Group Design Manager
Who we are
A piece of the moon, a complete dinosaur skeleton, the Pope's hat, the world's smallest book - at Catawiki, we come across exceptional objects such as these every day. Catawiki is the leading online marketplace to buy and sell special objects. We offer over 75,000 special objects in auction every week — each reviewed and selected by one of Catawiki’s hundreds of in-house experts specialised in Art, Design, Jewellery, Fashion, Classic Cars, Collectables and many more. We've sold 10 million unique items to date and it’s our mission to become the world’s most popular auction destination for special objects. We’re an innovative, pioneering and fast-growing scale-up. If you think you can make a difference to our team, go ahead and apply.
The team you’ll join
At Catawiki, we know our customer's experience is built by the entire journey; from initial brand perception all the way through to selling & buying, paying & shipping, and service & support. In the Group Design Manager role (GDM), you’ll work on one of the key elements of our value proposition, such as ‘delightful discovery’, ‘curation by in-house experts’, or ‘smooth and easy shipping’, to name just a few. You’ll be working in an ambitious, forward-thinking team where you'll be responsible for setting a high bar for other designers and supporting them to deliver it. You’ll build a great team and keep them motivated, productive, and constantly growing.
The difference you’ll make
Our GDM position uniquely combines strategy, people management, and hands-on individual contribution, offering you the chance to lead and greatly impact customer-centricity across all levels and teams. We are looking for two (2) GDMs for our Demand and Fulfillment Verticals. In these roles, you will focus on:
1. Vision & Strategy
- Help shape group-level strategy, and design an experience vision that creates competitive advantage.
- Fully grasp company and product strategies and help align the teams around them.
- A key contributor to product strategy. Understand what a successful strategy looks like, and you will provide critical input.
- Identify and shape the experiences we should build to deliver on group strategy, defining how that will work within the overall context of Catawiki.
- Advocate for solutions that impact metrics that matter and drive success for the business.
- Form and inform opinions on how we should best compete in our competitive landscape and guide product decisions accordingly.
- Build a deep understanding of the needs of our target customers through direct customer contact.
- Experienced in how teams of this scale operate and what they value.
2. People & Organization
- Create a healthy, optimistic team where people are engaged, growing and working well with others.
- Build healthy and happy teams, delivering high performance. Lead with positive energy, build an inclusive environment, and help teams understand how their work ladders up to company-level strategic goals and success.
- Manage up to 4 designers, usually within a group, with dotted lines to other sub functions in the group (e.g. writer, researcher).
- Help improve our process for attracting high-quality candidates.
- Challenge and empower your team, creating clarity on how to achieve career progression.
- Provide private and public praise for work. Ensure designers know what they are doing well and feel proud of good work. Address performance and behavioral concerns when needed, reinstating a positive trajectory.
3. Impact & Execution
- Support the team in delivering sustainable impact on company objectives.
- Ensure effective discovery, delivery and go-to-market strategies. Advocate for teams to make decisions that are aligned with our experience principles.
- Form a strong partnership with your Group Product Manager, acting as a critical partner and driving executional alignment. Give feedback on prioritization, roadmapping, and scoping conversations, ensuring design capacity is factored in.
- Ensure the creation of clear, effective system design and concept design for key user flows, leaning in to directly support delivery where necessary. Coach designers and peers on how to do this well.
- Focus solutions that drive value for the business, making smart decisions about quality/effort tradeoffs, understanding and tracking key metrics. Biased towards finding solutions and taking action.
- Drive the delivery of high-quality work. You’ll provide clear, effective feedback via design pulses, 1:1 working sessions or async feedback. Provide feedback that teaches in addition to guiding output, and help accelerate by delivering incisive feedback and ensuring designers are consistently on track.
Who you are
- A strong conceptual thinker who always prioritizes user needs.
- An excellent communicator and storyteller with a portfolio to demonstrate your skills.
- A hands-on, exceptional designer with extensive UX and design experience.
- An experienced team leader, skilled in managing and developing people.
- Possessing good instincts for planning and prioritization, with experience in product design/development at scale.
- Equipped with a broad spectrum skillset across interaction design, UX research, and UX writing.
- Having a broad technical understanding and the ability to identify and leverage trends.
- Comfortable working in an ambiguous environment.
- Possessing a sharp and critical eye for expert execution within the team, with a patient and optimistic approach.
- 7+ years of industry experience.
Where you’ll be
Catawiki is hybrid but not fully remote: this role requires you to collaborate with team members in-person, on a weekly basis, at our office located in Amsterdam. We offer an excellent relocation package for people living outside of the Netherlands.
Here’s what we can offer you
This is your chance to join our mission to fulfill people’s passions as part of a young and dynamic organization. You'll be part of an enthusiastic, highly motivated team of 800+ Catawikians. Additionally, you can expect:
- A challenging role in a diverse, international and fast-growing organisation with over 50 nationalities.
- Regular fun activities both on and offline e.g summer parties, boat rides and regular team events.
- Great secondary benefits including a holiday allowance and a fantastic pension plan paid for by Catawiki.
- Hybrid ways of working between home and office. We offer remote and activity-based working, suited to the team and individual responsibilities.
- We care about our teams’ wellbeing and offer a holistic wellbeing programme including our Employee Assistance Programme offering clinical services, single-session therapy, wellness support and more.
- Tailored learning and development opportunities to support your personal and professional growth.
Our commitment to you
Catawiki’s eclectic team represents an international and intergenerational mix of people from different professional and cultural backgrounds. We foster an inclusive and queer-friendly work environment, committed to making every Catawikian feel welcomed and empowered. Whatever your story, we encourage you to bring your unique perspective to the table. Catawiki stands with Ukraine and encourages people displaced by the current conflict to apply. In addition to the several initiatives we’ve launched, we’re open to ideas on ways we can continue to support the humanitarian effort.
Our offices and way of working
We have sensational offices in Amsterdam, Groningen, Paris and our newest office in Lisbon. Most of our employees are within commutable distance of one of our office locations and enjoy a hybrid work model. This means we expect you to be in the office 2 out of 5 days, roughly 40% of your working time, to collaborate and connect with each other. The exception is of course, if the job description specifically states that the role is 100% remote, as some experts and sales positions are.
Interested?
Apply directly with an English CV and cover letter by submitting your information at the bottom of this page. By submitting your application you agree to Catawiki’s Applicant Privacy Policy.
If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
