Principal Product Designer

Businesses need to understand their financial performance, but for many smaller ones, this means a trade-off between managing their books and running their businesses.

Our mission is to help every business owner thrive, by providing financial insight and peace of mind in one seamless platform. From creatives to chiropractors, Bench helps thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs master their financial lives. Because understanding your finances should be three things: simple, effortless, and affordable.

We’re growing fast, and we’re looking for exceptional people to join us on this incredible journey. Check out our culture guide to learn more about what it’s like to work at Bench and read more about our business here!

We’re seeking a highly experienced and motivated Principal Product Designer to lead the design and development of core product offering. This individual will play a key role in shaping the direction of our product design process and will work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure that our products meet the needs of small business owners and support internal teams.

What does the Design Department look like?

In this role, the Principal Product Designer will have a focus on the small business owners and internal teams, taking into account their needs, pain points and feedback to create user-centered designs that help to accelerate value for our customers and internal teams. To do this, the Principal Product Designer will execute inclusive design methodologies, evidence based decision making and work closely with cross functional teams to gather insights, prioritize design decisions and iterate on the product features.

What you’ll get up to:

• Lead the design of product features across a suite of integrated products, ensuring that they are user-centered and tailored to the needs of our core customer, small business owners and Bench’s internal teams.
• Partner with cross-functional teams, including product managers, engineers, and business operations to infuse user-centered design methodologies and inclusive design principles into all aspects of product development.
• Conduct user research and usability testing with small business owners and internal teams to gather insights on their needs and pain points, and use this evidence in combination with quantitative data points to inform and improve design decisions.
• Develop solutions to support internal teams and accelerate service for small business owners
• Act as an advocate for the needs of small business owners and internal teams within the organization.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to junior designers and researchers in the area of user-centered and inclusive design.
• Ensure design deliverables meet high-quality standards and are delivered on time.

What you'll need:

• 5+ years of experience in product design, bonus points for experience in finance or small business product design
• Expertise in user-centered design methodologies and inclusive design principles.
• Proven track record of successfully delivering product features in a fast-paced, agile development environment.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to use data and research to inform design decisions.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to effectively advocate for the needs of small business owners and internal teams.

It could be an even better fit if you:

• Have a well-developed equity lens: You actively engage in leadership of teams and of strategic-level work with an equity lens and an eye for inclusivity. You don’t just accept equitable practices, you model and advocate for them on your teams and in your work.
• Appreciation for complex systems: Our bookkeeping operation and expansion projects are a complex system designed to produce high-quality financials on time, with a high degree of efficiency. You have the ability to apply systems design that can support in articulating complex systems to support cross-functional decision making.

What you'll get:

• The salary range for this role is $144,400 - $180,500 per year, depending on experience.
• In addition, we offer an extended benefits package that includes paid vacation, unlimited paid flex days, stock options, and full health, dental, and vision.
• You’ll get unlimited access to Bravely, our confidential, on-demand, 1:1 professional coaching service, and access to Inkblot Therapy, our virtual counselling service to support mental wellbeing.
• You will have the support of your manager, and the opportunity to learn and develop by working with a team of unconventional & diverse Benchmates, who are all working together to achieve the same mission.
• We have a number of Affinity Groups - groups of people who have shared identities and experiences! The purpose of these groups is to support underrepresented Benchmates and amplify their voices.d
• If you live in the Vancouver lower mainland area, you have the opportunity to work at home and in our downtown office location, depending on your preference! And in some cases the role.
• For folks working fully remote, we will provide additional solutions to bring teams together for collaboration and connection.
• Whether you get to use the office or if you work remotely, you’ll have access to our Home Office Setup Fund to ensure that you have everything you need to work comfortably from home, from day one.
• We currently focus our hiring efforts in the following provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
• You will also have the opportunity to work internationally for up to 90 days per calendar year.

Everyone has their own unique talents. Even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications outlined above, tell us why you’d be a great fit for this role in your application.

We believe that unchecked biases disproportionately impact the most marginalized people in society—including but not limited to BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+ people, immigrants, and people with disabilities. We strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or other marginalized communities because we believe that without you, we are all less. At Bench, we don’t stand for tokenism. We stand for representation.