Product Designer

📍 Location: San Francisco / Palo Alto, California

💼 Job Type: Full-time

🚀 Company:

Avala is a mission-driven company that operates as a two-sided marketplace at the intersection of the labor economy and the AI revolution. At this intersection lies an incredible opportunity to redefine the future of labor while ensuring we build AI systems that are highly aligned with human values and intent.

Our platform works towards this alignment by enabling the continuous integration of human feedback and human input at scale. Unlike traditional crowdsourcing or data annotation, Avala dynamically orchestrates digital assembly lines with the precision and unit economics of a Gigafactory. This allows us to rapidly scale to meet the demands of complex data labeling workflows and high-volume content moderation tasks to a global audience.

We understand that the development of AI has the potential to bring about significant social and economic changes, and we're committed to ensuring that these changes are positive and inclusive. Avala is designed to empower individuals and communities on every corner of the Earth with a platform to participate in the curation and moderation of AI systems.

👨🏾‍🚀 Founder:

Founded in May 2020 by Emal Alwis, a six-year veteran of the Tesla Autopilot. Avala aims to solve some of our world’s most pressing challenges by empowering communities with dignified digital work so that every human being can have access to an equitable wage from anywhere, at any time, with just a smartphone.

💻 The Role:

We are looking for a Product Designer who can tackle impossible problems, deliver innovative solutions and drive change in our industry. This is an opportunity to make a significant impact and be rewarded with significant ownership. We're looking for someone self-driven, who thrives in the very early stages of a company.

🏗️ Responsibilities:

• As a Product Designer at Avala you will develop and design simple, beautiful, user friendly solutions to complex design requirements.

• You will be responsible for the overall design roadmap, design thinking and fundamental principles of product design.

• Create best-in-class experiences for mobile apps and web applications and utilize a range of tools to articulate your ideas and bring them to life as prototypes and final products.

• Collaborate with Avala’s Operations, Product, Community, and Engineering teams to define and implement innovative solutions for the product direction, visuals and experience. 

• Approach design from a user’s perspective: listen to users and translate and prioritize their needs alongside business objectives and technical capabilities into joyful experiences for our users.

You'll enjoy this role if you can

• Be actively curious. Avala has more complex dimensions than most companies and you’ll have to understand and harness them to be effective. That motivates you more than it intimidates you.

• Be extremely resourceful. There is no playbook for what we’re doing and it excites you that you’ll have to find solutions across a broad array of problems.

• Thrive in a constantly changing environment. You don’t subscribe to sunk cost fallacy and you understand that because the organization is rapidly learning that means it will also be rapidly changing.

• Care about the best outcome. We don’t do hierarchy for hierarchy’s sake. If an intern has the best idea you will take it and implement it. If you are wrong in an assumption you will be upfront about it, own it and correct it instead of defending it or hiding it. 

• Believe in meritocracy with humility. When you’re the right person to solve a problem you do so without being asked. If someone else can do it better, you support them without defending your territory. You can put ego aside, recognizing that we are all on the same team trying to achieve the same mission.

🎓 Requirements:

• Previous work as a user interface/graphics designer with hands-on experience working within a design system to create wireframes, prototypes, storyboards and userflows.

• Possess superior UI skills and a strong portfolio that exhibits experience with interactive design and an ability to deliver beautiful, intuitive, and functional designs on tight deadlines and in a fast-paced environment.

• Solid understanding of UX methodology and user-centered design, with an in-depth knowledge of product development as it relates to mobile app development.

• Understanding of basic front end languages like HTML, CSS3, JavaScript, and proficiency in design and prototyping tools such as Figma.

• Experience working in an agile/scrum development process.

• Excellent analytical skills with a good problem-solving attitude.

• Clear and concise written and verbal communication

• Understanding of accessibility and inclusivity best practices.

• Team-oriented, with the ability to effectively communicate, provide feedback and inspire teammates.

• Previous experience working with a successful fintech or start-up team is a plus.

We have high standards and hire exceptional people who will push themselves every day. We hire based on the person first and encourage any candidate that meets 70% of the qualifications to still apply.

💰 Pay Transparency:

Based on California law, the following details are for California individuals only

🇺🇸 California base salary range:

$65,000 - $120,000 USD + cash and very generous stock awards + benefits

Your actual base salary and level will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at Avala. Employees are eligible for equity and benefits in addition.

📈 What we offer:

Along with competitive pay and generous stock, as a full-time Avala employee, you are eligible for the following benefits at day 1 of hire:

• An opportunity to change the world for the better, engineering solutions to solve problems that impact the most underserved communities in our world, while innovating at the bleeding edge of AI

• Growth potential. We rapidly advance team members who have an outsized impact

• Excellent medical, dental, and vision insurance

• Flexible parental leave

• Flexible time off + paid holidays

• Generous Equity + 401(k) plan

👥 Equal Opportunity and Accommodations:

Multiple studies have found that a higher percentage of women and BIPOC candidates won't apply if they don't meet every listed qualification. Avala values candidates of all backgrounds. If you find yourself excited by our mission but you don't check every box in the description, we encourage you to apply anyway!

Avala provides equal opportunity in all of our employment practices to all qualified employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital status, military status, genetic information or any other category protected by federal, state and local laws.  This policy applies to all aspects of the employment relationship, including recruitment, hiring, compensation, promotion, transfer, disciplinary action, layoff, return from layoff, training and social, and recreational programs. All such employment decisions will be made without unlawfully discriminating on any prohibited basis.

Avala is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the interview process.