Head of Technical UX Design

Description

User Experience (UX) Design at Noisy Creek means the look, feel, and voice readers meet every time they visit websites for beloved publications like The Stranger, the Portland Mercury, the Chicago Reader, or EverOut.com — and every time they open one of our email newsletters. As we grow into new markets, we need a technical design leader who can bring consistency, craft, and a strong point of view to the experiences readers, members, and advertisers have with us across the web, email, and — soon — mobile app.

The Technical UX Designer will own the end-to-end user experience and visual design direction across Noisy Creek's digital properties: our websites, email templates and other marketing formats, and future mobile app explorations. This is a hands-on design leadership role — you'll set the design vision and standards for a multi-brand, multi-market publisher, while staying close enough to the work to design a page template, refine an email system, or prototype a new mobile concept yourself.

You'll partner closely with editorial, membership, advertising, and technical product leaders across all Noisy Creek brands to make sure design decisions serve both readers and the business, and you'll work directly with our engineering team to see designs through to implementation. This role has direct involvement at the company's C-suite level, working closely with executive leadership to set and defend design and brand experience as a company-wide priority.

Key Responsibilities 

• Define and own the UX and visual design vision for Noisy Creek's digital properties, establishing a cohesive design language that flexes across brands (The Stranger, Portland Mercury, Chicago Reader, EverOut) while preserving each publication's distinct voice.
• Own end-to-end design for Noisy Creek's websites — information architecture, interaction design, visual design, and responsive/mobile-web behavior — from concept through shipped experience.
• Design and maintain the system for email templates and other marketing formats (newsletters, membership and ticketing communications, promotional campaigns), ensuring consistency, deliverability best practices, and brand fit across markets.
• Lead early-stage design exploration for future Noisy Creek mobile app initiatives, from concept and prototyping through user testing.
• Build and maintain a scalable design system and component library that lets a small team (and outside contributors) ship consistent, on-brand work quickly across multiple properties.
• Partner directly with Noisy Creek's existing engineering team to translate designs into shipped product, working through technical constraints and trade-offs together.
• Partner with the Head of Technical Product and editorial, membership, and advertising leaders to align design priorities with business goals — including reader growth, membership conversion, ad performance, and retention.
• Conduct or commission user research and usability testing to validate design decisions, and use that data to iterate.
• Establish and maintain accessibility, usability, and brand standards across all digital touchpoints.
• Provide immediate design support and direction to Noisy Creek's existing engineering and product efforts from day one.
• Build the business case for growing a design function over time — identifying where additional design or research roles are needed to support Noisy Creek's scope — and hire, mentor, and manage that team as it's approved.
• Other duties may be assigned based on company needs

Requirements

• 7+ years of UX/product design experience, including experience owning end-to-end design for a consumer-facing digital product at scale.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating range across web, email/marketing design, and ideally early-stage mobile app design or prototyping.
• Experience building or evolving a design system or component library used across multiple products or brands.
• Experience partnering directly with engineers to take designs from concept to shipped product, including familiarity with technical and implementation constraints.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present and defend design decisions to both design and non-design audiences, including executive leadership.
• Experience conducting or commissioning user research and using it to inform design decisions.
• Comfort operating with significant autonomy in a lean, fast-moving organization, including a willingness to be hands-on with details as well as strategy.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience designing for media, publishing, membership/subscription products, or email marketing at scale.
• Experience designing across multiple brands or a multi-tenant design system.
• People management experience, or experience building the case for a team before it exists.
• Experience operating as the sole/first design hire in an organization, standing up process and craft standards from scratch.
• Familiarity with accessibility standards (WCAG) and email development/rendering constraints across clients.
• Seattle residents preferred, but not required.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Noisy Creek provides employer-subsidized premiums for medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Retirement Savings: Participation in a SIMPLE IRA program with employer matching.
• Paid Vacation: Accrued at two weeks per year, scaling to four weeks annually after five years of tenure.
• Paid Sick Leave: Accrual of one week per year, including rollover for future use.
• Holiday Time: Nine standard paid holidays, a full paid week off between December 24 and January 1, and two floating holidays for use anytime.
• Extended Leave Options: Paid bereavement and jury duty leave, with opportunities to augment state family and medical leave benefits.
• Transit Support: Access to discounted commuter transit passes.
• Career Growth: An annual professional development stipend to fund training and specialized learning.
• Wellness Support: Employee Assistance Program offering resources for financial and mental health.
• Flexible Spending Account: Access to pre-tax FSA options for healthcare and dependent care expenses.

Why Join Noisy Creek?

We're a vibrant, creative team that believes the more diverse voices at the table, the better the

conversation—and the work! We realize that not everyone receives the same professional or

educational opportunities, so if you don't meet all the above qualifications but still think you'd be

a good fit, please consider applying.

Noisy Creek is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered without

regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or

disability status.

About Noisy Creek

Noisy Creek launched in mid-2024 with an innovative model to invigorate local media across the

United States for our democracy, civic engagement, and thriving local communities. It currently

operates The Stranger, the Portland Mercury, the Chicago Reader, EverOut.com, Noisy Creek

Podcasts, Noisy Creek Productions, and Bold Type Tickets.