Staff Product Designer

London, England, United Kingdom

11/11/2024

About Sotheby's

Established in 1744, Sotheby’s is the world’s premier destination for art and luxury. Sotheby’s promotes access to and ownership of exceptional art and luxury objects through auctions and buy-now channels including private sales, e-commerce and retail. Our trusted global marketplace is supported by an industry-leading technology platform and a network of specialists spanning 40 countries and 70 categories which include Contemporary Art, Modern and Impressionist Art, Old Masters, Chinese Works of Art, Jewelry, Watches, Wine and Spirits, and Design, as well as collectible cars and real estate. Sotheby’s believes in the transformative power of art and culture and is committed to making our industries more inclusive, sustainable and collaborative.

THE ROLE

Sotheby’s is a 275-year-old globally renowned auction house leading the way in the digital transformation of art and luxury. We provide a space where the finest art and objects in history can be exchanged among collectors in a white glove service experience.

The Product & Technology division is a team of designers, product managers, engineers, data scientists, and business intelligence analysts that plan and execute elegant experiences for buyers or sellers on the secondary art market, luxury e-commerce, blockchain, art intelligence, financial services, and more. Our product design team’s mission is to make selling, buying, and bidding delightful, simple, and efficient for all of our users—both clients and staff.

We are currently looking for a talented and motivated Staff Product Designer to join this cross-disciplinary team in London.

This designer will be responsible for the product experience lifecycle: from discovery to execution, working comfortably with UX/UI tools or methods to help support your users and your teams. The products you will be focusing on are critical internal tools that enable our auctions/e-commerce business. Our business proposition is unique and the tools needed to support that require new ways of thinking. The ideal candidate will demonstrate a strong background in designing complex systems and workflows. The candidate should be comfortable understanding uncommon workflows, drafting user flows, and creating IA maps for complex systems.

They’ll also need to negotiate the experience improvement they propose, advocate for data and UI consistency, and collaborate effectively with discerning internal staff, building strong relationships with them. It’s important that they closely connect with the product team to articulate a vision for the product's future, identify any necessary research, and partner with the research team to validate hypotheses.

The ideal candidate applies research insights from user interviews and analytics to recommend design improvements on an ongoing basis. Working with our stakeholders to lead strategic UX roadmap planning and product vision in a dynamic, fast paced environment is a key part of this job.

As a staff designer, you will lead by example and use your persuasiveness and communication skills to bring that vision to life. You will also serve as a mentor to younger team members and help them develop their thinking around usability and experiences that delight customers while balancing business needs.

This is an exciting opportunity to help shape the next generation of art market, luxury, and services-oriented digital products reaching millions of people worldwide.

Remote candidates based in the United Kingdom will be considered. Requires travel occasionally (1-2 times a year) to the corporate offices in London and/or New York.

Responsibilities

• Lead product divisions and teams in providing deliverables through the entire UX/UI design lifecycle (research, design, test and delivery).
• Help define design goals and objectives with product managers.
• Conduct stakeholder interviews, workshops & requirements gathering.
• Create and execute research & testing plans.
• Undertake competitive research and market research related to the business.
• Plan and conduct user research, interviews & usability tests.
• Create personas, user journeys and scenarios that help teams align while focusing on excellence.
• Design low fidelity system flows, wireframes & prototypes to validate ideas quickly.
• Evaluate user feedback, stakeholder input and tech constraints to iterate on designs.
• Provide high-fidelity final UI designs and prototypes across devices and breakpoints for developers to reference while building.
• Provide feedback and approve design QA, ensuring engineering work matches design specifications.
• Help plan and monitor design performance data to recommend improvements over time.
• Utilize and contribute to our design system.
• Work with the design team to advance UX and design thinking within the company.
• Mentor and coach other designers through constructive feedback and knowledge sharing.
  
  

Experience

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 15+ years of experience in Product Design, UX and UI Design delivering high-quality and impactful products.
• Experience working with Figma (preferred), Sketch, AdobeXD or similar tools
• Portfolio of work across web and app in leading consumer-focused technology companies is strongly preferred.
• Understanding of responsive web design principles and basic technical architecture is preferred.
• Prior experience with mobile applications is strongly preferred.
• Strategic thinking about user goals and coming up with multiple design tactics to achieve them.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills. Comfortable presenting and speaking to stakeholders and the business.
• Thrives in the multidisciplinary nature of this work, building relationships with other roles and teams across the organization that help us collect and analyze customer feedback or data on current experiences.
• Ability to see patterns and distill insights from different sources to produce. recommendations for UX and product improvements.
• Ability to work independently and proactively as a thought leader in design.
• Ability to demonstrate a high level of expertise in one or more product design specializations
• Ability to assume a Product Manager role for specific projects
• Ability to take part in strategic meetings with upper management to help shape product development
• A strong grasp of business metrics and a track record of delivering results for the company
• Experience in adapting to product design and development trends and best practices
• Previous experience in e-commerce, logistics or service designs connecting multiple data sources is a plus.
  
  

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The Company is an equal opportunity employer and considers all applicants for employment without regard to race (including, without limitation, traits historically associated with race, such as natural hair, hair texture, and protective and treated or untreated hairstyles), color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital or civil partnership/union status, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy, genetic predisposition, genetic information, reproductive health decision, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, alienage or citizenship status, domestic violence victim status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state/province or local law. The Company complies with applicable state and local laws prohibiting discrimination in employment in every jurisdiction in which it operates.