Senior Director, Product Design

Description

Sprout Social is looking to hire a Senior Director to the Product Design team.

Why join Sprout’s Product Design team?

Design is in our DNA at Sprout, from our best-in-class products and award-winning user experience, to our elegant customer journey and the systems that power our teams. We’ve built a Product Design program centered on the pursuit of growing leaders and tailoring growth paths to individuals—recognizing that every designer is at their best when they’re challenged to grow in ways that map to their unique strengths and opportunities. Supported and challenged by a diverse and connected design community, and armed with an expansive human-centered toolkit, our talented creative problem solvers demonstrate the true power of design to drive business impact, and lead their teams to see social differently.

What you’ll do

• Represent your teams as a strategic design leader across Platform, Publishing, Mobile, and Advocacy, championing a unified vision that fosters innovation and elevates our user experience
• Build strong partnerships with engineering, product, and executive leadership to align on shared goals and embed design thinking in cross-functional decision-making
• Lead transformative initiatives that simplify complex workflows, enhance customer engagement, and make progress toward our shared vision - pushing us to deliver exceptional product experiences that earn customer loyalty
• As a leader of design leaders, mentor and scale high-performing design teams, setting high standards for design excellence and creating a culture of continuous learning and growth
• Show how great design can both help our business grow and create experiences people truly love

What you’ll bring

You bring a visionary yet pragmatic approach to design leadership, with an infectious curiosity that transforms complex challenges into breakthrough solutions. Your passion for solving systemic problems is matched by your ability to inspire and elevate the teams you lead. You thrive at the intersection of strategic thinking and hands-on craft, delighting in both teaching others and continuously learning yourself. 

The minimum qualifications for this role include:

• 10+ years of design leadership experience, with a proven track record of driving transformative change across product teams
• Seasoned people leader with experience leading other design leaders
• A portfolio that tells a compelling story of design impact - showcasing how you've reshaped product direction, sparked organizational innovation, and built high-performing teams that consistently deliver meaningful results

Preferred qualifications for this role include:

• Experience leading design across enterprise SaaS platforms with complex, interconnected user journeys; platform or systems experience a plus
• Executive presence and deep expertise in influencing strategy, with demonstrated success aligning cross-functional teams around bold, user-centered visions
• A track record of mentoring design leaders and building best-in-class design cultures that attract and develop exceptional talent
• Demonstrated ability to balance visionary thinking with pragmatic execution, helping teams maintain focus amid ambiguity and broader organizational change

How you’ll grow

Within 1 month, you’ll plant your roots, including:

• Experience Sprout’s in-depth onboarding, covering everything from our company mission and values, hearing directly from executive leaders, to deep training on our products and the value that Sprout delivers to our customers.
• Partner with the Design Leadership team to define success for your role and your team
• Build relationships across Sprout so that you understand the business and the partners you’ll need to help your team make progress.
• Get to know your counterparts within our product organization and form important bonds with Product and Engineering operations leaders.
• Learn how Sprout has done things to date, and think about how we make our team and processes even better going forward!

Within 3 months, you’ll start hitting your stride by:

• Begin to understand the complexities your designers and design leaders are facing, and offer early guidance on things you might be able to try together.
• Attend leadership rituals across the wide range of teams you’ll be interacting with
• Get up to speed on the ongoing work of the Product Design practice, as well as what’s on the horizon and could benefit from your strategic partnership.
• Influence a strong culture of design critique and collaboration, offering your thought leadership to ensure our designers feel empowered and our work are held to a high-quality standard.
• Weigh in on hiring and organizational planning, helping align design skill sets to business needs.

Within 6 months, you’ll be making a clear impact through:

• Mature and strengthen your influence on our design and product strategy.
• Introduce new tools, systems and processes to improve design’s value to the business.
• Support and enable the performance review and career band calibration process for the product design team.
• Expand the breadth and depth of  your operations toolkit, and your exposure to new challenges, ideas and perspectives. 

Within 12 months, you’ll make this role your own by:

• Inspiring Product Design and the broader org with new ways of thinking and working.
• Dreaming with design leadership on our long term team vision.
• Defining what design leadership means at Sprout. We can’t wait to hear your own unique ideas of how you’ll make our work and our company even better.
• Exploring involvement in communities in and outside of Sprout, considering opportunities to add your voice and talent to our Community Resource Groups, and ways to live out our company values in the public and civic spaces that matter most to you.

