Company Description What we do: We connect people with well-planned, unforgettable travel experiences. How we do it: We’re an agile team whose mantra says it all; Think Big. Start Small. Move Fast. Travelstride is an ambitious Venture-funded Seed stage startup led by industry & tech veterans that is serving a large, growing opportunity. Our investors include JetBlue Ventures, NFX (top VC for marketplaces), New York Angels, Sand Hill Angels, and the founders of Trulia, Get There, Hipmunk, TripIt, and Google Now. Travelstride is the #1 US platform for experiential trips, powered by a combination of AI and a local expert network. We are building the future of vacation planning. With over 350,000 trusted reviews, we are aiming to become the go-to community for curious travelers. As the top marketplace for tours, tailor-made vacations, and adventure trips, our platform hosts more than 50,000 itineraries across every continent crafted by the world’s best trip designers. Travelstride is utilizing GenAI in an innovative way giving travelers the ability to easily create personalized, bookable trips. With the customizable magic of AI combined with a local expert to refine and book the itinerary, the customer can plan delightfully and travel with confidence. We are a values and mission driven company. While many say it, we live it daily, and encourage you to review our core values and our careers page to see if we are a good mutual fit. Our PURPOSE: Bring wonder, joy, learning, and connection through better and more frequent travel. Our MISSION: Cultivate a community connecting travelers with extraordinary places, people and experiences. Our MANTRA: Think big. Start Small. Move fast. First, do it. Then do it right. Then do it better. Job Description As Travelstride’s lead UX Designer, you will work with the founder, product manager and a team of developers to create and improve engaging and satisfying user experiences with new platform features for both travelers and travel companies. As the only full-time designer at this early-stage company, you will be responsible for the complete user experience as well as the look and feel of our products. You will help develop new ideas through research and testing. You are both a strategic thinker and a tactical doer - eager to roll up your sleeves and do all design work as necessary for both the core product and also to support marketing and other company initiatives To thrive in this role, you would possess a unique blend of UX, design, business, and technical savvy; a big-picture vision, and the drive to make that vision a reality with a ‘get it done’ attitude. Does lower base salary, big challenges, bigger impact, talented colleagues, high equity and financial bonus upside, and fun team environment sound good for you? Read on! On our team, you will: Create beautiful web pages and experiences that delight users and achieve business goals Design wireframes and pixel perfect hifi designs to meet business needs balancing UX, SEO, CRO and other business goals Develop UI mockups and prototypes that clearly illustrate how sites function and look Gather and evaluate user requirements in collaboration with product manager and engineers Qualifications Requirements: Have 1 to 3 years of design experience Thrive in a fast-paced results-driven environment with varied responsibilities and challenging assignments that would strike fear into the hearts of average designers Rock design tools like Figma Communicate ideas easily verbally and in writing with engineers and marketing Prefer to experiment with new designs and use data to drive decisions rather than view as an art project Listen to customers, partners, and teammates, and respond well to feedback Embrace Web Usability, User-Centered Design, & Agile methodologies Feel passionate that ‘success is in the details as much as in the ‘big picture’ Love managing multiple projects simultaneously and hit deadlines, using the 80/20 rule as your mantra Are known to friends and colleagues as cheerful, with a good sense of humor and a positive attitude Enthusiastically and proactively help beyond the bounds of your day to day role Ship quickly and adjust your process to fit the needs of an early-stage startup, valuing shipping a good solution now over a great solution several weeks from now. In a perfect world, you would... Have experience in consumer marketplaces, e-commerce or other transaction-oriented consumer web apps preferred Know SEO and how to balance it with UX Have previously thrived in a true early startup experience previously (from Bootstrap to Series B) Understand and have helped design for online niche communities and/or gaming products Additional Information Preference for those who can work in Travelstride’s Austin office 2 days per week. Why work with us? The benefits: Seed-funded startup comp package with generous stock options and rapid increase potential $4,000 annual vacation credits through our travel partners Fun, driven, cohesive coworkers and team spirit - Regular company lunches and happy hours plus quarterly team outings & parties Meaningful work - you are helping more people travel internationally, and helping our global tour operator partners thrive as sustainable ventures The ability to make a major impact as an early team member at a growing startup with huge market size and impressive traction