[Hiring] Lead Product Designer @Change.org

Role Description

Change.org is searching for a 6 month Fixed-Term Lead Product Designer, Lifecycle to own and elevate all lifecycle touchpoints—centered on email—to drive repeat civic action and return usage through visually exceptional, brand-forward storytelling and journey-based design. You will report to our Senior Director of Design and play a key role as a senior individual contributor within the Product team.

Key Outcomes:

• Design the post-petition supporter journey into clear chapters and ship email flows that regularly re-engage petition signers, clearly guiding them and showcasing petition impact.
• Extend and apply our existing modular email system across automated emails—refresh visual design, and develop new brand-aligned templates in collaboration with the Marketing team to improve key performance metrics.
• Deepen and evolve the visual identity of lifecycle emails by creating a cohesive system of layouts, imagery, and reusable assets that feel polished and on-brand across journeys; bonus: use AI tools to quickly explore variations and speed up production while maintaining craft.

The most important core competencies for the role are:

• Visual & Brand Design Craft – Exceptional eye for layout, typography, hierarchy, and art direction; creates striking, on-brand emails and original assets that feel editorial and product-quality.
• Lifecycle & Narrative Thinking – Designs chaptered journeys from post-petition onward; aligns message + visuals to user intent to drive shares, follows, and “second actions.”
• User Empathy – You center users' emotions, motivations, and pain points in your design process and you leverage qualitative research to uncover these insights. You can anticipate and map users’ emotional states at different touchpoints. Your designs reduce stress and uncertainty and inspire trust and confidence.
• Systems & Templates in Figma – Extends our modular email system with robust components, variables/tokens.
• Email Craft & Accessibility – Masters email constraints: mobile-first layout, copy hierarchy, CTAs, dark mode, image optimization, etc.
• AI-Augmented Creation (Proficient) – Uses AI tooling to ideate and produce on-brand assets quickly; maintains prompt libraries, style presets, and safety/quality guardrails.
• Collaboration & Influence – Works seamlessly with cross-functional partners; clearly communicates rationale, incorporates feedback, and champions design standards across the lifecycle program—while balancing performance goals, brand expression, and technical email constraints in every decision.

Qualifications

• 7+ years designing lifecycle comms for consumer or mission-driven products.
• A portfolio of visually striking, brand-forward emails—shows systems thinking, strong typography/layout, and original asset creation.
• Figma expert (components, variables/tokens, Auto Layout, libraries) with experience extending an existing modular email system and documenting patterns.
• Proven ability to design chaptered journeys (e.g., post-petition share → follow/join → next action) that increase repeat engagement.
• Email craft & constraints: mobile-first, accessibility/alt text, dark mode, image optimization; basic HTML/CSS for email is a plus.
• AI competency: Proficient—regularly uses design-focused AI (Figma AI, image-gen) to ideate and produce on-brand assets; maintains prompt/style libraries and QA guardrails.
• Communicates rationale clearly, documents templates/guidelines, and helps others self-serve while keeping quality high.
• Bonus: civic tech/nonprofit experience; growth/lifecycle design; strong email copy chops.

Requirements

• This is a 6-month fixed term role based in the United States or Mexico.
• We’re currently able to hire staff based in the following US locations: Alaska (AK), Arizona (AZ), California (CA), Colorado (CO), Connecticut (CT), District of Columbia (DC), Florida (FL), Georgia (GA), Illinois (IL), Iowa (IA), Kansas (KS), Maryland (MD), Massachusetts (MA), Michigan (MI), Minnesota (MN), Missouri (MO), New Jersey (NJ), New York (NY), North Carolina (NC), Oregon (OR), Pennsylvania (PA), Rhode Island (RI), Texas (TX), Vermont (VT), Virginia (VA), Washington (WA), Wisconsin (WI).
• The annual salary of a Lead Product Designer, Lifecycle is $218,000 in San Francisco and New York, $207,000 in Austin, Boston, Chicago, DC, LA and Seattle, and $185,500 in all other US locations.
• The salary of a Lead Product Designer, Lifecycle in Mexico is MX$132,916.67/month gross via a local third-party entity.
• Benefits and perks also vary based on location.

Benefits

• Our evaluation process is as follows: Recruiter Screen, Hiring Manager Screen, Team Interview, Executive Interview.
• We recognize that people assess their qualifications differently, and you may not meet every requirement listed. If you believe you could be successful in this role, we encourage you to apply.
• Change.org is an open platform designed to serve people across the full range of viewpoints. We expect all candidates to have thought about whether it’s a fit for you to work at a genuinely open platform like this, in which you will regularly be exposed to opinions and campaigns which are in sharp contrast to your own values and/or beliefs.
• We are an equal opportunity employer and consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity [or expression], national origin, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other status protected by law.
• We're committed to protecting your data. To learn more, please review our Change.org Job Applicant Privacy Policy.
• We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities throughout our recruitment process. If you need assistance or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know.
• Change.org voluntarily collects limited demographic information for government reporting and to support our diversity and inclusion efforts. Providing this information is entirely optional and anonymous, and is not used in hiring decisions.
• Change.org participates in E-verify - click here to learn more.
• Professional-level English proficiency is required for all roles. While we are a global company, we ask that all resumes and application responses be submitted in English.