Group Design Manager

About Catawiki

Catawiki was founded in 2008. It was originally designed as a website where collectors could manage and keep track of their collections online. Visitors can still add new items to the existing catalogue of collectibles. Unsurprisingly, the name Catawiki is a combination of the words ‘catalogue’ and ‘wiki’. In 2011, Catawiki began hosting weekly auctions in various categories, including art, antiques, classic cars, watches, jewellery, fashion, books, and stamps.

Position

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, 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

A successful candidate for our Group Design Manager position will exhibit the following:

Vision & Strategy | You help shape group-level strategy, and design an experience vision that creates competitive advantage. 

• You fully grasp company and product strategies and help align the teams around them. 
• You’re a key contributor to product strategy. You understand what a successful strategy looks like, and you will provide critical input.
• You identify and shape the experiences we should build to deliver on group strategy, defining how that will work within the overall context of Catawiki. 
• You advocate for solutions that impact metrics that matter and drive success for the business.
• You form and inform opinions on how we should best compete in our competitive landscape and guide product decisions accordingly.
• You build a deep understanding of the needs of our target customers through direct customer contact. 
• You’re experienced in how teams of this scale operate and what they value.

People and Org | You create a healthy, optimistic team where people are engaged, growing and working well with others. 

• You build healthy and happy teams, delivering high performance. You lead with positive energy, build an inclusive environment, and help teams understand how their work ladders up to company-level strategic goals and success
• You manage 2-4 designers, usually within a group, with dotted lines to other sub functions in the group (e.g. writer, researcher)
• You help improve our process for attracting high-quality candidates
• You challenge and empower your team, creating clarity on how to achieve career progression
• You provide private and public praise for work. You ensure designers know what they are doing well and feel proud of good work. You address performance and behavioral concerns when needed, reinstating a positive trajectory

Impact & Execution | You support the team in delivering sustainable impact on company objectives.

• You ensure effective discovery, delivery and go to market. You advocate for teams to make decisions that are aligned with our experience principles
• You form a strong partnership with your Group Product Manager, acting as a critical partner and driving executional alignment. You’ll give feedback on prioritization, roadmapping, and scoping conversations, ensuring design capacity is factored in
• You ensure the creation of clear, effective system design and concept design for key user flows, leaning in to directly support delivery where necessary. You coach designers and peers on how to do this well
• You focus solutions on what drives value for the business, making smart decisions about quality/effort tradeoffs, understanding and tracking key metrics. Biased towards finding solutions and taking action
• You drive the delivery of high-quality work. You’ll provide clear, effective feedback via design pulses, 1:1 working sessions or async feedback. You provide feedback that teaches in addition to guiding output, and you’ll help accelerate by delivering incisive feedback and ensuring designers are consistently on track

Your qualification

• A strong conceptual thinker, passionate about always putting user needs first
• An excellent communicator and storyteller, with the portfolio to show it
• A hands-on, exceptional designer, with extensive UX and design experience
• An experienced team leader, managing and developing people
• Good instinct for planning and prioritization, experience in product design / development at scale
• Broad spectrum skillset across interaction design, UX research, UX writing
• Broad technical understanding and ability to identify and leverage trends
• Comfortable in an ambiguous work environment
• Sharp and critical eye for expert execution within the team, patient and optimistic approach
• 7+ years of industry experience

What we offer

This is your chance to join our mission to fulfil people’s passions, as part of a young and dynamic organisation. 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;
• We want to help you celebrate special occasions in life by:
  • Providing employees with a 100 EURO Catavoucher upon joining and 50 EURO birthday Catavouchers
  • Extra days of annual leave for work anniversaries at 3, 5, 8 and 10 years
  • Additional leave allowances for important life events such as moving, engagement & marriage
  • Each year Catawikians get an additional day’s leave to Pursue their Passion!

Please note that our benefits offering changes depending on which country you are employed in. For our country-specific offering please ask your recruiter. 

Additional details

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. We offer an excellent relocation package for people living outside of the Netherlands.

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’ve embraced an activity-based way of working, meaning our team can choose how they split their work week between home and the office, in line with our remote framework and guidelines. In locations where we have physical offices, most employees enjoy two days at the office to connect and collaborate with each other.

Our experts and sales staff in local markets work 100% remotely – in most cases from home. Some key positions are hired remotely, while we also offer relocation services for colleagues needing to be closer to the office.