Director of Product Design (Citymapper) London

At Citymapper (powered by Via), we’re on a mission to help make cities easier to navigate. Our app helps millions of people around the world make the best decision on how they want to travel. Whether it’s on foot or by bicycle, above ground or underground, or a combination of modes, our real-time data ensures that users have the most accurate and up-to-date information available.

We’re looking for a Director of Product Design who can think strategically and craft great consumer products. You’ll be leading a world-class product design team and collaborating closely with some of the best product managers and engineers in the industry to deliver elegant solutions needed by humans all over the world. Smarter mobility leads to better cities, making them less congested, more affordable, and environmentally sustainable. This is an opportunity to be part of a small, mission-driven team reinventing a category, building both consumer products and enterprise technology to improve mobility in cities around the world. We use what we design, every day. We move fast. We like green.

What You’ll Do:

• Lead, inspire and nurture Citymapper’s product design team.
• Help the team deliver best-in-the-world interactive design.
• Champion user research: seek and analyze quantitative and qualitative feedback to inform decisions.
• Balance user needs and business needs.
• Partner with Product Managers to define the roadmap, project milestones and priorities.
• Collaborate with Engineers to understand constraints and opportunities, and design with data.
• Work through the entire project lifecycle: at no point does designers “hand over” to another team. We follow through delivery, QA, and iterate.
• Test and use the product you build. Every day.

Who You Are:

• Able to deliver world-class consumer products: 10+ years of experience in designing and building products.
• Experience leading design projects and managing people.
• Experience working with executive leaders.
• Able to create designs that trigger emotions and have a human touch.
• Experience in abstracting complexity behind simple messages and interfaces.
• Design with real data. Ship quick moves, learn & iterate.
• You understand tech constraints and opportunities.
• You appreciate that engineers are designers in their own right.
• Able to scale & handle complexity: Deep understanding of the Citymapper app - as a user.
• Able to handle complexity (messy data, scale of the product).
• Able to foster quality and velocity at scale.
• Organised and knows how to prioritize features and tasks.
• Understands the dynamics of 0 → 1 and 1 → Scale.
• Comfortable combining a lean and iterative approach, with deadline-driven commercial commitments.
• Transportation experience is welcome to speed up the learning curve, but not mandatory.
• A great communicator and empathic leader: Lead, inspire and nurture the product design team.
• Enable each teammate to become the best version of themselves.
• You see building products as a team sport.
• Able to lead by example with low ego as well as delegating.
• Great presenter and communicator.
• Design has the ability to inspire and energise the team, and you use this superpower.
• Assertive: Can ask the hard questions, knows when to push back elegantly.

Compensation and Benefits

• Becoming part of a company that was awarded for its commitment to social good.
• Competitive compensation including stock options.
• A hybrid working model and a spacious office near Chancery Lane, where you can enjoy weekly team lunches.
• Comprehensive health scheme offered through AXA.

We’re Via, and we build technology that changes the way the world moves. We’re driven by a simple mission: to create modern and efficient public transportation systems that provide far greater access to jobs, healthcare, and education. With our best in class suite of products, we make transit thrive. If you’re excited to be at the forefront of modernizing the future of transportation, are up for solving tough problems, and willing to become/already are a transit nerd, we are the place for you. Even if your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description for this role, we encourage you to apply. You may be just the right candidate for this or other opportunities. Ready to join the ride? Via is an equal opportunity employer.