Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Product Designer

Company: Starz

Location: Greenwood Village, CO, United States / Denver, CO, United States

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Product Design / UX Design / Internal Tools Design

Date Posted: June 23, 2026

Experience Level: Mid-Level (4+ years)

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• This role focuses on the end-to-end design of internal tooling for STARZ's content operations teams, emphasizing user experience and operational efficiency.

• The Product Designer will be the primary design authority, working closely with Product Managers and Front-End Engineers to define, build, and iterate on custom software solutions.

• Key responsibilities include owning and evolving the Content Supply Chain (CSC) design system, ensuring consistency and adherence to design principles across the internal tool ecosystem.

• The position requires a strong blend of design instincts, technical understanding, and the ability to advocate for UX best practices in a domain-specific, enterprise software environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is specifically for internal tools, which presents unique challenges and opportunities compared to B2C product design. Candidates should highlight experience with enterprise software, complex workflows, and the ability to influence non-design stakeholders. The "low-ego, high-curiosity" culture suggests a collaborative environment where constructive feedback is valued.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design System Ownership: Lead the maintenance and evolution of the CSC design system, including its component library, design tokens, operational guidelines, and principles to ensure consistency across all internal tools.

• Design Decision Making: Make and advocate for design decisions on custom applications, grounded in established design principles such as predictability, clarity, context, and user agency.

• User Experience Creation: Produce wireframes, high-fidelity designs, and interactive prototypes to clearly communicate proposed solutions to both technical and non-technical team members.

• Usability Validation: Plan, facilitate, and analyze usability testing sessions to validate design decisions and gather user feedback before and after development.

• Product Discovery & Definition: Partner closely with Product Managers throughout the discovery and definition phases, translating research findings and business requirements into effective and usable design solutions.

• Engineering Collaboration: Work collaboratively with Front-End Engineers to ensure the accurate and intended implementation of designs, bridging the gap between design and development.

• Documentation & Guidelines: Maintain and update design documentation and guidelines to ensure the design system remains accurate, accessible, and scalable as the tool ecosystem expands.

• UX Advocacy: Continuously champion rigorous UX design standards within complex, domain-specific internal tools where users have limited software choice.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "owning" the design system and being the "primary design voice" indicates a senior-level responsibility within the team, requiring strong leadership and self-sufficiency in design execution and strategy.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is listed, a background in Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), or a related field is implied by the role's nature.

Experience: 4+ years of experience in product design or UX design, with a significant portion dedicated to enterprise software, internal tools, or complex workflow applications.

Required Skills:

• Advanced Figma Proficiency: Daily, expert-level use of Figma for maintaining design libraries, documentation, and producing screens.

• Design System Management: Proven experience in building and maintaining component libraries, token files, and design guidelines for development teams.

• Rapid Prototyping: Ability to quickly create prototypes at the appropriate fidelity to communicate concepts and interactions effectively.

• Design Judgment: Demonstrated ability to evaluate competing design solutions and make principled, informed decisions.

• Information Architecture & Interaction Design: Deep fluency in designing for data-dense, task-oriented interfaces.

• Independent Design Execution: Comfort and capability to operate as the sole designer, validating thinking and maintaining rigor without constant design peer support.

• Strong Rationale & Opinions: Ability to articulate well-supported design decisions and rationale, anticipating questions and challenges.

• Communication Skills: Excellent ability to clearly articulate design rationale and decisions to diverse audiences, including engineers and stakeholders without design backgrounds.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with Kendo UI for Angular or similar component-based UI frameworks.

• Proficiency in managing variables in Figma and understanding core, semantic, and component-based design tokens.

• Background in content operations, media, broadcast, or similar specialized internal tool environments.

• Experience applying a structured, test-and-measure approach to design decisions, including AI-augmented design workflows.

• Portfolio showcasing design system work, demonstrating its development, maintenance, and evolution.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "required" skills list is quite detailed, emphasizing practical, hands-on proficiency with design tools and methodologies relevant to enterprise software. The "preferred" skills highlight specific technical knowledge and domain experience that would be advantageous.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Process-Driven Case Studies: The portfolio must include detailed case studies demonstrating a complete design process, from problem definition through implementation, specifically for complex, workflow-heavy products.

• Design System Contribution: Evidence of work on design systems, showcasing not just finished screens but the methodology for building, maintaining, and evolving them.

• Enterprise/Internal Tool Focus: Prioritize examples of enterprise software, internal tools, or complex workflow applications over purely consumer or student projects.

• Figma Expertise Showcase: Demonstrate advanced Figma skills, including library management, prototyping, and documentation.

