Back to jobs
New

Senior Director, Design & Research

United States & Canada

Who We Are

Babylist is the leading registry, e-commerce, and content platform for growing families. More than 9 million people shop with Babylist every year, making it the go-to destination for seamless purchasing, trusted guidance, and expert product recommendations for new parents and the people who love them. What began as a universal registry has grown into a full ecosystem for new parents, including the Babylist Shop, Babylist Health, and a flagship showroom in Los Angeles. Hundreds of brands in baby and beyond partner with Babylist to engage meaningfully with families during one of life’s most important transitions. With over $1 billion in annual GMV, and more than $500 million in 2024 revenue, Babylist is reshaping the $320 billion baby product industry. We’re helping parents feel confident, connected, and cared for at every step. As we build the generational brand in baby, our mission remains simple: to connect growing families with everything they need to thrive.To learn more, visit www.babylist.com.

Our Ways of Working

Babylist thrives as a remote-first company, with HQ team members located across the U.S. and Canada. We meet in person twice a year—once as a company and once by department to strengthen the relationships that power our work. We show up consistently, stay purpose-driven, leverage AI to amplify our impact, and achieve results—together, from anywhere.

What the Role Is

Babylist is hiring a Senior Director of Product Design and Research to shape the long-term experience strategy across Product Design, User Research, UX Content Design, and Design System. These functions are central to how Babylist supports parents and gift givers as they discover products, build a registry, manage health needs, and shop with confidence.

This role reports to the Chief Product Officer to ensure that user insight, research, and product judgment meaningfully influence how Babylist sets priorities, builds products, and plans for the future. The Senior Director guides the vision for usability, accessibility, clarity, and experience quality across platforms and surfaces. The role sets direction for how Babylist integrates AI into user workflows in ways that are intuitive, helpful, and trustworthy.

This is a strategic leadership role that shapes how the organization understands users, identifies the problems that matter most, and brings clarity to product decisions. It also develops the systems, rituals, and team structures that help designers, researchers, and content designers work at a high level and deliver consistent experiences as Babylist scales.

Who You Are

  • Experienced design leader with 12+ years in product design and 5+ years managing and developing design teams in a user-centered, product-driven environment.
  • Strong product and user experience thinker applying clear judgment grounded in usability, accessibility, research, and real user insight.
  • Broad design generalist with exposure to research, content design, or design systems as an added strength.
  • Strategic problem solver comfortable shaping direction across complex product areas and multiple platforms.
  • Clear communicator who collaborates effectively with Product, Engineering, and Marketing.
  • Practical AI partner with a working understanding of how AI can support workflows and user-facing experiences.
  • User-centered leader motivated by supporting parents, gift givers, and growing families.
  • Systems-minded operator focused on clarity, outcomes, and building structures that help teams work effectively.
  • Executive-ready partner able to influence decisions with evidence, research, and product insight.

How You Will Make An Impact

  • Set and champion a multi-year user experience direction for Babylist, create a clear, inspiring vision for how registry, health, shopping, and content should evolve, grounded in user insight, research, and design judgment.
  • Shape company-level planning with user insight and evidence bringing research, data, and clear user needs into executive decisions to prioritize the problems that matter most.
  • Lead Babylist’s approach to AI-supported experiences setting the direction for how AI supports user workflows and decision-making through simple and intuitive interfaces.
  • Set clear standards for usability, accessibility, and quality establishing expectations that improve clarity, consistency, and experience quality across platforms.
  • Develop the strategic plan for Product Design and Research defining team structure, capacity, and long-term goals that align with company priorities.
  • Build systems that support effective planning and decision making evolving current processes to support clear priorities, consistent alignment, and strong execution across teams.
  • Establish mechanisms that measure experience quality tracking usability, user satisfaction, research insights, and design system adoption to create clear visibility for leaders and teams.
  • Guide execution across multiple platforms and surfaces providing direction that helps teams navigate complexity and deliver cohesive, high-quality experiences.
  • Identify and prioritize high-impact user problems partnering with Product and Engineering to focus on the issues that most affect parents and gift givers.
  • Scale the Heartbeat Design System across the organization expanding adoption to improve consistency and long-term sustainability.
  • Develop and grow multidisciplinary design teams supporting designers, researchers, and content designers with clear expectations, feedback, and development paths.
  • Increase visibility into user experience work across Babylist improving how user needs, research findings, and experience updates are communicated across Product, Engineering, and partner teams.
  • Represent Product Design and Research at the executive level influencing company strategy and ensuring user needs stay central to decisions and long-term planning.

Why You Will Love Working At Babylist

Our Culture

  • We work with focus and intention, then step away to recharge
  • We believe in exceptional management and invest in tools and opportunities to connect with colleagues
  • We build products that positively impact millions of people's lives
  • AI is intentionally embedded in how we work, create, and scale—supporting innovation and impact

Growth & Development

  • Competitive pay and meaningful opportunities for career advancement
  • We believe technology and data can solve hard problems
  • We're committed to career progression and performance-based advancement

Compensation & Benefits

  • Competitive salary with equity and bonus opportunities
  • Company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • Retirement savings plan with company matching and flexible spending accounts
  • Generous paid parental leave and PTO
  • Remote work stipend to set up your office
  • Perks for physical, mental, and emotional health, parenting, childcare, and financial planning

About Compensation

We use a market-based approach to compensation. The starting salary range for this role is:

US: $261,450 to $313,740 USD

Canada: $260,500 to $325,750 CAD

Your starting salary will be based on your location, experience, and qualifications, with increases over time tied to performance, role growth, and internal pay equity.

Important Notices

Interview Process & Consent
Babylist uses AI to record and transcribe all interviews for evaluation purposes in accordance with CCPA and GDPR. By participating in an interview, you consent to this recording and transcription.

Interview Integrity
During the interview process, we're evaluating your individual problem-solving skills, creativity, and approach to challenges. While AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor are part of your daily toolkit once you join Babylist, all interviews, assessments, and take-home assignments must be completed independently. 

You may not use AI tools, third-party services, coaching platforms, or content-farming services during any part of the interview process unless we explicitly permit it. We will clearly communicate when AI tools are allowed for specific assessments.

Any indication of third-party assistance or AI-generated responses will result in immediate disqualification. We may also verify educational credentials through third-party sources—providing false or misleading information will result in removal from consideration.

Official Communication
All communication will come only from the Babylist Talent Team via an @babylist.com email address. We will never request payment, bank information, or personal financial details. Be cautious of fraudulent outreach via non-company email addresses, messaging platforms (e.g., WhatsApp, Telegram), or unsolicited phone calls. Verify legitimate opportunities on our careers page.

SMS Consent
You may opt in to receive text message updates about your application or interviews. Opting out will not affect your application status—communication will continue via email or phone. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to unsubscribe or HELP for assistance. See our Privacy Policy for more information.

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at Babylist? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Babylist’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.