Associate Product Designer

We’re looking for an Associate Product Designer to create outstanding experiences for our dog-loving customers in the UK and beyond.

Changing the world of pet food for good

We’re tails.com, a dog food subscription company with a big difference. We create truly tailored food for each and every dog we serve. We start by asking people a few simple questions about their dog. Then we use that information to create their dog’s unique tails.com recipe – so their dog gets exactly the nutrition they need, in the taste they love, delivered to their door every month. It’s clever stuff.

We’ve got ambitious plans. Having created an entirely new category in pet food, we’re now scaling fast in the UK and Europe – backed by Purina, one of the world’s largest pet food companies. You’ll join a bunch of smart people working towards the same goals – and a bunch of smart-ish dogs, all working on their own thing.

Together, we’ll change the world of pet food for good.

Designed to delight our customers

Join Product Design at tails.com, and you’ll be right in the midst of the action – designing product experiences that delight our customers. No one does what we do in the direct-to-consumer space, so it’s your chance to really make your mark.

We work in highly collaborative cross-functional squads, bringing together engineers, designers, researchers, data analysts, and whoever else we need to get the work done. It’s a good mix of swift, tactical work – and taking time to tackle big, hairy problems.

We’re a proper team of designers. (If you’ve ever worked as the sole designer in a company, you’ll know what a difference that makes.)

Sounds like a team you'd like to join? Here’s how you’ll make a difference:

Build our brand

We’re building an international brand, fast. We set ambitious goals. We challenge and support each other in equal measure. At the pace we’re moving, we prefer to test ideas and learn quickly rather than spend months building a business case. That means we celebrate when things go right, and we learn when things go wrong.

The role

We are seeking an Associate Product Designer with a passion for finding solutions that deliver usable and joyful experiences to our dog-loving customers in the UK and beyond. The ideal candidate will be passionate about design thinking and always focused on the needs of the customer.

You will work with other designers and cross-functional team members and will rely heavily on both qualitative and quantitative data to make informed decisions.

You will be responsible for:

• Participating in various design projects from concept to completion;
• Producing drafts, prototypes, and engaging design solutions;
• Understanding customer needs in order to design relevant solutions;
• Developing an intuitive eye for customer needs beyond the obvious;

• Using design as a tool to drive rapid learning to ensure we’re solving our customers most important problems;

• Utilising feedback from other designers to hone skills and improve design;

• Building partnerships with Product Designers, Product Managers, User Researchers, Engineers, and other key members of our cross-functional teams;
• Coordinating with other design team members to ensure consistent and accurate communication.

The skills you’ll bring:

• Passion for design and creative problem-solving skills (e.g., a desire to consistently question the status quo and constantly improve ways of working);
• Experience with design software (e.g. InVision and Sketch);
• Familiarity with design techniques and methodologies;
• Understanding of visual elements (e.g., layout, type, and fonts);
• A keen eye for detail, creativity skills, and problem-solving aptitude;
• Time management and multitasking abilities;
• Ability to thrive on a team in a fast-paced and rapidly-growing agile environment.

Our commitment

We’re proud to be an active equal opportunity employer. We want to give everyone a fair chance to join us in changing the world of pet food for good. We do this by conducting a structured recruitment process for all candidates, as well as actively promoting our roles to communities that are under-represented at tails.com.

During your interview process you’ll meet some of our team with varying levels of responsibility and experience. We want to give every candidate a fair interview process and if you need any reasonable adjustments made, please let us know.

What's in it for you?

• Competitive salary, reviewed annually.
• Annual bonus, based on company performance.
• Flexible core hours, giving you true work life balance.
• Hybrid role to ensure this role works for you.
• 25 days of holiday (excluding bank holidays) which increases over time to a max of 27 days.
• 9/10 day working week, meaning every other Friday off to enhance your wellbeing without a reduction in pay and leave allowance.
• Optional 5 days unpaid leave and 1 paid volunteer day each year.
• When you need a change of scenery, you can work from abroad 2 weeks every 6 months.
• Health insurance for you, paid by tails.com and discounted gym membership.
• Extended maternity, shared parental and adoption pay. Up to 6 months at 70% pay, linked to statutory parental pay.
• Flexible paid care leave to support immediate dependents, people close to you and pets.
• Electric car lease, through a salary sacrifice scheme.
• An external financial coach to support a range of topics - debt management, savings and investments.
• Vet service - to support with all pet related questions.
• In house L&D team, with access to year round courses to help drive your development.
• 50% discount on all tails.com and 40% on Republic of Cats products.

What’s next?

If this sounds like it matches your experience and what you’d love to do, we can’t wait to hear from you! If you’re unsure whether you fit our criteria exactly, please get in touch anyway. And because we believe that diverse teams perform better, we’d especially love to hear from you if you’re from an under-represented demographic.

Here’s a taster of how our recruitment process works:

1. Once you have applied, your CV will be reviewed by the Hiring Manager.
2. If selected, you will then have a call with the Talent Acquisition Manager for 30 minutes to understand more about your skills and experience.
3. If successful, you will be invited to present a case study to a panel of interviewers for 1 hour.
4. If your skills demonstrated in the case study are relevant for this role, you will be invited to have a video call or in-person interview with peers from the Product Management, Brand, and Engineering teams for 45 minutes.
5. The final stage is a video call or in-person interview with our Head of Product Design for 45 minutes.