Director, Design, People App

Job Title

Job Description

I. Job Summary | Major goals and objectives.

People Inc. is the largest digital and print publisher in America. From mobile to magazines, nearly 200 million people trust us to help them make decisions, take action, and find inspiration. People Inc.’s over 40 iconic brands include PEOPLE, Allrecipes, Better Homes & Gardens, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Parents, & REAL SIMPLE.

We are looking for a Director of Product Design, Games to help define and deliver a brand new, intuitive, and engaging casual game experience for one of our most important brands, People. In this role you will work closely with our Creative Director, Editorial Team, and Product and Engineering to craft simple, habit-forming game experiences (such as puzzles, word games, and daily challenges) that engage and delight our audience on a daily basis, driving player engagement, retention, and long-term enjoyment.

As a Director of Product Design at People Inc. you will collaborate with business stakeholders and user research teams to understand problems and recognize opportunities, and work directly with other designers, product managers and software developers to build game and app experiences that solve them.

To be successful in this role, we'd expect you to:

• Thoroughly understand the wants and needs of our users, and participate in the discovery and definition of problems and solutions that come from those needs.

• Translate user needs and business requirements into concrete game design ideas, user flows, and wireframes.

• Create and refine core gameplay mechanics and interaction patterns — designing them as scalable, reusable systems that support multiple titles and cross-game retention and monetization strategies.

• Build interactive prototypes suitable for validating design decisions and game concepts with users.

• Collaborate with the creative team and brand stakeholders to develop and maintain the visual language of our product, with a focus on how each game/feature fits and interoperates within the People games ecosystem (cross-title progression, shared economy, live ops, etc.).

• Document design guidelines, share knowledge, and collaborate with the engineering team to ensure products ship on time and as designed.

• Champion and promote design thinking, research, and process across the organization.

II. Essential Job Functions

20% - Design Team Leadership and Mentorship

• Ensure a constant high-level of execution across the products you work with.

• Manage your team’s workflow and set clear, realistic, action-oriented goals to ensure their success.

• Develop effective, growth-centered mentor relationships with the UX Designers on their team.

50% - Game User Experience Design

• Design end-to-end user experiences for casual games, from onboarding flows to daily play.

• Use business requirements, user stories, and data to produce user flows, prototypes, and high fidelity mockups.

• Develop features and systems that encourage daily engagement (e.g., streaks, progression, hints, rewards) and long-term player retention.

• Set clear design standards and reusable templates to ensure a consistent player experience across our games. Establish how games should be updated and measured over time, and ensure designs are easy to adapt for a wide range of players.

• Prototype game concepts and test new game ideas quickly and iteratively.

• Create and document rigorous user interface specifications, ensuring the designs are accessible for a wide range of players.

30% - Collaborate with Design, Product, and Engineering teams

• Participate in and lead brainstorming and critique sessions that foster big-picture thinking while identifying opportunities to raise the bar on the details

• Collaborate across teams to understand opportunities, develop potential solutions, and test ideas, validate assumptions

• Present design solutions and build consensus among a broad range of stakeholders

• Work closely with our engineering team to ensure the designs are executed at the highest level of fidelity and craft.

III. Minimum Qualifications and Job Requirements | All must be met to be considered.

Education: Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent education and experience

Experience: 10+ years in product and/or game design, with 2–5+ years leading design teams

Specific Knowledge, Skills and Expertise:

• Strong UX and Game Design skills, including user flows, wireframing, game mechanics, and interaction design.

• Direct experience developing and shipping casual games (e.g., puzzles, word games, daily challenges) with a focus on player engagement and retention.

• Strong visual design skills, especially visual interface and typography.

• Experience building interactive prototypes suitable for validating design decisions with users.

• Familiarity with atomic design methodology and an interest in the challenges that come with building and maintaining design systems.

• Expertise in UX software such as Figma, Adobe Suite, etc. 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and a strong attention to detail.

• Be excited about collaborating and communicating closely with teams and stakeholders distributed across the world.

• Self-motivated and highly-organized.

It is the policy of People Inc. to provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, the Company will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. Accommodation requests can be made by emailing [email protected].

The Company participates in the federal E-Verify program to confirm the identity and employment authorization of all newly hired employees. For further information about the E-Verify program, please click here: https://www.e-verify.gov/employees

Pay Range

The pay range above represents the anticipated low and high end of the pay range for this position and may change in the future. Actual pay may vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to work location, experience, and performance. The range listed is just one component of People Inc's total compensation package for employees. Other compensation may include annual bonuses, and short- and long-term incentives. In addition, People Inc. provides to employees (and their eligible family members) a variety of benefits, including medical, dental, vision, prescription drug coverage, unlimited paid time off (PTO), adoption or surrogate assistance, donation matching, tuition reimbursement, basic life insurance, basic accidental death & dismemberment, supplemental life insurance, supplemental accident insurance, commuter benefits, short term and long term disability, health savings and flexible spending accounts, family care benefits, a generous 401K savings plan with a company match program, 10-12 paid holidays annually, and generous paid parental leave (birthing and non-birthing parents), all of which may vary depending on the specific nature of your employment with People Inc. and your work location. We also offer voluntary benefits such as pet insurance, accident, critical and hospital indemnity health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance.