Head of Design

Profound
New York, NY
On-site

Who this role is best for

Candidates with leadership experience in AI-native product design and a background in B2B software will find this senior-level role at a high-growth company in New York.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with leadership experience in AI-native product design and a background in B2B software
    — “design will define what that experience becomes. We’re hiring a Head of Design to lead and grow our design team, set the vision for an AI-native product”
  • Individuals who have grown design teams and raised the quality of inherited teams
    — “You’ve hired and developed great designers, and you’ve raised the quality of a team you inherited, not just one you built from scratch”

Things to consider

  • On-site presence in New York is required despite the role's high-growth potential
    — “This is an on-site role based in our Union Square, NYC office”

How to stand out

  • Emphasize your experience in shaping product strategy with design leadership
    — “Design is a central voice in product decisions, not a function that executes against them”
  • Highlight your ability to simplify complex software through intuitive design
    — “know how to make powerful products feel simple”
  • Showcase examples of leading design teams through growth and performance improvements
    — “You’ve led product design at an ambitious, high-growth technology company, setting vision, building teams, and influencing company-level product direction”
  • Demonstrate hands-on involvement in design and prototyping processes
    — “You’re hands-on: equally comfortable presenting a long-term vision, coaching a designer through a hard problem, or jumping into Figma or code to prototype an idea yourself”
  • Position your experience in AI experimentation and its impact on design practices
    — “You’re energized by AI, actively experiment with new tools, and have strong opinions about how AI will change both products and the practice of design”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Company

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • set the design vision for the product experience
  • partnered with leadership on product decisions
  • led and grown the design team
  • defined AI-native experiences
Typical background
5-7+ years in IT operationsBachelors degree in any field or equivalent work experience

Skills & requirements

Required

Design VisionProduct StrategyTeam LeadershipAi-native Product ExperienceProduct JudgmentVisual And Interaction DesignHands-on Design

Preferred

Data Protection OperationsFortinet Network StackMDM Best PracticesPowershellBashShell ScriptingCCNA Certification

Stack & domain

Product DesignAI Marketing PlatformResearchBriefsContentCampaignsReportingAgentsAutomating ReportingDrafting ContentAuditing PagesCompetitive ResearchMeasuringProduct JudgmentVisual DesignInteraction DesignPrototypingCustomer ResearchProduct IntuitionData AnalysisLeadershipTeam ManagementStrategic ThinkingProblem-solvingCommunicationTime ManagementFlexibilityHonestyAI MarketingCustomer Experience

About the role

Original posting from Profound via Ashby

Profound is the fastest-growing AI marketing platform, used by 15% of the Fortune 500 including Comcast, Estée Lauder, and Walmart, and innovators like Ramp, MongoDB, and Figma. It is where marketing teams do the work: research, briefs, content, campaigns, reporting, all in one place, alongside agents that carry the load with them.

Built on 2B+ real user prompts and growing, Profound’s data shows you what people ask AI and what the models say back. Profound's AI Marketer joins that data with deep context about our customers to find the opportunities worth acting on, and then puts agents to work: automating reporting, drafting content, auditing pages for readability, running competitive research. It measures what works and gets better every day.

We’re building a new category of software, and design will define what that experience becomes. We’re hiring a Head of Design to lead and grow our design team, set the vision for an AI-native product, and make sure everything we ship meets our exceptionally high bar. You’ll report directly to our CTO and work closely with the founders and leadership team, with real ownership over what we build, not just how it looks.

What you’ll do

  • Set the design vision: define the long-term direction for Profound’s product experience and a cohesive design language across the platform, and bring clarity to complex workflows
  • Shape product strategy: partner with the founders and product and engineering leadership on what we build, why, and how. Design is a central voice in product decisions, not a function that executes against them
  • Lead and grow the team: level up our existing designers, hire the ones who come next, and build a culture of high standards, strong ownership, and honest critique as we scale
  • Lead through craft: stay close to the work through product judgment, visual and interaction design, and hands-on exploration. Challenge assumptions and push the team toward experiences that are both beautiful and deeply functional
  • Define AI-native experiences: create new interaction patterns for software that doesn’t just respond to users but works on their behalf, bringing agents, complex data, and human judgment together in ways that feel intuitive
  • Move fast without losing quality: build the principles, systems, and rituals that let the team prototype, learn from customers, and ship quickly
  • Stay close to customers: use research, product intuition, and data to make sure what we build solves real problems and makes marketers better at their jobs

Who you are

  • You’ve led product design at an ambitious, high-growth technology company, setting vision, building teams, and influencing company-level product direction
  • You have exceptional taste and a portfolio of shipped, beautifully executed products, and you know how to bring others up to your bar
  • You’ve hired and developed great designers, and you’ve raised the quality of a team you inherited, not just one you built from scratch
  • You see design and product strategy as inseparable; you navigate ambiguity, find the right problems to solve, and influence founders, executives, and engineers
  • You’ve designed sophisticated software, ideally B2B platforms, analytics, data visualization, or complex workflows, and know how to make powerful products feel simple
  • You’re hands-on: equally comfortable presenting a long-term vision, coaching a designer through a hard problem, or jumping into Figma or code to prototype an idea yourself
  • You’re energized by AI, actively experiment with new tools, and have strong opinions about how AI will change both products and the practice of design

Location

This is an on-site role based in our Union Square, NYC office, designed for builders who thrive on speed, iteration, and meaningful impact. We are happy to support visa sponsorship for qualified international candidates.

For this role, the expected base salary range is $265,000 to $365,000. Profound’s total compensation package is designed to be competitive and includes base salary, equity, and a full range of benefits and perks. Final compensation will depend on factors such as your skills, experience, qualifications, and location, and will be determined during the interview process. Our recruiting team will share more details about the full compensation package and benefits as you move through hiring.

#LI-PRO

Note: All official communication from Profound will come from a @tryprofound.com email address. If you're contacted by anyone using a different domain, please disregard and report it as spam.

Source: Profound careers (Ashby)

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