Design and drive the core product experience for sports fans across web and mobile: create flows, wireframes, prototypes, and production-ready designs; lead research and design projects; collaborate with PMs, engineers, editors, and analysts; contribute to the design system and help define product strategy.
About Us
Powered by one of the largest global newsrooms in sports media, The Athletic brings sports fans the most comprehensive stories about the teams, sports and athletes they love. The Athletic’s newsroom of 500+ full-time staff delivers in-depth coverage of hundreds of professional and college teams across more than 47 North American markets and all 20 football clubs in the English Premier League, as well as many Championship clubs.
About the Role
Our product mission is to be the best place for sports fans. We already provide an unrivaled breadth and depth of sports coverage. We are looking for a product designer to support the experience of our core product, which encompasses how users discover and consume content across all our platforms. The ideal candidate is also able to help drive the future vision of our products, through world-class designs that add value to both our business and to our users.
As a Product Designer on the Core team, you will be counted on to help lead new projects and initiatives related to our core offering. You’ll work closely with the product team to bring new experiences to life, while collaborating with engineers, editors and other designers on the team. There’s ample opportunity here for a designer who works well independently and is well versed in both user experience and visual design.
Responsibilities
- Create user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and production-ready design deliverables.
- Support high-level product strategy, ensuring we're asking the right questions and solving for the most important internal and external user needs.
- Lead and conduct design and user research, as necessary.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams, partnering with Product Managers, Engineers, Content Operations, SEO Strategists, Product Analysts, and fellow designers to take concepts from ideation to execution.
- Work closely with engineers and PMs to evaluate constraints and trade offs.
- Lead design projects with input from other members of the design team to ensure design quality and consistency across the user experience.
- Understand the competitive environment and stay on top of great user experiences, especially within sports apps, sports media, and news related products.
- Actively contribute to The Athletic’s Design System.
Requirements
- Demonstrable expertise in designing shipped product experiences across both web and native mobile applications.
- Strong Visual and Interaction Design skills, as exemplified in an online portfolio or presentation.
- Subject matter expertise related to sports and/or media. You have a strong understanding of what makes a great sports and/or media app, and ideas on how you could make our experience even better.
- Experience working with other designers directly on projects, and also indirectly to provide and receive feedback on work.
- Experience collaborating with engineers, product managers, other XFN partners, and stakeholders with a high standard of quality and professionalism.
- Ability to manage your time effectively, sometimes across several projects.
- Expert Figma skills and knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite.
- Hands-on experience using AI to develop concepts and live experiences.
- Experience with prototyping and animation as a means to explore and convey design solutions.
- An eagerness to try new things, innovate and learn — and a willingness to learn from mistakes.
- Enthusiasm for being part of a multidisciplinary design studio and a collaborative design process.
The annual base salary range for this role is $135,000.00 - $155,000.00 USD. The total compensation offered for this position may vary based on factors such as education, experience, skills, and location.
For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.
For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.
We are excited to learn more about you and your experience. To keep our hiring process as fair and authentic as possible, we ask that you submit your own work and not use GenAI tools to generate substantive content during the application and interview process. If you are a candidate for a technical role, we will let you know what specific tools you are permitted to use for your technical assessment.
The Athletic Media Company is an equal opportunity employer and enthusiastically encourages people from all backgrounds and experiences to apply. The Athletic will consider all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.
Click here to review our Applicant Privacy Notice, which describes how and when The Athletic Media Company collects, uses, and shares certain personal information of job applicants and prospective employees.
Beware of fraudulent job recruiting schemes! Our recruiters use [email protected] exclusively, and our team members will use an email address with @theathletic.com domain. We do not conduct interviews via text or instant message and we do not ask candidates to download software, to purchase equipment through us, or to provide sensitive personally identifiable information, such as bank accounts or social security numbers. If you have been contacted by someone claiming to be a member of the recruiting/HR team at The Athletic but operating from a different email address about a job offer, please report it as potential job fraud to the law enforcement and to [email protected].
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