Director of Product Experience

About us: iconic brand, tiny company 

Polaroid was founded in 1937 by one of the most seminal innovators of the 20th century, Edwin Land. His motto was, "don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible." In 2008, Polaroid shuttered its last factory, but diehard fans came together as The Impossible Project to save the instant film. Over 10 years later, that startup acquired what was left of Polaroid, and today we're again a small group of people passionate about empowering creators to change the world in the name of Polaroid. 

Job Summary

As Director of Product Experience, you will play a key role in shaping the future of Polaroid. Reporting to the Chief Product Officer, you will lead a team of UX designers and own the vision, craft, and execution of the Polaroid experience across cameras, printers, connected devices, and the apps that bring them together.

This is the only role at Polaroid that operates across the entire product ecosystem. You will connect Industrial Design, Hardware Engineering, Hardware Product Management, and Digital, ensuring everything we build feels like one thoughtful, cohesive Polaroid experience. Your work will span interaction design, information architecture, navigation, physical controls, on-device UI, onboarding, app experiences, and the visual language across both hardware and software.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You will move seamlessly between concepting, prototyping, critique, and execution, from early R&D exploration to shipped products. You will define what great product experiences look and feel like, and uphold that standard through the complex realities of building hardware and software together.

Key Responsibilities:

• Shape and drive Polaroid's user experience direction across hardware and software, in close partnership with the Product Leadership Team, with a strong point of view and the ability to hold it under pressure. 

• Own the end-to-end product experience across physical devices, connected software, and companion apps, ensuring clarity, coherence, and craft at every touchpoint. 

• Work hand in hand with Industrial Design on the bridge between physical and digital: button layout, physical controls, ergonomics, on-device UI, and the moments where the object and the software meet. 

• Collaborate closely with Hardware Product Management and Hardware Engineering upstream, understanding feasibility, cost targets, and manufacturing timelines as real constraints that shape experience decisions. 

• Lead the design of information architecture, navigation, interaction models, onboarding flows, and core app experiences across Polaroid's connected product ecosystem. 

• Own the visual, graphical and experience design language across Polaroid's devices and apps, ensuring consistency, quality, and brand integrity in every UI element, icon, and on-device graphic. 

• Build and steward design systems that unify interaction patterns and visual language across physical and digital experiences. 

• Actively bring AI-assisted design tools and emerging interaction paradigms into how the team works and what we build. 

• Partner with Digital Product Management and Software Engineering to translate experience intent into shipped, high-quality software. 

Qualifications:

• You have 10+ years in consumer UX and a genuine point of view on what makes products emotionally resonant, not just functional. You have spent your career pursuing that standard. 

• You are the rare designer who holds the physical and digital in genuine tension. For Polaroid, the camera in someone's hands and the app on their phone are one experience, and you design both ends with equal care. 

• You have worked at the intersection of Industrial Design and UX, and you know how to navigate the handoff between physical form and digital experience, including situations where decisions had to be made before hardware was locked. 

• You are a natural coalition builder. You create clarity in messy, multi-disciplinary situations without needing authority over every function. People follow your lead because you make the work better. 

• You have built and led design teams with a high bar for craft, execution, and accountability, and you are energized by constraints, small teams, and the challenge of doing more with less. 

• You think natively about how AI and emerging technology can change what products do and how teams design them, and you can articulate how experience decisions connect to business outcomes. 

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