Product Designer

About Us

Academia.edu is a venture-backed, for-profit, and profitable company based in San Francisco. We are recognized as the world’s leading platform for researchers and scholars to share work, discover research, and connect with academics globally.

Our bold vision is to democratize and accelerate the world's research, enhancing the speed of scientific discovery and technological progress for the benefit of everyone. We imagine a world where accessing academic papers is effortless, keeping track of cutting‑edge research is seamless and collaborating with researchers is easier than ever before. Our platform empowers millions of scholars worldwide to push the boundaries of human understanding.

We believe in the power of knowledge to change lives and the world, and our commitment to this mission drives everything we do.

Join us as we continue to redefine what's possible in the world of research. Discover careers that challenge, inspire and propel you toward a future where your ideas can truly change the world. , we’re not just shaping the future of research—we’re shaping the future of possibilities.

Our design team is small, entrepreneurial, and ambitious. We go beyond design to shape product strategy and drive growth. In this new age of AI, the lines between Product, Design, Data, and Engineering are increasingly fluid, and we embrace that. Designers at Academia are builders and strategists as much as craft experts. You’ll have the opportunity to expand your skillset far beyond design, collaborating deeply across disciplines to create intelligent, data‑driven experiences that move research forward.

As a Staff Product Designer at Academia, you’ll play a foundational role in shaping and scaling key product experiences from concept to launch. You’ll partner closely with product, engineers, analysts, and cross‑functional leaders to design tools that empower researchers and enhance how knowledge is created, shared, and discovered.

You’ll own design strategy and execution end to end, driving clarity in ambiguity, prototyping rapidly, and using both data and empathy to inform decisions. You’ll think like a founder, balancing user needs, business goals, and technical constraints to shape products that make a real impact on global research. If you’re a designer who thrives in ambiguity, moves fast, and obsesses over real‑world impact, we’d love to talk.

Come help us reimagine how research is funded, and shape the future of Academia.

• Design leadership & strategy – lead the design vision and strategy for your product area, shaping its long‑term direction and immediate roadmap.
• Act as a strategic partner, helping identify high‑leverage opportunities that drive both user value and company growth.
• Proactively identify, articulate, and advocate for new, high‑impact product opportunities, driving them onto the roadmap.
• Champion a startup mindset within the design org: urgency, experimentation, and 80/20 judgment.
• Balance speed with impact: know when something needs to be perfect and when “good enough” keeps us moving.
• Co‑own key metrics with Product General Managers, focusing on measurable outcomes like conversion, activation, engagement, and retention.
• Design execution – design end‑to‑end experiences from concept to polished UI while moving fluidly between rapid iteration and deep craft.
• Own the full design funnel: from early idea and in‑product UX to marketing surfaces like landing pages, signup flows, and conversion funnels.
• Prototype quickly and test hypotheses through A/B experiments and user feedback.
• Deliver build‑ready designs with strong interaction models and scalable systems.
• Maintain a high bar for usability and quality while moving fast under startup constraints.
• Leverage new technologies (AI, data insights, automation) to explore what’s newly possible for researchers and the platform.
• Partner directly with product, engineers, and analysts to frame problems, define hypotheses, and prioritise solutions.
• Run live design sessions: jump into Figma with product and engineers to rough out ideas in minutes, not days.
• Lead design critiques and mentor other designers, raising the craft…