Senior Director, Product Design

About us:

Kiva is a global nonprofit, founded in 2005, with a mission to expand financial access and help underserved communities thrive. Kiva unlocks capital for borrowers through crowdfunded loans supported by individuals around the world. Lenders on Kiva can start with as little as $25 to support causes that matter most to them, whether that’s gender equity and support for women, refugees, climate change, small businesses, agriculture, and more. Since our founding, over two million people have invested $1.9 billion in real dreams and real opportunity, spanning more than 90 countries and 4.7 million borrowers.

As we work toward our mission, Kiva invests in building and retaining a global team of talent to add to our values-driven and digital-first culture. Our organization is supported by over 700 volunteers and 130+ full time employees dispersed around the world, as well as within team hubs located in San Francisco, Nairobi, Bogota, and Bangkok. Kiva’s team is growing as we pursue exciting new opportunities to scale our impact and create a financially inclusive world.

Kiva's values:

Impact first - This is why we exist. This is the drumbeat we march to. Every day.

Extreme ownership - Own it; you, your relationships, your impact. Insist that others support you and hold you accountable.

Be curious and bold - Never stop learning. Question assumptions. Take Risks and dream big.

Inclusion. Equity. Diversity. - Without reservation and without caveat. In our hiring, in our workplace and in our impact in the world.

Honor and integrity - Do the most right thing in the most right way. Cherish diversity and respect each other.

Love and kindness always - Say what you mean. Mean what you say. And don't say it mean. Clarity. Courage. Kindness.

Role overview:

Join a team of product managers, designers, and technologists who are on a mission to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive. Building on the success of our crowdlending product, we envision a future in which people come together to invest in others who are improving their communities around the world: women, refugees, small-holder farmers, climate-impacted people, and underserved communities in the US.

We are looking for a Senior Director, Product Design who is great at understanding user problems, delivering exceptional product experiences, and has a passion for building new ways to expand financial access.

At this time, we can only consider applicants with authorization to work in the United States on a permanent, full-time basis; unfortunately we cannot provide visa sponsorship.

Key responsibilities include:

• As a player-coach, manage and execute multiple projects, effectively manage design resources, and set clear and measurable goals.
• Define your user experience strategy and evolve our UX processes, testing methods, and design system to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
• Embrace and continually improve lean UX approaches to deliver the most value to customers as soon as possible.
• Develop and grow your team’s expertise in product design, user research, interaction design, and visual design.
• Influence the product roadmap, both short term and long term
• Build trust up, down, and across to accelerate your success.
• Socialize your strategy and value delivered with key stakeholders.

Core competencies:

• Leadership: Ability to inspire and motivate the people around you to deliver positive impacts to the company’s mission and the work environment. Clearly responsible and accountable for your product’s success. Creates the enabling environment to regularly ship products. Leaders emphasize authenticity, cooperation, and open communication.
• Craft: Demonstrated expertise in two or more user experience disciplines and proven ability to coach and mentor the team on design excellence (visual design, interaction design, system design, research). You have a bias for action and improve how teams deliver by defining processes, standards, best practices, and new ways of collaborating.
• Customer Insights: Ability to frame the right questions, evaluate multiple facets of a problem, and simulate possible outcomes. Mastery of synthesizing customer insights to inform product decisions. You’re also a coach for the team on applying qualitative and quantitative methods to decision-making. You are skilled at mentoring teams in the process of exploring and converging on valuable, feasible solutions.
• Execution: Ability to align people toward a particular objective and orchestrate complex projects. Exercise creativity, empathy, and persuasiveness – in addition to having superb organization abilities.
• Experience: 7 to 9 years as a product designer, with at least 3 years in a leadership capacity.

What we offer:

• An opportunity to improve real lives, solve hard problems, and change the world
• Friendly, supportive, and adventurous environment with a team of engaged colleagues
• A comprehensive, industry-leading benefits package including health, dental and vision insurance, parental leave, professional development, 401k matching, generous PTO, and more.
• Opportunities to connect with and learn from colleagues and partners around the world
• Salary range: $172K - $224K; a final offer will be dependent upon a candidate’s location, skills and experience.