Product Designer

About Niche

Niche is the leader in school search. Our mission is to make researching and enrolling in schools easy, transparent, and free. With in-depth profiles on every school and college in America, 140 million reviews and ratings, and powerful search tools, we help millions of people find the right school for them. We also help thousands of schools recruit more best-fit students, by highlighting what makes them great and making it easier to visit and apply.

Niche is all about finding where you belong, and that mission inspires how we operate every day. We want Niche to be a place where people truly enjoy working and can thrive professionally.

 

About The Role

 

Every year, millions of families start the school search process. Students wade through a sea of information and decisions to make, and unfortunately access to help hasn’t changed much in decades: it’s not super clear what your options are, and you might not feel confident that a school is right for them, or think you’ll be able to afford it.

Niche is on a mission to make researching and enrolling in schools easy, transparent, and free. Students need support choosing a school and paying for their education, schools want to find students who will thrive on their campus, and families need help supporting their students every step of the way. Niche helps ensure that it’s not just students already confident about college who get enrolled and can afford to attend.

We’re looking for a Product Designer to join our Horizon 3 product pod and help innovate on multiple 0-to-1 products and partnerships. You will work shoulder to shoulder with the Principal Designer in this area, learning by doing, and moving between teams to cover emerging projects that need you most. You will play a pivotal role in a growing space, working closely with cross-functional teams on creating seamless, effective experiences that deliver the future of personalized school search and enrollment.

You’ll help make our small but mighty design team impactful, rigorous and playful, while addressing real problems that affect the earning potential of millions of people. We are in the early stages of an exciting transformation, with the opportunity for you to truly make an impact, both improving the existing product and envisioning next-generation experiences.

 

What You Will Do

• Design and iterate on key product features using data, research insights and product thinking to form your vision and bring it to life, with support from a more senior designer or manager
• Collaborate with your cross-functional partners and other designers to ship and iterate on design solutions that are strategic, thoughtful, and make a real impact to both customers and business
• Adopt a high bar of quality and craft of design work using systems thinking and workflows, information architecture and content strategy, product reasoning, wireframing and prototyping
• Develop your ability to communicate persuasively about your solutions, present to stakeholders, facilitate productive discussions and move work forward
• Strengthen our ability to develop hypotheses, experiment, iterate, and learn quickly through design artifacts and structured decision-making

During the First Month:

• Learn about Niche by meeting with various team members to learn more about our company through our Onboarding meetings
• Understand the company mission and vision, business model, and current state of the product
• Get familiar with our design tools, knowledge base, and research insights
• Join product team meetings and sprint cycles, starting with assisting other designers on projects in flight

Within 3 Months:

• Fully operating in your role, participating in developing design strategy aligned to business objectives and working through the design process
• Collaborating closely with designers in other areas to make stronger design decisions and identify dependencies
• Delivering solutions to challenges, starting to contribute to longer-term vision and evolution of the experience in your surface area

Within 6 Months:

• Raising improvements to the way work gets done and how collaboration happens
• Identifying opportunities and presenting solutions using persuasive storytelling, concept designs, and a deep understanding of both business objectives and user needs
• Providing constructive and thoughtful feedback to other designers
• Able to contribute to improving Design tools and processes

Within 12 Months:

• Primary designer for one or more projects handling work of increasing complex and impact to the business
• You have a strong understanding of all major product areas, recognizing patterns, and participating in vision and strategy led by more senior designers across the suite of Niche products

 

What We Are Looking For

• You have participated in designing and shipping product features that customers love, led by a more senior designer or manager
• You explore a breadth of design options and are able to articulate trade-offs, with a consistent level of visual polish and adherence to industry patterns
• You are growing your nascent ability to roll data, research insights, business goals, technical constraints, and customer needs together into strongly-crafted solutions (mockups, prototypes, and flows)
• You choose the right design tool and level of fidelity to explore solutions, and able to explain why that tool and level of fidelity was appropriate
• You provide reliable time estimates for your work, can iterate fast, ensure you gather feedback, and are developing your strategic reasoning to inform your decisions
• You enjoy and take pride in using your design skills to bring clarity and simplicity to both process and product
• You have experience working on cross-functional product teams in an agile environment
• You are a team player, curious about new ideas and excited to learn, comfortable with ambiguity and an ever-evolving team + product experience
• Extra bonus if you're experienced with one or more of: multi-sided marketplaces, products for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, or AI products in production

Compensation 

Our national target base salary range is $120,000-$140,000, plus participation in our Annual Bonus and Stock Option Program. Base compensation will be commensurate with experience and skills.

At Niche, our Total Rewards Philosophy is centered around creating a workplace environment that attracts, motivates, and retains top talent by providing a comprehensive and competitive rewards package.  This philosophy is built on the principles of performance-based compensation, best-in-class benefits and work-life balance, and employee well-being.

Interview Process

Candidate experience is a top priority for our talent and hiring teams.  We believe in providing a transparent, authentic and comprehensive interview process where you have the opportunity to learn about us while we get to know you and your experience.  The interview process is outlined here:

• Phone Screen with Talent Acquisition Partner - 30 Minutes

• Video Interview with Hiring Manager - 45 Minutes

• Portfolio Review - 60 Minutes

Why Niche?

• We are a fully flexible workforce empowering our employees to choose to work remotely, in our Pittsburgh office or whatever combination suits you
• Full time, salaried position with competitive compensation in a fast-growing company
• Best-in-class 100% paid employee health plan, including vision and dental and supplemental coverage
• Flexible Paid Time Off Policy
• Stipend that allows you to build your work from home office in a style and function that suits your personal preferences
• Parental leave for all employees (12 weeks fully paid) in addition to short term disability for birthing parents
• Meaningful 401(k) with employer match
• Your ideas and work will make an immediate impact on our company and millions of users
• You will join a team that cares about you, our mission, our work - and celebrates our wins together!

Niche will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future for this opening.  

We are currently hiring in states where we currently have employees: AZ, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MO, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, DC, WV.

Candidates only.  No recruiters or agencies, please. Sorry, we do not offer relocation assistance.

Niche is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. Therefore, we provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.

All interviews are being held remotely. If there are preparations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please let us know.

Apply Now