Design Lead

About the Company

We are a renewable energy and ocean technology company committed to rapidly developing and deploying technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for Earth by unlocking the vast energy potential of its oceans. Our focus is on capturing civilizational levels of ultra-low-cost renewable energy for applications including computing and affordable renewable fuels delivered to shore.

The company is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon and backed by leading venture capitalists, philanthropic investors, university endowments, and private investment offices. We operate as an idea meritocracy in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis.

About the Job

We’re a technology company that believes storytelling is critical to accomplishing our mission. The Creative & Brand Comms team is responsible for building a brand that inspires and educates our communities, team members, investors, and the public at large—helping them understand what we’re doing and why it matters.

As Design Lead, you will guide the concepting and execution of branding and graphic design projects that communicate our company’s mission, technology, and team. You’ll lead concept development, oversee design systems and ensure visual consistency across a wide range of deliverables: decks, websites, brand guides, digital campaigns, and product graphics.

The ideal candidate has impeccable graphic design chops—excellent typography, smart grids, and organized systems thinking. As part of a small team, you set the design bar and guide others toward it, providing creative direction and feedback across projects. While your core strength lies in branding and communication design, you’re also a strong writer and are comfortable expanding into adjacent areas like photo, video, motion design, 3D, or code.

We’re creating a language of design simplicity, clarity, and rational thought. It’s no-frills and utilitarian. We usually produce quality by deleting rather than adding. This puts a greater importance on the execution and craftsmanship of the distilled elements. You champion this approach across the team and ensure that even simple deliverables reflect this thoughtful execution. 

In addition to being interested in people and the planet, the ideal candidate needs to be curious about science, technology, engineering (and even a little math). Our team is constantly trying to simplify and humanize the complexity of these things. You are a team player with a "no task is too small" attitude. In addition to leading big, long-term creative initiatives like a brand campaign or website, you will also own a lot of smaller design tasks like investor decks, one-pagers, digital brochures, and corporate communications. No task is beneath you, but you also know when to delegate and how to mentor others. We treat everything with craft and hold high standards here, regardless of the medium or audience. 

The ideal candidate possesses an entrepreneurial spirit, is unfazed by ambiguity, and doesn’t need clarity to start creating. You take big abstract concepts and turn them into actionable design strategies that you execute on. You seek responsibility and creative ownership. There's not a lot of handholding here. You have to be able to identify problems for yourself and then make intuitive, cross-disciplinary leaps to solve them. You lead by doing, and by helping others navigate complexity with confidence.

Candidates should have strong interpersonal skills and be able to thrive in a creative, scrappy, and collaborative environment in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis. Our team members have worked at organizations such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing, Virgin Orbit, Virgin Galactic, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, New Relic, Bridgewater, Raytheon, Disney Imagineering, and the naval architecture faculty of the University of Michigan. The company is structured as a public benefit corporation and backed by leading venture capital firms.

Responsibilities

• Own and lead complex, high-impact design projects, such as publications, websites, campaigns, and brand guides
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders and external partners, setting the creative bar and ensuring cohesion across all deliverables
• Independently drive projects like decks, one-pagers, digital brochures, investor materials, corporate communications and internal design needs, with a high level of craft and clarity 
• Lead and contribute to the entire creative process from concept to execution, on both internal and external projects
• Create systems to work smarter not harder, whether you’re in Figma, Powerpoint, or After Effects
• Maintain asset libraries and archives
• Lead thoughtful, constructive critiques, where we focus on the work not the ego
• Drive projects forward, but know when to step back and gather feedback or ask for help
• Take as much responsibility as possible, often managing your own projects
• Define, refine, and protect brand aesthetics
• Sketch, storyboard, and prototype new ideas based on company direction and self-driven narratives

Basic Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in graphic, brand or communication design experience at a creative agency, brand, or similar environment
• 3+ years of experience leading projects, teams or cross-functional initiatives
• Mastery of Figma and Adobe Creative Suite
• Exceptional graphic design fundamentals, typographic sensibilities,  strong grids, hierarchy and systems thinking 
• Experience building and evolving design systems
• Proven ability to thrive in a creative, scrappy, and collaborative environment, while having the vision and autonomy to create systems and process for the future
• Confident in the work, but balanced by healthy self-doubt (most of us are usually wrong)
• Smart, kind, creative, collaborative
• Verbally and visually articulate
• Comfortable mentoring junior designers and contributing to a healthy team culture
• Ability to be detail-oriented and meticulous, but also a “big picture” thinker
• You get your dopamine from pushing the work, not compliments
• Ability to maintain a calm confidence in challenging situations
• Approaches work with curiosity and positivity, and without ego
• Confident in your taste and ability to clearly communicate that to others (still without ego)
• Organized and able to prioritize tasks from a big pile
• Passionate about things outside of work, both creative and otherwise

Bonus Points

• Experience in disciplines like photography, video, technical illustration, motion graphics, 3D, coding

The above qualifications are desired, not required. We encourage you to apply if you are a strong candidate with only some of the desired skills and experience listed.

Compensation and Benefits

If hired for this full-time role, you will receive:

• Cash compensation of $110,000 - 135,000
• Equity in the company. We’re all owners and if we’re successful, this equity should be far and away the most valuable component of your compensation.
• A benefits package that helps you take care of yourself and your family, including:
  • Flexible paid time off
  • Health insurance (the company pays 100% of gold level PPO plan for full time employees, their partners, and dependents)
  • Dental insurance (the company pays 33% for full time employees and 100% for their partners and dependents)
  • Vision insurance (the company pays 100% for full time employees, their partners, and dependents)
  • Disability insurance (the company pays 100% for a policy to provide long term financial support if you become disabled)
  • Ability to contribute to tax-advantaged accounts, including 401(k), health FSA, and dependent care FSA
• Relocation assistance to facilitate your move to Portland (if needed).

Location

This is an on-site position. Our offices are located in Portland, Oregon.