We are seeking a Design Director, Product Design & Prototyping to join a growing digital design studio in New York City. This is a senior, highly hands-on role for someone who can define what a product should be, rapidly build working prototypes, and lead the product from early concept through design and go-to-market.
The ideal candidate brings a combination of product thinking, design judgment, prototyping expertise, and technical fluency. You may come from product design, product leadership, creative technology, or design engineering, but you should have a track record of defining and shipping real digital products and be comfortable building prototypes yourself using modern AI-assisted tools.
Responsibilities
- Define digital products from the earliest stages, including customer problems, features, MVP scope, user stories, acceptance criteria, prioritization, and product roadmaps
- Build high-fidelity, interactive working prototypes that bring product concepts to life quickly
- Use AI-assisted tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Figma Make, and emerging prototyping technologies to rapidly explore and validate ideas
- Translate early concepts into experiences that can be demonstrated to clients, users, and senior leadership
- Partner with strategy, design, product, and engineering teams to determine what should be built and how it should work
- Shape go-to-market thinking alongside the product, including target users, positioning, launch strategy, adoption, and measures of success
- Lead designers throughout product development, setting the creative bar, directing critiques, and guiding the work from concept through execution
- Create prototypes for client engagements, new-business pitches, and internally developed product concepts
- Evaluate technical feasibility and collaborate closely with engineers to ensure concepts can translate into scalable products
- Present product concepts, prototypes, and recommendations directly to executive-level stakeholders
- Help establish new approaches to AI-enabled product design, prototyping, and innovation
Qualifications
- 15+ years of experience with significant senior-level experience across product design, product management, creative technology, design engineering, or related digital product disciplines
- Strong track record of defining, designing, and launching digital products, not simply contributing individual features
- Deep experience in product design and rapid prototyping
- Hands-on experience building interactive prototypes using modern prototyping and AI-assisted development tools
- Fluency with tools such as Figma, Figma Make, Claude Code, Cursor, v0, or similar platforms
- Strong understanding of product strategy, MVP definition, feature prioritization, user stories, acceptance criteria, and roadmapping
- Ability to think across product, UX, technology, and business strategy
- Enough technical fluency to collaborate credibly with engineering teams, evaluate feasibility, and understand the difference between a prototype and production-ready technology
- Strong design judgment with the ability to evaluate interaction, usability, and overall product quality
- Experience leading and providing creative direction to product designers
- Experience presenting and selling ideas to senior client and executive stakeholders
- Experience within a digital agency, design studio, consultancy, product innovation team, or similarly fast-paced digital environment strongly preferred