Head of Product Design

Role Description

Givebutter is a joyful brand with a serious mission, helping changemakers raise over US$ 10 billion so far. Over 84,000 nonprofits trust us for their core operations — fundraising, donor management, finances — and we're investing in world-class design to empower the next generation of changemakers.

Design at Givebutter looks different than it did a few years ago. While the role and goals of design have not changed, the craft of designing great experiences is being rewritten in real time. Part of this role is defining what great product design looks like in an AI-native company: which problems AI owns, where human judgment still wins, and how a team works when the tools and workflows shift often.

You'll manage a growing team of product designers across product pods, partnering closely with the VP of Design to set direction, remove roadblocks, and raise the quality and velocity of design across the platform. If you're energized by building teams, shaping design culture, and figuring out what design becomes in this next era, we want to hear from you.

We want to hear from people who…

• Are experienced people managers who know how to nurture great design talent, give meaningful feedback, and build a high-performing team.
• Think strategically about design — not just what to build, but how design creates business value and drives positive outcomes for our users.
• Are natural collaborators who build alignment across Product, Engineering, Brand, and executive leadership.
• Hold a strong point of view on craft and quality, and know how to keep the bar high without becoming a bottleneck.
• Thrive in high-growth environments where the org is still evolving, and autonomy is the norm.
• Are not afraid to get hands-on when needed, and actively explore AI tools and coding agents to improve their craft.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of product designers across multiple product pods, including direct ownership of hiring, performance, and career growth.
• Partner with the VP of Design on design strategy, org design, and how the design function scales over time.
• Create the conditions for designers to do their best work: align stakeholders, manage cross-functional dependencies, and drive clarity into ambiguous projects.
• Set and hold the craft bar across the platform — interaction patterns, visual execution, design system standards, and long-term product quality — keeping it consistent as the team and surface areas grow.
• Help define how product design operates at Givebutter, establishing how the team designs with AI tools and for AI-driven product experiences.
• Act as a strategic design partner to senior Product and Engineering leaders, shaping cross-functional decisions and aligning teams around shared outcomes.
• Influence product strategy through deep insight into our users (fundraisers and donors), turning ambiguous cross-product problems into clear direction for the team.
• Make high-stakes design decisions that balance craft, speed, and business impact, with a company-level ownership mindset.
• Help evolve Givebutter's design culture as the team grows, establishing practices, norms, and rituals that scale.

Requirements

• 8+ years of product design experience, with 3–5 years managing other designers
• Strong portfolio demonstrating design leadership across complex, multi-surface product environments with clear impact on users and business outcomes.
• Proven ability to develop designers at different career stages and build team culture intentionally.
• Deep craft sensibility. You can define what "great" looks like across interaction design, visual design, and design systems, and hold that bar across a team.
• Experience working closely with Product and Engineering leadership as a strategic partner, influencing roadmap and product direction through design.
• Strong judgment on prioritization. You know when to go deep, when to delegate, and how to focus a team on the highest-impact work.
• Excellent communication. You can tell a clear story to an exec audience and give a junior designer actionable feedback the same day.
• Comfortable operating in a high-growth, ambiguous environment where priorities evolve and speed matters.
• Genuine fluency with how AI is reshaping design, both the craft of designing AI-driven experiences and the way designers work day to day.
• SaaS or B2B product experience required; nonprofit or social impact experience is a plus. Experience designing AI-native, automation, or agentic product experiences is a strong plus.