The Centre for Effective Altruism’s mission is to build and nurture a global community of people who are thinking carefully about the world’s biggest problems and taking impactful action to solve them.
To foster this community, we run conferences, support hundreds of local groups, and provide online resources and forums for discussion.
About this role
CEA is seeking a Product Designer who can lead design processes, craft thoughtful user experiences and interfaces, build and own our design system/visual identity, and continually iterate based on feedback and testing.
As the sole designer on the team, you will be responsible for all aspects of design. You will have the chance to work through design problems from beginning to end, translate insights from research and analytics into concepts for novel products and features, and ultimately design the detailed interfaces, workflows, and interactions required to make them a reality.
You will join CEA’s growing Online team, which currently includes a product manager, five engineers, a content specialist, a program manager, and the Head of Online. Together you’ll be improving some of EA's most prominent websites, including effectivealtruism.org and the EA Forum.
Responsibilities
Develop and maintain a distinctive visual style for the core organisations in effective altruism which is in keeping with the movement’s broad goals and values.
Implement that visual style across various online products.
Lead the team in implementing a user-centred approach to design.
Work closely with Product Managers to translate research insights into design concepts for new products and features.
Design and deliver wireframes and mockups optimised for a wide range of devices and interfaces, in a form which is easily consumed by our team of engineers.
Iterate frequently, rapidly testing designs and hypotheses wherever possible.
Build and own CEA’s UI and UX toolset, process, and design system.
Collaborate with other team members and stakeholders.
Ask questions, take risks and champion new ideas.
As an example of a project you might take on: our user interviews have revealed that many people are making connections with each other on the EA Forum, and we believe there is huge untapped value in being able to better connect such people, but we need to create designs which do this while still preserving the existing sources of value that people get from reading posts, commenting, etc.
As a Product Designer in the example above, you would collaborate closely with one of our Product Managers to identify one or more promising design concepts from the collected user feedback and turn these into mockups for our engineers to develop and release. Throughout the process you would look for opportunities to test the assumptions and impact of your designs and continuously iterate and improve the outputs.
Requirements
We expect that you will:
Understand the core principles of UI and UX design, especially as it relates to web products.
Be comfortable communicating design ideas using the most appropriate medium, including sketches, wireframes, and especially mockups. We generally use Figma for mockups (example), but experience with the tool is not required.
Have career plans that are driven, in large part, by a desire to maximise your social impact.
Experience with CSS, HTML, and Javascript are nice to have but not required.
There are no formal requirements for previous experience for this position, however we expect that most candidates will have 2-10 years of professional experience and will be comfortable owning most elements of product design.
Please link to your portfolio or past work in the “Additional info” section of the application.
Your coworkers
You will report to Ben West, and work on the Online team. You may also work with the Lightcone/LessWrong team, as the EA Forum shares a codebase with LessWrong.
The Online team in June (2 new hires since!)
Salary, benefits, and location
This is a full-time remote role. We prefer applicants who are able to work in time zones between US Pacific Time and GMT.
We require that applicants be available 5-7 PM GMT, Monday through Friday.
Salaries for candidates who work remotely will be decided based on location and skills. As a rough calibration point: the salary range for candidates in Oxford is £50,700-£81,400 depending on experience, and the salary range for candidates in San Francisco is $96,400-$157,600 depending on experience. There is some flexibility above these ranges for an exceptional candidate.
UK benefits include health, dental, and vision insurance, flexible work hours, a £1,000 annual training budget, extended parental leave, ergonomic equipment, a 3% pension contribution, and 25 days of paid vacation. We have similar benefits in the US.
CEA serves a global community, and our team works with people and organisations all over the world. We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, and we encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We are an equal opportunity employer. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact caitlin@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.