About Helm

Helm believes that a more equitable world will be built by people with organizing superpowers. To achieve this vision, we are building one seamless and intuitive platform that integrates data, tools, and experiences to give anyone those superpowers. Our customers are organizations engaged in political and social advocacy that drive big change over the long-term using a portfolio of strategies on a multi-partisan basis. Most importantly, our customers believe that people organizing in their communities are the ultimate agents of durable change.

We are assembling a team that shares values with, learns alongside, and stands with the people who are doing the work to change the nation. So if you're highly motivated, super passionate about democracy, and want to join a team that is looking to build great things together, Helm may be for you. Helm is a remote-first company.

About You

A product design expert who values curiosity, empathy, problem-solving and impact. You’re a leader – eager to motivate a team to build powerful, delightful products, and keen to help team members grow and develop.

You default toward action and ownership, and you’re comfortable making (and communicating) judgment calls in the context of incomplete information. You bring people together, learn from those around you, and freely share your knowledge, skills, and context. You’re a natural dot-connector. You’re highly motivated and want to work in a fast-paced, iterative environment.

You are excited about creating a more participatory democracy and lowering the barriers and friction associated with civic engagement. And you have the skills to translate your excitement into product velocity and a positive, empowering company culture.

You can share a portfolio or case study samples that showcase the products you’ve delivered to market, and walk us through the design processes that led to their launch. 

About the Role

As Helm’s Product Design Manager, you will play a pivotal role in realizing our ambitious vision for a growing portfolio of products ranging from enterprise software tools to mobile apps. You’ll own your own design work on our core products, help us develop and standardize company-wide design systems, and help market our products.

As both a team player and a coach, you’ll dive into the weeds wherever needed across design team work and lend a hand to other teams when necessary. You’ll help our design team understand the business and product context, constraints, and requirements so they can focus on what drives the most impact. You’ll help make the tough calls between innovating to unlock new value and iterating on prior learnings to not reinvent the wheel. 

This is a full-time position reporting to our VP of Product and leading a close-knit group of Product Designers.

What You’ll Do:

• Effectively and empathically lead a team of designers, balancing capacity across active product initiatives and company-wide needs 
• Make the difficult judgment calls on prioritization, leveraging 80-20 thinking to identify necessary levels of fidelity and points of diminishing returns – helping keep the team laser-focused on the most critical initiatives that demand attention
• Develop Helm’s design strategy to integrate multiple product lines into a unified platform through visual design, user experience design, and product branding
• Oversee the iterative development of design systems that will stand the test of time – help us level-up on design operations and best practices, integrated across product verticals
• Collaborate with engineers and product managers to develop and iterate on a global pattern/component library that balances speed and creativity, driving consistency and reusability throughout our suite of products
• Collaborate with designers on each product vertical to ensure that we’re keeping the big picture in mind – be the external eye that sees the forest, less distracted by the trees
• Develop and iterate on sales and marketing assets when necessary
• Mentor and empower team members to help them reach their career goals, identifying opportunities to tailor responsibilities, assignments, and training to the areas where each individual is most interested in learning and growing

Things you should have:

• Demonstrable experience designing complex, live, technical products on teams using Agile software development methodologies
• An ability to distill priorities in the midst of valid, competing perspectives – and guide a team to focus and think creatively about how to get development teams what they need
• Strong understanding of desktop and mobile design principles, including best practices and inclusive design that consider holistic user experience
• A strong commitment to data-driven decision making: welcoming both qualitative and quantitative data on the impact of our products to enrich the iterative design process
• Technical skills in Figma and Adobe Creative Suite
• A bias for action and an entrepreneurial, proactive mindset: the ability to thrive working in fast-paced climates (e.g. startup or similar)
• The desire to grow as a leader and a manager
• Passion for civic engagement and equitability

Things you might have:

• Previous startup experience, or experience managing a small team
• Design expertise in data visualization and communication, especially in the context of civic/political or survey/polling data
• An understanding of product psychology, behavioral science, and/or HCI
• Experience with visual identity branding
• Experience building CRMs or civic organizing products – or experience working with the political campaigns or advocacy organizations that use them

Helm is an equal opportunity employer that encourages diversity across all spectrums in its hiring, without regard to race, gender, age, color, religion, national origin, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, or any other protected factor. With that being said, we wouldn't be able to accommodate candidates in need of work sponsorship at this time since we are a small company. If you find this role interesting and you hit on the elements above, please apply!