Product Design Strategist

Paper is reimagining how schools support students so that every learner can reach their full potential. Our vision is a world where every student receives timely, personalized, and relevant academic support. We offer a suite of scalable solutions including 24/7 tutoring, writing feedback, math practice, college and career support, and AI-powered instructional tools that provide personalized support to all students, including multilingual learners. Our GROW high-impact tutoring program accelerates learning through targeted small-group instruction, delivers measurable gains in student achievement, and eases teacher workloads. Trusted by 500+ school districts across 40+ states and backed by leading investors including IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Framework Capital, and Reach Capital, we’re pursuing a bold goal: to drive the best academic outcomes for as many students as possible.

Recent articles:

• GROW by Paper Drives 201% Increase in Grade-Level Proficiency in Just 12 Weeks
• GROW by Paper Earns Stanford’s NSSA Tutoring Program Design Badge, Signaling Excellence in Research-Aligned Design
• Paper Appoints Marisa Burkhart as CRO

Job Description

The Opportunity

The line between product designer and product manager is blurring - and we're looking for someone who lives in that space naturally.

This role is approximately 60% product design and 40% product strategy, but really it's 100% about owning outcomes. You'll design interfaces that make learning feel less like homework and more like leveling up. You'll define what gets built and why. You'll manage the details that turn good ideas into shipped products. And you'll use modern tools to work faster and more creatively than traditional workflows allow.

We believe the best designers are a step ahead of the project managers they work with. If you've ever felt like you're capable of more than your job title suggests - if you're the designer who keeps track of dependencies, anticipates developer needs before they ask, and connects business goals to user goals - this role was designed for you.

What You'll Own

Design the experiences that move metrics

Craft beautiful, engaging interfaces for elementary and middle school students, making complex educational concepts feel accessible and fun.

Define what gets built and why

Shape product strategy by connecting user needs, business goals, and technical constraints into coherent solutions, then make the tough calls about feature prioritization and scope.

Manage the details that matter

Keep track of schedules, dependencies, and unresolved decisions while bringing developers the complete picture - edge cases, error states, and precise interaction documentation.

Bridge business strategy and user experience

Understand Paper's business context before tackling design problems, connecting educational outcomes, student engagement metrics, and business impact to create solutions that satisfy all stakeholders.

What We're Looking For

The design foundation

• Strong portfolio demonstrating illustration skills and visual design that connects with younger audiences (elementary through middle school)
• Experience designing consumer products, gaming experiences, educational tools, or youth-focused apps where engagement and retention actually matter
• Comfort with modern design tools (Figma, etc.) and excitement about new workflows that amplify creative output
• An eye for detail and an instinct for what makes interfaces feel

The strategic mindset

• Deep curiosity about game mechanics, habit formation, behavioral psychology, and what makes students come back tomorrow
• Ability to balance qualitative insights with quantitative data to make product decisions - and the judgment to know which should lead
• Track record of not just designing features but defining them, scoping them, and managing them through to measurable impact
• Comfort writing specs, setting priorities, and having the difficult conversations about what not to build

The business sensibility

• You spend your first conversation with any stakeholder asking questions about goals, constraints, and context before jumping to solutions
• You see how your work fits into the bigger picture of customer experience, growth, and business opportunities
• You can articulate design decisions in terms of business strategy, not just user needs or aesthetic preferences
• You understand that exceptional design work is dead in the water without the acute management skills to carry it from idea to delivered solution

The modern approach

• Comfort with ambiguity and excitement about defining your role as you grow into it
• Willingness to experiment with new workflows and share what you learn with the team
• Belief that the best solutions come from people who understand both the "what" and the "how".

Why This Role Matters

Paper reaches millions of students who need more than just answers - they need confidence, encouragement, and learning experiences that actually work for them. The interfaces you design and the product decisions you make will directly impact whether a struggling student gets unstuck, whether they come back tomorrow, and whether they start to believe they're capable of more.

This isn't about creating another dashboard or workflow. It's about building product experiences that help students discover they're smarter than they thought.

Your work will be judged not by how polished your Figma files are, but by whether students learn more and engage more. That's the outcome you'll own.

