Lead Product Designer

Help build the future of global mental health support.

At Crisis Text Line, our mission is simple yet bold: to bring accessible, high-quality mental health support to anyone, anywhere, at any time. Our technology powers our U.S. operations and enables international partners around the world to deliver real-time, human-centered crisis support.

To scale this impact globally, we’re building a next-generation AI-enabled enterprise SaaS platform—and we’re searching for a Design Lead who is ready to own a critical part of that evolution.

This is a rare opportunity to design an AI-enabled, global enterprise SaaS product that directly improves mental health outcomes at a global scale. If you’re energized by untangling complex problems, designing intuitive experiences, and mission-driven innovation, we’d love to meet you.

In this fully remote role, you will apply research, system design, and interaction design to craft experiences that support user and business needs following clinical policies. This individual-contributor role has the potential to evolve into a management position over the next 12-24 months.

Responsibilities:

As a Design Lead, working on a small team, you are both strategic and hands-on. You will define UX strategy while directly designing the screens, flows, and assets needed to ship features.

While reporting to the VP of Product, you’ll work closely with product and engineering to define problems, explore solutions, validate ideas, and deliver elegant, intuitive interfaces that scale.

Responsibilities

• Partner with researchers and product managers to understand user needs and requirements, and translate insights into human-centered designs.
• Create conceptual designs, UI mockups, user flows, prototypes, and final specifications to help define and improve the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI). Conduct iterative testing with users to validate designs.
• Communicate conceptual ideas, detailed design, and design rationale both verbally and visually.
• Ensure consistency across the platform by leveraging Tailwind to build, maintain, and enhance our Design System.
• Collaborate closely with engineering to ensure design specifications are implemented accurately.
• Analyze metrics and behavioral data to refine designs post-launch
• Establish best practices for product design processes within a small, fast-paced team.
• Own product UX vision, roadmap alignment, and design quality
• Exercise ethical decision-making to ensure our products and services are accessible and human-centered and do not uphold clinical policies.

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years designing and shipping SaaS or enterprise products, with a portfolio showing end-to-end UX ownership.
• Ability to define UX strategy while remaining highly hands-on in execution.
• Strong systems thinking, information architecture, and interaction design for complex platforms.
• Experience building, scaling, and maintaining Design Systems in partnership with engineering (including component-based or design-to-code workflows such as Tailwind).
• Advanced proficiency in Figma and modern prototyping tools.
• Proven collaboration with product, engineering, and research to define problems, validate solutions, and ship features.
• Experience using user research, usability testing, and product metrics to guide and refine design decisions.
• Experience working on AI-enabled or data-driven products, with awareness of trust, transparency, and ethical design considerations.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to clearly explain design decisions and influence stakeholders.
• Ability to thrive in a small, fast-paced, remote-first environment with strong ownership and accountability.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing in regulated or high-stakes domains (mental health, healthcare, fintech, safety, or similar).
• Working knowledge of accessibility standards and inclusive design practices (e.g., WCAG).
• Experience owning or evolving a large-scale Design System across teams or products.
• Experience mentoring designers or contributing to design leadership.
• Experience shaping long-term UX vision and influencing product roadmaps.
• Familiarity with ethical AI principles and designing guardrails for AI-driven experiences.
• Experience designing for global or international SaaS platforms and diverse user populations.

Reliable High-Speed Internet Required: Must have a stable high-speed internet connection to support seamless remote collaboration, virtual meetings, online job tasks, etc.

The full salary range for this position, across all United States geographies, is $104,412 to $141,078. The upper portion of the salary range is typically reserved for existing employees who demonstrate strong performance over time. Starting salary will vary by location, qualifications, and prior experience; during the interview process, candidates will learn the starting salary range applicable for their location. We pay competitively in the tech-forward nonprofit space and offer a robust benefits package.

Only candidates in the following states will be eligible for employment: CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, MD, MA, MI, MO, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, PA, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA

Benefits & Well-Being

Crisis Text Line offers thoughtfully designed, equity-centered benefits that support holistic wellness, financial security, and flexibility. Our benefits are built to meet people where they are and reduce barriers to care and sustainability.

Highlights include:

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision options that prioritize accessibility and financial peace of mind
• Employer-funded HSA contributions
• Generous PTO, sick time, and 19 paid holidays with a winter break
• 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave after 26 consecutive weeks of service
• Monthly wellness and mental health stipends
• Home office and professional development stipends
• 403(b) retirement plan with employer contribution
• Sabbatical after 3 years of service

Benefits are for U.S.-based employees; international benefits may vary.

#LI-KR1

This is a remote-only position

Only candidates in the following states will be eligible for employment: CO, CT, FL, GA, IL, IN, MD, MA, MI, NJ, NM, NY, NC, PA, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA.