Product Designer

About Us

Powered by one of the largest global newsrooms in sports media, The Athletic brings sports fans the most comprehensive stories about the teams, sports and athletes they love. The Athletic’s newsroom of 500+ full-time staff delivers in-depth coverage of hundreds of professional and college teams across more than 47 North American markets and all 20 football clubs in the English Premier League, as well as many Championship clubs.

About the Role

Our product mission is to be the best place for sports fans. We already provide an unrivaled breadth and depth of sports coverage. We are looking for a product designer to support the experience of our core product, which encompasses how users discover and consume content across all our platforms. The ideal candidate is also able to help drive the future vision of our products, through world-class designs that add value to both our business and to our users.

As a Product Designer on the Core team, you will be counted on to help lead new projects and initiatives related to our core offering. You’ll work closely with the product team to bring new experiences to life, while collaborating with engineers, editors and other designers on the team. There’s ample opportunity here for a designer who works well independently and is well versed in both user experience and visual design.

Responsibilities

• Create user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and production-ready design deliverables.
• Support high-level product strategy, ensuring we're asking the right questions and solving for the most important internal and external user needs.
• Lead and conduct design and user research, as necessary.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, partnering with Product Managers, Engineers, Content Operations, SEO Strategists, Product Analysts, and fellow designers to take concepts from ideation to execution.
• Work closely with engineers and PMs to evaluate constraints and trade offs.
• Lead design projects with input from other members of the design team to ensure design quality and consistency across the user experience.
• Understand the competitive environment and stay on top of great user experiences, especially within sports apps, sports media, and news related products.
• Actively contribute to The Athletic’s Design System.

Requirements

• Demonstrable expertise in designing shipped product experiences across both web and native mobile applications.
• Strong Visual and Interaction Design skills, as exemplified in an online portfolio or presentation.
• Subject matter expertise related to sports and/or media. You have a strong understanding of what makes a great sports and/or media app, and ideas on how you could make our experience even better.
• Experience working with other designers directly on projects, and also indirectly to provide and receive feedback on work.
• Experience collaborating with engineers, product managers, other XFN partners, and stakeholders with a high standard of quality and professionalism.
• Ability to manage your time effectively, sometimes across several projects.
• Expert Figma skills and knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite.
• Hands-on experience using AI to develop concepts and live experiences.
• Experience with prototyping and animation as a means to explore and convey design solutions.
• An eagerness to try new things, innovate and learn — and a willingness to learn from mistakes.
• Enthusiasm for being part of a multidisciplinary design studio and a collaborative design process.