Introduce Yourself
First, a disclaimer: Upstatement is not actively hiring for this role right now.
To see all active openings, please check out our careers page. If nothing looks perfect and you’d like to be considered for a future opportunity, this is the place to reach out. Due to the volume of applications, we can’t promise a response. However, we will take a look at all applications.
If you meet one of the following criteria, we’d love to hear from you:
- Your design work is recognized as top-tier
- You can design and write clean code (HTML, CSS, JS)
- You’re experienced in editorial, digital brand, or product design
People who succeed here are empathetic teammates who are candid, kind, caring, and embody our core values. We believe that diverse, inclusive teams make the most impactful work. Upstatement is deeply invested in ensuring that we have a supportive, growth-oriented environment that works for everyone.
Why Upstatement
Upstatement is a digital product studio with an editorial mindset. We use the tools of design, engineering, and journalism to enrich lives and create a more just society. Our 40-person team works with established leaders (MIT, ESPN, PBS, Microsoft) and emerging companies who are about to change the world. We are members of the kyu Collective and combine the energy of a boutique studio with the business maturity of an established global innovation leader.
- Work with ethical and mission-driven organizations.
- Collaborate in a high-trust environment that empowers creative ownership.
- Build a portfolio you can be proud of.
- Blossom in a small studio culture full of top talent and peers who help you grow.
- Find your path at a place that prizes flexibility: We encourage experimentation, support role switching, and help people balance between maker/manager and lead/support.
What You’ll Do
- Participate an end-to-end design process. Contribute visual ideas as research. Express strategic ideas through design. Communicate the rationale behind your work. Make it beautiful, and (most important) deliver what users need.
- Establish a vision that is informed by research, connected to business outcomes, and driven by you. Present to clients with support from the team.
- Conduct research. Run workshops, participate in user interviews, and gather inputs throughout the process. Design new activities as goals dictate.
- Explore complex problem spaces with an open mind. Feel comfortable with ambiguity. Generate multiple solutions, rapidly iterate, and make strategic product decisions in partnership with a team.
- Sweat the details. Impeccable execution and deep care given to all aspects of design, large and small: strategy, messaging, brand, colors, typography, icons — everything.
- Communicate clearly. Share daily status with teams. Deliver concepts to clients. Talk through thorny issues as they arise. Show excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills that build strong relationships.
- Love (and evolve) the process. Follow established practices and invent new ones. Evolve our process to be more thoughtful, effective, and accessible to all.
- Contribute to an inclusive culture where people feel productive, creative, and safe. Be unafraid to name problems and move toward solutions with optimism, clarity, and calm.
About You
While we employ a range of roles with a diversity of different skill sets (Creative Directors, Front-End Designers, Brand Designers, Strategists, and more), there are some qualities we always look for in candidates.
- Professional hands-on experience as a designer, front-end developer, or creative director.
- Proven portfolio of work demonstrating business impact across products and websites.
- Strategy expressed through design. The ability to synthesize research — interviews, workshops, competitive audits — that result in impactful design executions across a wide range of audiences and industries.
- Expert at breaking down complexity and understanding each client’s business context. A systems thinker who actively works to identify the big opportunity. Clearly articulates the why behind every decision.
- Gives and receives feedback with empathy to ensure work is always aligned to the core idea and meets quality standards.
- Confident communicator and active listener that can lead any room to trust your design expertise. Maintains strong relationships with collaborators and client stakeholders, even when challenged.
- Ability to succeed even in the face of ambiguity. Comfortable working iteratively. Can step into this role with minimal training.
- Experience designing around complex interactions or content, such as apps and editorial products
- Competitive salary
- Experience true life-work balance with a 4-Day Work Week.
- Health, Dental, & Vision Insurance
- Flexible Spending & Health Savings Accounts
- Online Mental Health Therapy with Talkspace & First Stop Health
- Short & Long Term Disability Insurance
- One Medical membership
- Health Advocacy Support
- Gynecology and Family-building Care with Kindbody
- Non-elective 401k company contribution
- $1,000 home office setup stipend
- $1,500 annual professional development budget
- 3 weeks vacation to start, plus company-wide closure between Christmas & New Year’s Day (fully paid)
- 12 weeks paid parental leave, plus 12 additional weeks available as unpaid
- Co-working spaces in New York City, Boston, and Chicago as well as a fully distributed workforce
Interview Process
Our goal is to get to know you in a low-pressure, friendly environment — and to give you ample opportunity to learn more about us, too.
Our typical process includes these types of experiences:
- A resume screen and introductory phone/video chat
- A take-home exercise where you’ll have the opportunity to demonstrate your communication and problem-solving skills
- Additional conversations with potential future team members, the hiring manager, and leadership
Our goal is to create an environment where you can interview at your best. Our interview process is fully remote, conducted via Zoom calls. If we can provide any assistance or accommodations during your time with us, please let us know at [email protected]. All requests are treated as privately as possible and have no impact on candidate eligibility.
Interested in applying?
Send us a resume, cover letter, and anything else that helps us understand what makes you awesome.
Women, people of color, LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, and members of other underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply. Upstatement is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against candidates on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, or veteran status. Upstatement is committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyone — you are welcome here.
FWIW: Worries of “what if I’m not the perfect fit” can sometimes hold us back from applying to jobs. We want to let you in on a secret: there is no perfect candidate. Sure, we’re interested in resumes, but also the narrative beyond that resume—unique backgrounds, experiences, points of views, etc. As such—there is no set of boxes to tick in order to be a good candidate. If this is a job that excites you, we hope you’ll apply.
Top Skills
What We Do
Born in the newsrooms of The New York Times and the Boston Globe, we transform organizations by bringing their stories to life.
Our cross-disciplinary teams work at the intersection of design, engineering, and storytelling, and have a track record for digital innovation—including one of the key moments in media design history. Upstatement launched the first mainstream responsive website for The Boston Globe, proving it could be done at scale and paving the way for a ubiquitous technology. Since then, we’ve shipped software that millions of people use every day.
Our products help people do a lot of different things—stay informed, apply to college, chat about books, and even save lives—but there’s a theme to our work: We choose ethical partners who share our desire to make a positive impact on humanity. Our favorite projects propel meaningful change, like ending gun violence and greening the planet. It’s all unified by strong stories and consistent values
