Lead Product Designer

Key Responsibilities

Design Work

• Own significant design projects end-to-end — from early ideation and exploration through execution, launch, and post-release iteration
• Bring strong product judgment to decisions about scope, sequencing, and quality, including knowing when not to ship something
• Design clear, intuitive interaction flows and interfaces that feel cohesive and intentional across iOS, Android, and web
• Drive and evolve Bluesky’s visual language, design system, and holistic identity as the product and team grow
• Stay close to users: reviewing real usage, synthesizing feedback, and using those insights to improve the product
• Sweat the details that matter: copy, states, hierarchy, accessibility, and interaction polish

Team Leadership

• Manage a team of 2–4 product designers, including 1:1s, performance reviews, goal-setting, and career development
• Mentor and grow designers at all levels, helping them take on more ownership and develop their craft
• Lead design critiques and reviews, raising the quality bar across the team through specific, high-standard feedback
• Hire and onboard design talent as the team grows
• Help define how design works at Bluesky: how we collaborate, how we prioritize, and how we hold ourselves to a high bar

Cross-Functional Influence

• Partner with product and engineering leadership to define problems, shape roadmaps, and make strategic tradeoffs
• Represent design in cross-functional conversations, bringing clarity and a strong point of view to ambiguous decisions
• Champion the user across the organization, translating research and qualitative signal into product direction

Skills and Experience

• 10+ years of experience designing digital products, with a strong portfolio of shipped work; at least 3–5 years leading product design for social, platforms, and/or consumer digital products
• Experience directly managing designers, including performance reviews, hiring, and career development
• Deeply hands-on with the craft: design, prototype, sweat the details
• Strong visual design skills, including aesthetic judgment around layout, typography, and hierarchy
• Strong, articulate design point of view and can represent design confidently to leadership and cross-functional partners
• Deep experience building and evolving design systems that scale with a growing team and product
• Comfortable influencing product direction, shaping roadmaps and helping define what to build and why
• Strong user empathy and can translate messy, qualitative signal into actionable product insight
• Highly proficient with Figma, including advanced component and system work, and comfortable building interactive prototypes
• Hold certainty lightly, take feedback well, and iterate quickly

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience leading design on a consumer social or community product
• Strong opinions about what makes social apps feel great, and the ability to articulate and defend them
• Track record of growing designers into more senior roles through mentorship, sponsorship, and stretch opportunities
• Experience contributing to product and brand identity at a company level
• Experience running or commissioning user research and turning insights into product improvements
• Familiarity with decentralized or open-protocol products, or genuine curiosity about what they make possible
• Proficiency with Figma auto layout

Compensation

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $190,000 - 258,000, excluding equity. Equity will be considered in the total compensation package. The final base salary for this role will be based on the individual’s geographic location, as well as experience level, skill set, training, licenses and certifications.