants, methodologies used, and how you synthesize findings to inform design.
Company Culture Questions:
- Research #paid's mission, values, and recent product announcements. Be ready to discuss how your design philosophy aligns with their focus on empowering creators and fostering authentic collaborations.
- Ask questions about the design team structure, collaboration practices, and how design influences product strategy within the company.
- Discuss your experience working in a fast-paced, startup-like environment and how you adapt to change and drive initiatives autonomously.
Portfolio Presentation Strategy:
- Select 1-2 case studies that best demonstrate your experience with complex platforms, design systems, and leading initiatives. Tailor your presentation to highlight how your skills and experience match the requirements of a Staff Product Designer role at #paid.
- Focus on storytelling within your case studies, clearly articulating the problem you were solving, your role and responsibilities, the design process you followed, the challenges you encountered, and the impact of your work.
- Be prepared to discuss your design decisions in detail, explaining the rationale behind your choices and how they addressed user needs and business goals.
📌 Application Steps
To apply for this design position:
- Submit your application through this link.
- Customize your portfolio to highlight projects and case studies that demonstrate your experience with complex platforms, design systems, and leading initiatives, specifically relevant to a marketplace or creator economy context if possible.
- Optimize your resume to include relevant design skills, tools (especially Figma), methodologies, and keywords mentioned in the job description and the ATS keywords list.
- Prepare thoroughly for the interview process by practicing explaining your design process and case studies, anticipating questions about your leadership experience and strategic thinking, and researching #paid's business and design culture.
- Research #paid's platform, target users (brands and creators), and recent product updates to demonstrate genuine interest and understanding during the interview.