Process Documentation:

• Showcase an ability to document design decisions, system guidelines, and operational principles clearly and comprehensively.

• Highlight experience in translating user research and requirements into actionable design specifications for engineering teams.

• Include examples of how design iterations and testing feedback were documented and incorporated into the design process.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "process-driven case studies" and specific examples of "design system work" indicates that the hiring team will scrutinize the candidate's methodology and problem-solving approach, not just the final visual output. Consumer-facing app designs are explicitly de-emphasized.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $95,000 - $115,000 per year.

Explanation of Range: This range is typical for a mid-level Product Designer with 4+ years of experience in a major metropolitan area like Denver/Greenwood Village, especially for a role focused on specialized internal tools within a media/entertainment company. Factors such as specific experience, advanced skills in Figma and design systems, and the unique nature of enterprise tool design can influence placement within this range.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, Vision, and Dental insurance plans.

• Performance-Based Compensation: Annual discretionary bonus and merit increase opportunities.

• Generous Time Off: A robust package including sick days, vacation days, holidays, and dedicated wellness days to promote work-life balance.

• Retirement Savings: 401(k) plan with company matching contributions.

• Professional Development: Tuition Reimbursement program, covering up to a graduate degree, to support continuous learning and career advancement.

Working Hours: 40 hours per week. While the role is on-site, the emphasis on work-life balance suggests a standard professional work schedule, with potential for flexibility depending on team needs and project cycles.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range aligns with industry benchmarks for this experience level and location. The benefits package is comprehensive, with a notable emphasis on professional development and work-life balance, which are attractive for specialized roles.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Media & Entertainment (Streaming Services). STARZ is a premium entertainment destination focusing on original content and popular franchises, targeting adult audiences.

Company Size: While not explicitly stated in the provided text, STARZ is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: STRZ) and likely falls into the large enterprise category, implying established processes and a significant number of employees.

Founded: STARZ was founded to provide premium content, and its history likely reflects a strategic evolution in the media landscape, adapting to technological advancements and consumer viewing habits. This history informs its current focus on advanced technology and data analytics.

Team Structure:

• Product Design Team: The UX team is seeking a designer to embed within a cross-functional team. This suggests a matrixed structure where designers are integrated into specific product squads.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: The designer will work directly with Product Managers and Front-End Engineers as the primary design voice within this squad.

• Reporting: The role reports to the Director of Product Management, indicating a clear reporting line within the product organization.

Methodology:

• Continuous Collaboration & Feedback: The team operates with a culture that emphasizes ongoing collaboration and constructive feedback to refine design and product instincts.

• Data-Driven Design: While not explicitly detailed for this role, the company's mention of "industry-leading advanced technology, data analytics and digital infrastructure" suggests that data plays a role in decision-making.

• Agile/Iterative Development: The focus on "continuously improve" and "build and continuously improve" implies an agile or iterative development approach.

Company Website: https://www.starz.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: STARZ's focus on "premium entertainment" and "underrepresented audiences" suggests a company that values diversity and innovation. The emphasis on "advanced technology, data analytics and digital infrastructure" indicates a forward-thinking approach, which would likely extend to its internal tooling.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned as a Mid-Level Product Designer, requiring 4+ years of experience. The responsibilities indicate a significant level of ownership and autonomy, particularly in managing the design system and acting as the sole designer for a specific product area.

Reporting Structure: The designer will report directly to the Director of Product Management. This provides a clear line of communication and mentorship from a product leadership perspective, fostering alignment with business objectives.

Operations Impact: The designer's work directly impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of content operations teams. By improving internal tools, they contribute to smoother content workflows, faster content delivery, and potentially cost savings, all of which are critical to the business's operational success and content pipeline.

Growth Opportunities:

• Design System Expertise: Deepen expertise in design systems, token management, and scaling design principles across an enterprise.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Develop strong collaboration and influence skills by working closely with product management and engineering leadership.

• Domain Specialization: Gain in-depth knowledge of the media and entertainment content supply chain, becoming a subject matter expert in the operational challenges and solutions within this domain.

• Career Progression: Potential to advance to Senior Product Designer roles, Lead Designer positions, or specialize in Design Operations or User Research within STARZ, leveraging the company's commitment to education and development.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "dedicated education budget" and "regular 1:1s" highlights STARZ's commitment to employee growth. The role offers a clear path to becoming a senior design leader within a specialized area, with opportunities to influence broader design practices at the company.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The role is listed as On-site, indicating a traditional office-based work environment. The specific office type (e.g., open-plan, traditional cubicles) is not detailed, but the emphasis on "continuous collaboration" suggests an environment that facilitates interaction.

