VP, Product Design

The VP of Product Design at Klaviyo will help uplevel, evolve, and optimize the future of simple, elegant, and industry-changing e-commerce software. This role includes oversight of Product Design as well as any new lines of work or business we cultivate in the future. In addition to growing our already-successful e-commerce platform and products, this instrumental leader will help transform Klaviyo into a top design-led company through cultural, innovative, and operational excellence. Please note that this role is located in Boston and requires an onsite component of 3x/week. Fully remote candidates will not be considered at this time. 

How you’ll make a difference:

• Lead and Inspire Design Teams: Lead a team of experienced product designers, writers, and content designers to execute on company goals. Ensure your teams have the capability, capacity, and clarity to achieve their objectives. Be willing to roll up your sleeves and creatively direct as necessary to maintain high-quality standards.
• Mentorship and Performance Management: Mentor and manage a world-class team, establishing clear standards for performance and quality. Create a learning environment where designers can grow, expand their skill sets, and develop new techniques and tools. Flexibly allocate resources and manage bandwidth within a lean team.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with leaders across product, engineering, brand design, content, customer experience, and sales to ship impactful, high-quality products. Foster strong collaboration with Product Management and Engineering to meet deadlines and deliver quality outcomes.
• Vision and Strategy: As a member of the leadership team, articulate Klaviyo’s product vision and strategy through design. Translate long-term vision and roadmaps into actionable timelines, considering the business' long-term strategy when solving problems.
• Strategic Resource Planning: Leverage successful strategies for organizational planning and approaches to strengthen team capacity. Manage team/headcount optimization and resource allocation effectively.
• Quality Assurance and Design Excellence: Uphold a high product quality bar and a strong eye for visual design. Develop the vision and strategy for design excellence at Klaviyo operationally, culturally, and executionally. Ensure consistency with and contribute to our brand architecture, product architecture, and design language systems.
• Human-Centered Design Practices: Utilize in-depth knowledge of human-centered design practices, research methodologies, and design tools to drive impactful product designs.
• Organizational Guidance and Change Management: Guide others and navigate the organization to deliver high-quality results. Lead org design and change management efforts that support efficient execution and quality people leadership.
• Design Storytelling and Communication: Use exceptional presentation and communication skills to leverage design storytelling and drive alignment with the executive team. Solicit and implement feedback to improve communication and inclusivity across your team.
• Enhance Brand and Product Perception: Create experiences to support acquisition, onboarding, and management while ensuring quality and consistency with overall product and brand architecture. Enhance the overall brand and perception of Klaviyo’s offerings.

Who you are:

• 15+ years of experience in product design with 8+ years in a leadership role building and scaling a large, multi-disciplinary design organization
• Experience across diverse types of design environments (i.e: agencies, startups, in-house companies at scale, etc.)
• Experience with org design, change management, strategic resource planning, team/headcount optimization, and allocation of resources. 
• Portfolio of work showcasing attention to detail and high quality execution
• Broad experience across different types of design: Product design, service design, experiential design, brand design & creative strategy
• Ability to thrive within an organization that moves quickly and with a degree of ambiguity.
• Preferred: Experience speaking on and evangelizing design work at highly visible design events, conferences and/or schools