Our Values in Practice

Deliver Customer Impact: We measure success by student outcomes, not feature launches or design awards. Your work matters when it changes educational trajectories.

Own the Outcome: This role exists because we believe the right person can own more surface area than traditional roles allow. We'll trust you with that ownership and expect you to run with it - managing not just pixels but priorities, timelines, and results.

Trust and Challenge: We'll push your ideas and expect you to push back. The best work emerges from respectful debate, not polite agreement. You'll need to defend your design and product decisions with evidence, not just intuition.

Think Critically, Move Fast: Use data and insights to make decisions quickly. Ship, learn, iterate. Perfection is the enemy of progress, but sloppy thinking is the enemy of impact.

Grow Every Day: This role will stretch you across design, product, and business thinking. That's the point. We'll support your growth as you prove what's possible when someone owns the full stack from strategy to shipped experience.

Who Thrives Here

You're probably not a perfect fit for traditional "product designer" or "product manager" boxes - and that's exactly why you'll thrive here.

You're someone who gets frustrated when your design work gets handed off and you lose visibility into whether it actually worked. You want to see your designs shipped, measured, and iterated based on real outcomes. You've probably been told you're "too involved in product decisions" or "ask too many business questions" at past jobs - here, that's your superpower.

You're the designer colleagues remember not just for great visuals, but because you made their jobs easier. You managed yourself so well that stakeholders could spend less attention on you and more on other parts of the business. You're a bridge between the world of design and the world of business strategy.

You believe education is an equalizer and you're excited to build for students who deserve better tools. You might have come up through design and developed product instincts along the way, or come up through product and kept your design craft sharp. Either path works - what matters is that you refuse to be confined to one or the other.

Ready to Apply?

Send us:

• Your portfolio - Emphasize work for younger audiences, examples of game mechanics or habit-forming features, and projects where you shaped product strategy (not just executed designs). Show us the business context, the decisions you made, and the outcomes you achieved.
• Your resume - Highlight where you've gone beyond traditional design deliverables to manage projects, define features, or drive measurable impact.
• A brief note (300-500 words) addressing:
• Why this hybrid role excites you and how it aligns with where you see your career going
• An example of when you connected business goals and user goals to create a solution that satisfied both
• How you approach working in fast-moving environments where individual contributors can have outsized impact

We're especially excited to hear from candidates who:

• Have designed for K-8 audiences, consumer gaming, or apps where daily engagement is the metric that matters
• Have evidence of shipping features that demonstrably changed user behavior or business metrics
• Have been told they "think too much like a PM" or "ask too many questions about the business"
• Care deeply about educational equity and access

_The annual salary range for this position is $110,000 - $130,000 USD or $100,000 - $120,000 CAD, plus equity. Please note that the final offer amount is determined by multiple factors, including geographic location as well as candidate experience, and may vary from the amounts listed above .

_What is it like to work at Paper? You will:

• Be joining a remote-first company with a collaborative, mission-driven culture working together to write the next chapter of Paper!
• Have opportunities to connect in person throughout the year, even while working remotely day-to-day.
• Be part of an exciting new era of growth, with fresh leadership, a bold product vision, and a redefined charter.
• Thrive in a fast-moving, build-from-scratch environment where agility and critical thinking guide decisions, collaboration is built on trust and healthy challenge, and every team member takes ownership to deliver real customer impact and grow every day.

Additional Benefits:

• Comprehensive & competitive compensation, health benefits, retirement plan, stock options, and more.
• In addition to vacation days, we provide Paperites with sick days and 4 extra weeks off - including statutory holidays, Paper Days throughout the year, and a full Paper Week from Dec 25 to Jan 1.
• A $500 stipend to set-up your workspace and $100 monthly stipends to support with on-going workspace needs.
• We support growing families with generous paid parental leave.
• Unlimited access to tutoring and educational support for children of Paper employees.

You’ll be joining a team of mission-driven builders who care deeply about equity in education, and who thrive in a culture of ownership, velocity, and continuous learning. If you’re energized by challenges, inspired by impact, and ready to help lead a high-growth business through its next phase, we’d love to meet you.

_We believe diverse teams build better products and we are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Paper does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender orientation, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, marital status, or military status.

_Requisition ID

R-100321