Senior Product Designer

Job Description

What’s Bench? Check us out in Medium, Betakit, Financial Post, our Instagram, and our Life at Bench Blog.

We acknowledge that Bench headquarters is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Businesses need to understand their financial performance, but for many smaller ones, this means a trade-off between managing their books and running their businesses.

Our mission is to make a profound difference in the quality of life of one million people. From creatives to chiropractors, Bench helps thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs master their financial lives. Because understanding your finances should be three things: simple, effortless, and affordable.

We’re growing fast, and we’re looking for exceptional people to join us on this incredible journey. Check out our culture guide to learn more about what it’s like to work at Bench and read more about our business here!

What does Design mean to Bench?

Finance is inseparable from the human experience. Our personal finances influence our mental and physical wellbeing, where we live, our education, our family structures, and the opportunities we do or do not have.

Understanding how finances work is already challenging, on top of that there is confusing jargon and obscure maths that are intimidating and hard to grasp. Creating further obstacles for small-business owners who do not have access to resources that help them navigate this unfamiliar territory.

Finances can be scary. They don’t have to be. At Bench, we focus on simple, effective solutions that help small business owners stay focused on what they are experts at—running their business. We can only do that when we earn a client’s trust. Our mission is clear. Working at Bench isn’t just about fintech; it’s about understanding the humans behind every business and financial realities that they encounter. We strive everyday to make a positive difference in their quality of life.

As a Senior Product Designer you will work with teammates who share a passion for creating thoughtful and engaging customer experience. You are customer obsessed and will work backwards from the user to create these experiences. You’ll set the direction for the solution, take ownership, make calls, and work closely with a cross-functional team to see things through.

What you’ll be getting up to:

• Zoom in, Zoom out: From the grand product vision to the smallest microinteractions, we balance our contributions accordingly. As a senior, you embrace ambiguity and are an expert at bringing definition to abstract concepts.
• Be a pillar of the team: We all come from different backgrounds, whether that is UX, visual design, research or any other design practice area. You will have the opportunity to act as the resident expert in an area that you’re passionate about and be someone that the team will turn to for your expertise and knowledge.
• Lead by example: Whether forming and storming with a build team or mentoring team members, you are humble and curious, generous with your time, and meticulous with your work. You have the ability to tactfully present your opinions and welcome others to challenge them.

What you’ll need:

• Experience designing applications, experiences, products, and services that balance user needs, business objectives, and technological constraints.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to quickly understand complex systems and iterate ideas to improve them.
• A practice of making inquiry-lead, evidence-based decisions. There are always more big ideas than there is time to explore them. The discipline necessary to get to YES vs NO is critical.
• Enough experience, understanding, and context designing software that you know when to use established patterns and when to break them. Enough experience collaborating and communicating that you are a leader in bringing teams towards alignment on solutions.
• An activated curiosity and openness to being an equitable and inclusive leader. Our commitment to anti-racism and anti-discrimination as a company excites you.
• Empathy: We’re all just human, y’know?

It could be an even better fit if you:

• Have a well-developed equity lens: You actively engage in leadership of teams and of strategic-level work with an equity lens and an eye for inclusivity. You don’t just accept equitable practices, you model and advocate for them on your teams and in your work.
• Appreciation for complex systems: Our bookkeeping operation and expansion projects are a complex system designed to produce high-quality financials on time, with a high degree of efficiency. You’ll have to think about the full system, connecting the dots to figure out the best solution.

What you’ll get:

• This is a full-time permanent position because we want to spend lots of time with your wonderful self!
• This position offers an annual salary ($115,500 – $144,400), stock options, and an extended benefits package that includes health, dental, and vision.
• In addition, we offer an extended benefits package that includes paid vacation, unlimited paid flex days, stock options, and full health, dental, and vision. 
• You’ll get unlimited access to Inkblot Therapy, our virtual counselling service to support mental wellbeing, and Bravely, our confidential, on-demand, 1:1 professional coaching service.
• We have a number of Affinity Groups – groups of people who have shared identities and experiences! The purpose of these groups is to support underrepresented Benchmates and amplify their voices.
• Bench is moving towards being a fully remote organization and we have closed our Vancouver HQ. We will be providing alternative solutions to bring teams together for collaboration and connection.
• You’ll have access to our Home Office Setup Fund, to ensure that you have everything you need to work comfortably from home, from day one. 
• We currently focus our hiring efforts in the following provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

Everyone has their own unique talents. Even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications outlined above, tell us why you’d be a great fit for this role in your application.

We believe that unchecked biases disproportionately impact the most marginalized people in society—including but not limited to BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+ people, immigrants, and people with disabilities. We strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or other marginalized communities because we believe that without you, we are all less. At Bench, we don’t stand for tokenism. We stand for representation.