Director of Content Design, Etsy
$218-283k
+ Equity + An annual performance bonus
More information about location
2 days a week in office
eCommerce platform for handcrafted goods
Be an early applicant
eCommerce platform for handcrafted goods
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$218-283k
+ Equity + An annual performance bonus
More information about location
2 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To keep human connection at the heart of commerce.
Role
Who you are
- 12+ years in content design, UX writing, or content strategy, with a significant tenure in a leadership role where you have successfully managed and mentored content designers and senior ICs
- A track record of building and scaling content design practices: content systems, voice and tone frameworks, and guidelines that other teams actually adopt and use
- Demonstrated experience as an embedded partner on product teams, shipping high-quality content in complex, high-traffic consumer products
- Strong history of building cross-functional partnerships with Product, Engineering, Design, Brand, and Legal to make content a first-class part of how products are designed and shipped
- Experience on buyer/seller marketplaces or two-sided consumer platforms is a strong plus
- A portfolio that shows range across systems-level thinking and specific product decisions, at different levels of scope and ambiguity
- The ability to hire, develop, and retain strong content designers, and to make the case for the work to audiences who don't share your background
What the job involves
- As Director of Content Design, you'll define and drive the content design strategy for Etsy's entire product ecosystem: setting the vision for content quality, leading high-impact and highly complex work across our buyer and seller experiences, and elevating the quality and maturity of content design as a practice at Etsy
- In this role, you will define the vision and build the practice that shapes how content functions across Etsy, including content standards and patterns, voice and tone guidelines, naming, and accessible, human-centered content
- You will partner deeply with Brand, Legal, Product Design, and Design Systems to drive a cohesive content voice and style that is clear, consistent, and unmistakably Etsy
- You will lead a team of content designers working directly with systems and product teams to embed content quality into the product experience at every level
- This is a full-time position reporting to the Director of Product Design, UX Foundations
- Etsy offers different work modes to meet the variety of needs and preferences of our team
- Content Design vision and standards: Define the bar for content quality across Etsy's buyer and seller surfaces. Own the content design system: voice, patterns, guidance, and the tooling that lets quality scale beyond your immediate team
- Team leadership: Lead and develop a team of content designers embedded across product verticals. Build the conditions for strong independent work, shared craft standards, and a clear operating model for how work gets scoped, prioritized, and decided across teams
- Systems and platform partnership: Drive the content strategy for Etsy's horizontal design systems, ensuring content patterns are first-class components in how we build at scale. Partner with UX Foundations leadership to shape how content design integrates into the design system and broader platform work
- Product team collaboration: Show up as a senior design partner to the product verticals working on Etsy's most complex buyer and seller experiences. Know when to lead, when to coach a team member through it, and when to escalate a content risk
- Cross-functional influence: Represent content design in product planning, surface quality issues early, and help partners understand what it takes to ship content that holds the bar. Apply clear judgment to make tradeoffs, unblock decisions, and empower ICs to move through ambiguity without escalating everything up
- People and team building: Hire and develop exceptional talent. Coach designers across levels, identify growth opportunities, and build a culture where healthy feedback and craft are built into everyday practice
- Of course, this is just a sample of the kinds of work this role will require. You should assume that your role will encompass other tasks, too, and that your job duties and responsibilities may change from time to time at Etsy's discretion, or otherwise applicable with local law
Our take
Created as an alternative to more corporate eCommerce sites, Etsy is a peer-to-peer (P2P) website where users buy and sell handmade crafts, vintage items, art and photography. The online marketplace works similarly to Amazon and eBay, only with an emphasis on unique items rather than mass-produced merchandise.
Since its IPO in 2015, it has managed to hold its own in an increasingly competitive eCommerce industry, including from Amazon's handmade section that launched in 2015. Further, by providing sellers with ownership over pricing and branding, the site is attractive for those wanting to set up a business on an established platform.
However, the seller-side of Etsy is not without problems. A hike in transaction fees and the introduction of mandatory marketing fees for artists with high turnovers created significant discontent amongst sellers. Despite this, Etsy continues to connect artists and consumers, attracting shoppers with its message of extraordinary, handmade and affordable products.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
8% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
May 2012
$40m
LATE VC
Aug 2010
$20m
SERIES E
Total funding: $91.7m
Company benefits
- Equity (offers vary by country)
- Performance bonuses
- Paid gender neutral parental leave
- Adoption and family planning
- Back-up care
- Volunteer time off
- Donation matching
- Employee resource groups
- Global virtual events
- Employer paid health benefits
- Fitness benefits
- Wellness programming
- Mental health benefits
- 401K matching/Pension contributions
Company HQ
Downtown Brooklyn, NY
Leadership
Josh Silverman
(CEO)Previously senior executive at eBay, CEO of Shopping.com, CEO of Skype and President of Consumer Products & Services at American Express.
Salary benchmarks
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