Office Location(s): Greenwood Village, CO, and Denver, CO. These locations are in the Denver metropolitan area, offering a vibrant work environment with access to amenities.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The team culture promotes continuous collaboration and constructive feedback, suggesting an office designed to support team interactions.

• Tools & Technology: Access to industry-standard design tools like Figma, and potentially specialized internal systems for content operations.

• Team Interaction: Opportunities to work closely with product managers, engineers, and potentially other stakeholders within the content operations domain.

Work Schedule: Full-time, with 40 hours per week. The on-site nature implies adherence to standard office hours, though the company's focus on "Work/Life Balance" might suggest some flexibility in daily scheduling where feasible.

📝 Enhancement Note: The on-site requirement is a key factor for candidates. The Denver area offers a strong talent pool and a desirable living environment. The collaborative culture implies that designers are expected to be present and engaged with their teams.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Likely includes a review of the resume and portfolio to assess required experience and skills.

• Design Exercise/Challenge: Candidates may be asked to complete a design exercise or case study presentation focused on a relevant problem, demonstrating their process, design judgment, and ability to handle complex workflows. This might involve a take-home assignment or a live working session.

• Hiring Manager/Team Interviews: Discussions with the Director of Product Management and potentially other designers, product managers, and engineers to evaluate design thinking, communication skills, cultural fit, and specific technical expertise.

• Portfolio Review Session: A dedicated discussion where candidates walk through their portfolio, explaining their process, decisions, and impact.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Showcase Process, Not Just Pixels: Emphasize the "why" behind your design decisions. Detail the problem, research, ideation, iteration, and testing phases.

• Highlight Design System Work: If you have design system experience, dedicate a section to it. Show how you built, maintained, and evolved components, tokens, and guidelines.

• Focus on Enterprise/Internal Tools: Prioritize case studies that demonstrate experience with complex workflows, data-dense interfaces, and enterprise software challenges.

• Quantify Impact: Where possible, include metrics or qualitative feedback that demonstrate the positive impact of your designs on user efficiency, productivity, or business outcomes.

• Demonstrate Figma Mastery: Be prepared to discuss your advanced Figma techniques, including library management and documentation practices.

• Articulate Rationale Clearly: Be ready to defend your design choices with strong reasoning based on user needs, business goals, and design principles.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Research STARZ's content operations and the typical challenges faced by internal teams managing content supply chains.

• Practice Design System Thinking: Prepare to discuss how you would approach designing within or contributing to an existing design system.

• Structure Your Presentation: For any presentation or walk-through, have a clear narrative that follows your problem-solving process.

• Anticipate Questions: Think about potential technical constraints, trade-offs, and stakeholder management scenarios relevant to internal tool design.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit requirement for "process-driven case studies" and de-emphasis on consumer work heavily informs the preparation strategy. Candidates must demonstrate a deep understanding of enterprise design challenges and a structured, data-informed approach.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: Explicitly mentioned as a required advanced skill for daily use, including library and documentation management. This is the core design tool.

• Prototyping Tools: Likely integrated within Figma, but candidates should be proficient in creating interactive prototypes to communicate design concepts.

Analytics & Reporting:

• While not explicitly listed for the designer, understanding how to leverage data from analytics tools for user insights and to measure design impact is crucial. Experience with tools that provide user behavior data or performance metrics for internal applications would be beneficial. CRM & Automation:

• Not directly relevant to the design role itself, but understanding how internal tools integrate with broader business systems (like CRMs or workflow automation platforms) could be an advantage. Specific Frameworks/Libraries:

• Kendo UI for Angular (Preferred): Familiarity with this component-based UI framework is a plus, indicating an understanding of how designs are implemented in a specific technical stack.

• Design Tokens: Experience managing core, semantic, and component-based design tokens within Figma is a preferred skill, highlighting advanced design system implementation knowledge.

📝 Enhancement Note: The strong emphasis on Figma and design system tooling (like design tokens) points to a need for a designer who can work efficiently within a structured design environment and produce highly maintainable design assets for engineering.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• User Agency & Context: Prioritizing user needs and ensuring tools provide relevant information and control.

• Predictability & Clarity: Designing intuitive interfaces that users can understand and rely on without extensive training.

• Collaboration: A strong emphasis on working together, sharing knowledge, and providing constructive feedback within the cross-functional team.

• Continuous Learning & Growth: Dedication to personal and professional development, with resources allocated for learning new skills and advancing careers.

