“For me, open source is a moral thing.”

“Has anyone ever said, ‘I wish I could go to more meetings today’?”

— Matt Mullenweg

Wert&Co. has been retained by Automattic (the creator of https://wordpress.com) to fill a key leadership role as the company continues to scale and grow their business globally. We are seeking a Head of Design with a mentoring and guiding spirit––with a desire to lead, support and nurture Automattic’s world class team of designers and to help craft a cohesive design language.

Automattic, who recently celebrated their 10th birthday, is the engine of the independent web (over 26%! and working towards 51%!) and is committed to bringing creativity back to it.

Automattic’s workforce is distributed around the world and is fully devoted to the philosophy of being Open Source—location included. Designers operate within over 40 teams across different time zones, meeting several times a year within groups, and once a year with the company as a whole. In a virtual, asynchronous realm (they run their company without offices or email) the Head of Design will be integrally involved in the day-to-day of product development acting as an empathetic, inspired resource for designers, encouraging and guiding them on high level considerations as well as deliverables and efficiencies. The Head of Design will also act as a magnet for talent, further building rigorously driven creative teams.

Reporting to the CEO Matt Mullenweg, the Head of Design will be a member of the four person Bridge team—the leadership board that oversees the company—and will represent and evangelize design across the company as a whole. They will play a fundamental role in helping shape Automattic’s continuing high growth, building upon their compelling business narrative and diverse, democratic internal culture.

Role & Responsibility

Nurturing the continued growth, education and creativity of the 30+ designers at Automattic across many teams and cities.

Hiring and recruiting new design talent.

Bringingthe voice of everyone in a design role to the executive team. Acting as an effective facilitator between designers, team leads, and company leadership.

Ensuring a consistent experience, aesthetic voice and high level of quality in everything Automattic designs.

Helping designers understand the context of their work and the broader vision for Automattic’s products.

Being a compassionate and effective design steward. Able to succinctly communicate the CEO’s vision by creating a defined path for designers as well as communicating their aspirations reciprocally.

Aligning design resources to company goals and product initiatives.

Work Style

Able to quickly iterate designs and ideas when needed.

Able to design patterns across platforms (web, mobile web, iOS, Android).

Effective at building a diagram, image, prototype or mockup to convey ideas.

Everything starts with research and benchmarking.

Gives and receives feedback with high regard for both emotional and technical concerns.

Educating and teaching is better than just doing.

Entrepreneurial and self-motivated. Able to operate effectively in a flat organization with minimal guidance.

Ability to work cross-functionally within a geographically distributed environment.

About Automattic by Automattic

All around the world, Building a new web, and a new workplace. We are the people behind https://wordpress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Simplenote, Longreads, VaultPress, Akismet, Gravatar, Polldaddy, Cloudup, and more. We believe in making the web a better place.

We’re a distributed company with 448 Automatticians in 45 countries. Our common goal is to democratize publishing so that anyone with a story can tell it, regardless of income, gender, politics, language, or where they live in the world.

We believe in Open Source and the vast majority of our work is available under the GPL.

Automattic Creed

I will never stop learning. I won’t just work on things that are assigned to me. I know there’s no such thing as a status quo. I will build our business sustainably through passionate and loyal customers. I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I’ll remember the days before I knew everything. I am more motivated by impact than money, and I know that Open Source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation. I will communicate as much as possible, because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company. I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far away the goal is, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day. Given time, there is no problem that’s insurmountable.

Automattic Designer Creed

I take pride in my craft. I ensure that everyone — regardless of ability or device — can use my designs. I routinely ask for feedback, even when it’s uncomfortable. I regularly watch people use my designs, because testing leads to clarity. I will never stop at “good enough”.

To apply, please get in touch with Wert&Co.

Want to increase your chances of standing out? If so, please include answers to each of the following question in your email application:

What’s a counter-intuitive thing that great design organizations do?

Tell us about a coach or leader that had a big influence on how you approach and think about design.

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