Of course what is outlined above is the ideal timeline, but things may shift based on business needs and other projects and tasks could be added at the discretion of your manager.

Our Benefits Program 

We’re proud to regularly be recognized for our team, product and culture. Our benefits program includes:

• Insurance and benefit options that are built for both individuals and families
• Progressive policies to support work/life balance, like our flexible paid time off and parental leave program 
• High-quality and well-maintained equipment—your computer will never prevent you from doing your best
• Wellness initiatives to ensure both health and mental well-being of our team
• Ongoing education and development opportunities via our Grow@Sprout program and employee-led diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
• Growing corporate social responsibility program that is driven by the involvement and passion of our team members
• Beautiful, convenient, and state-of-the-art offices in Chicago’s Loop and downtown Seattle, for those who prefer an office setting

Whenever possible, Sprout wants to provide our team with the flexibility to work in the location that makes the most sense for them. Sprout maintains a remote workforce in many places in the United States. However, we are not set up in all states, so please look at the drop-down box in our application to see whether your state is listed. Few roles require an office setting. If your position requires a physical presence in a Sprout office, it will be evident in the job listing and your offer letter.

Individual base pay is based on various factors, including work location, relevant experience and skills, the responsibility of the role, and job duties/requirements. In the United States, we have two geographic pay zones. You can confirm the pay zone for your specific location with your recruiter during your interview process. For this role, our current base pay ranges for new hires in each zone are:

• Zone 1: $250,800 to $376,200 USD annually
• Zone 2: $228,000 to $342,000 USD annually

Sprout’s compensation ranges are intentionally broad to allow for our team members' growth within their role. These ranges were determined by a market-based compensation approach; we used data from trusted third-party compensation sources to set equitable, consistent, and competitive ranges. We also evaluate compensation bi-annually, identify any changes in the market and make adjustments to our ranges and existing employee compensation as needed.

Base pay is only one element of an employee's total compensation at Sprout. Every Sprout team member has an opportunity to receive restricted stock units (RSUs) under Sprout’s equity plan. Employees (and their dependents) are covered by medical, dental, vision, basic life, accidental death, and dismemberment insurance, and Modern Health (a wellness benefit).  Employees are able to enroll in Sprout’s company’s 401k plan, in which Sprout will match 50% of your contributions up to 6% with a maximum contribution. Sprout offers “Flexible Paid Time Off” and ten paid holidays. We have outlined the various components to an employee’s full compensation package here to help you to understand our total rewards package.

Sprout Social is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and an Affirmative Action Employer. We do not discriminate based on identity- race, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, sex (including sexual identity), age, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, veteran or military status, unfavorable discharge from military service, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, order of protection status, citizenship status, arrest record or expunged or sealed convictions, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state, or local law. Learn more about our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in our latest DEI Report.

If you require a reasonable accommodation for any part of the interview process or to submit your application, please email us at accommodations@sproutsocial.com. Include the nature of your request and your preferred contact information. We'll do everything we can to support your success during our recruitment process while upholding your privacy. Please note that only inquiries regarding accommodations will receive a response from this email address; other inquiries will not be addressed (e.g., you send your resume but are not requesting an accommodation). 

For more information about our commitment to equal employment opportunity, please click here (1) Equal Opportunity Employment Poster  (2) Sprout Social's Affirmative Action Statement (3) Pay Transparency Statement. 

When you apply for employment with Sprout Social, we will process your job applicant data, including your employment and education history, transcript, writing samples, and references as necessary to consider your job application for open positions. Your personal data will be shared with Greenhouse Software, Inc., and Crosschq, Inc., cloud services providers located in the United States of America and engaged by Sprout Social to help manage its recruitment and hiring process on Controller’s behalf. Accordingly, if you are located outside of the United States, by clicking “Submit Application” on this site, you consent to the transfer of your personal data to the United States. For more information about our privacy practices please visit our Privacy Policy. California residents have additional rights and should review the Additional Disclosures for California Residents section in our Privacy Policy.

Additionally, Sprout Social participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law. 

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