Staff Product Designer

At Mechanical Orchard, we specialize in safely rewriting the most critical and complex business applications—the software that runs the world as we know it today—so they’re ready to adapt quickly and easily to market challenges and opportunities. Our approach emerged from observing the decades-long failure patterns in modernization efforts and is designed to eliminate the risks and disruptions that characterize most projects.

Our background in software development and the impact on the industry is well known: we've literally helped write the book on XP and other impactful Agile practices. We’re applying the same thoughtfulness and rigor in applying AI pragmatically where it helps. We believe in the durable principles behind Agile, and embrace the power of cross-functional teams, collective ownership, test driven development, short feedback loops, and continuous improvement.

We’re bringing joy to beleaguered IT teams everywhere. Together, we’re seeing how applying craft, expertise, and technologies we’re building can fundamentally transform the way companies operate, innovate, and win. Our values are: Do the right thing. Do what works. Be kind.

Designers at Mechanical Orchard modernize crucial applications that power the world’s largest companies. They balance long-term strategy with tactical delivery. They work as part of cross-functional teams to ensure that designs are efficient, effective, and cause minimal disruption to current users. They mitigate the risk of legacy modernization through incremental research and design that gets turned into working software from week one of a project. They apply a lean and iterative mindset to the complex and highly technical problems of long-term software modernization. 

Designers at Mechanical Orchard are responsible for

• Owning and running user research activities for their teams

• Designing modern software from the ground up while taking into account the need for minimal changes from the legacy system

• Understanding and balancing tradeoffs between business needs, user needs, technical limitations, and security constraints while maintaining sustainable pace

• Using user-centered design principles to de-risk modernization work and craft great experiences as part of a balanced team 

• Maintaining tight feedback loops within the project team, with internal stakeholders, and with customer stakeholders

• Establishing and maintaining excellent customer relationships, with alignment on priorities and progress

• Contributing to the continuous improvement of our software delivery practice across the entire product lifecycle by applying and advocating for modern agile and design practices

Typical activities include

• Conducting user research to understand the usage of existing legacy systems and validate that replacement systems are equivalent 

• Designing screens in Figma, sharing for feedback, and incorporating feedback from users, customers, and teammates (engineers and product managers) 

• Facilitating collaborative design workshops in all-remote, hybrid, and in-person settings 

• Working alongside engineers, as needed, to implement designs

• Communicating with internal and external stakeholders about design strategy, risks, and techniques for modernization efficiently 

• Developing novel processes and tools for testing that modernized software is equivalent to its legacy counterpart and meets all performance requirements 

• Attending and facilitating agile team ceremonies such as daily standup, weekly planning, and weekly retrospectives 

• Contributing to front-end development, especially making and refining templates and components using HTML and Tailwind CSS (not required, but nice to have)

People in this role will have a high degree of autonomy and responsibility, with frequent client-facing communication and interaction with all levels of leadership. 

Mechanical Orchard is a remote-first company, with employees working across time zones and countries. This role does not have a requirement for in-office attendance, however, there will likely be occasional travel to Mechanical Orchard company meetings (1-2 times per year) and to client sites for in-person collaboration (1–2 times per year). 

Mechanical Orchard, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. Mechanical Orchard, Inc. is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Mechanical Orchard, Inc. are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Mechanical Orchard, Inc. will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Mechanical Orchard, Inc. encourages applicants of all ages. Mechanical Orchard, Inc. will provide reasonable accommodation to employees who have protected disabilities consistent with local law.

We look forward to reviewing your application. Thanks!