• Low Ego, High Curiosity: A culture that values open-mindedness, a willingness to learn, and a focus on achieving the best outcomes rather than individual accolades.

Collaboration Style:

• Embedded Design: The designer is integrated directly into a product squad, fostering close working relationships with Product Managers and Engineers.

• Constructive Feedback Loop: The team actively uses feedback to improve collective design and product instincts, suggesting an environment where critique is welcomed and acted upon.

• Cross-Functional Communication: Strong communication skills are essential for articulating design rationale and influencing decisions across different disciplines.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "low-ego, high-curiosity" and "continuous collaboration" culture suggests a team that is highly functional, communicative, and focused on shared goals. Candidates who thrive in such environments, are open to feedback, and can effectively communicate their design thinking will be a good fit.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Designing for Domain Experts: Creating intuitive tools for users who are deep experts in their field (content operations) but may not be tech-savvy. This requires understanding complex workflows and user needs without overwhelming them.

• Balancing User Needs with Technical Constraints: Navigating trade-offs between ideal user experience and technical feasibility or development limitations, especially within enterprise software.

• Sole Designer Responsibility: Operating effectively as the primary design resource for a product area, requiring strong self-management, prioritization, and the ability to make confident decisions.

• Advocating for UX in Non-Design-Centric Environments: Championing design standards in a context where users don't choose their software and technical efficiency might historically be prioritized over user experience.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Advanced Design System Expertise: Deepen knowledge in advanced design token management, component architecture, and scaling design systems across complex product ecosystems.

• Domain Specialization: Become an expert in the media and entertainment content supply chain, understanding its unique challenges and opportunities for digital transformation.

• Cross-Functional Influence: Hone skills in influencing product and engineering roadmaps through strong design rationale and collaborative partnerships.

• AI in Design: Explore and apply AI-augmented design workflows, as mentioned as a preferred skill, to enhance productivity and innovation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges highlight the need for a resilient, strategic, and highly competent designer. The growth opportunities are substantial, offering a chance to become a leader in a specialized design domain within a significant media company.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• Design System Evolution: "How would you prioritize updates to a design system like CSC, given competing requests from different product teams?" (Focus on prioritization frameworks, stakeholder management, and impact assessment).

• Trade-off Decisions: "Describe a situation where you had to make a difficult design trade-off between user needs and technical constraints. How did you approach it, and what was the outcome?" (Demonstrate problem-solving, negotiation, and decision-making skills).

• Sole Designer Approach: "As the sole designer for these internal tools, how would you ensure rigorous design validation and gather necessary feedback throughout the design process?" (Highlight methods for user testing, stakeholder reviews, and self-advocacy).

Company & Culture Questions:

• STARZ's Content Strategy: "How might understanding STARZ's position in the premium entertainment market inform your design approach for internal content operations tools?" (Show research into the company's business and target audience).

• Collaboration within Cross-Functional Teams: "Describe your ideal working relationship with a Product Manager and Front-End Engineer on a new feature development. How do you ensure alignment and effective collaboration?" (Focus on communication, shared ownership, and iterative processes).

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Case Studies: Begin with the business problem and user needs, detail your process (research, ideation, wireframing, prototyping, testing), explain your critical design decisions and rationale, showcase the final designs, and quantify the impact or learnings.

• Highlight Design System Contributions: Dedicate specific slides or sections to your design system work, explaining its architecture, components, and how it was adopted and maintained.

• Demonstrate Figma Proficiency: Be ready to briefly showcase specific Figma techniques you used, such as component variations, auto layout, or design token implementation.

• Address Enterprise/Workflow Focus: Clearly articulate how your past projects address the complexities of internal tools and workflow applications.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should heavily lean into demonstrating expertise in design systems, enterprise software design, and the ability to operate autonomously while collaborating effectively. Be prepared to discuss specific design decisions and their rationale in detail.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the STARZ Careers portal link provided.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your most relevant case studies that showcase your experience with enterprise software, internal tools, complex workflows, and design systems. Prioritize process-driven examples over polished screens alone.

• Tailor Your Resume: Highlight keywords from the job description, such as "Figma," "Design Systems," "Enterprise Software," "Internal Tools," "Information Architecture," and "Interaction Design." Quantify your achievements whenever possible.

• Prepare Your Portfolio Walkthrough: Practice presenting your case studies, focusing on your design process, decision-making rationale, and the impact of your work. Be ready to discuss your design system contributions in detail.

• Research STARZ: Understand STARZ's business, its position in the media industry, and the potential challenges and goals of its content operations teams to better tailor your responses and demonstrate your fit.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.