Seeking: Director of Design & User Experience for Aviary

About the Company: Aviary (http://aviary.com) is a pioneering and leading provider of fully web-based design applications. With a suite of digital creation software available as an online service, Aviary offers a simple and cost-effective solution for creators of all genres - from graphic design to audio editing - to build, edit produce and distribute digital assets. Based in New York and backed by leading investors and visionaries such as Spark Capital, Jeff Bezos, Joi Ito and Reid Hoffman among others, Aviary is changing the way digital assets are created and distributed online.

About Our Culture: Aviary is a highly team-driven company, made up of the best and brightest in the industry. Functional groups collaborate and communicate with high frequency. As one might expect, we are an artistic group. We also happen to love old school games like Quake, and even older school games like ping pong (the offline kind with the wood table), and some of new fangled PS3 and Xbox contraptions have managed their way in to the office. We are passionate from the inside out about building and changing the medium within which we spend hours of our time in. Aviary is a set of tools, but it is also a growing, grassroots community that is charting a new way of creating, designing and helping artists monetize their talent.

The Position: Aviary is seeking to hire a User Experience expert to modify, optimize and sculpt the visual presentation, workflow, interface, aesthetics and usability of Aviary's tools and software. This person will report to senior management and play a key role in the development and evolution of Aviary's products. The hire will be involved in designing at a high level and at the same time must be able and ready to roll up their sleeves and dive into code as needed. The position is only on-location in New York.

Candidate Profile:
* A functionalist first. A minimalist second. A stylist third. Views the world through the lens of usability.
* Obsessed with simplicity, ease of use.
* Approaches design by first understanding what the end user needs, then creates products that meet those needs.
* Imaginative - looks beyond the way things are currently configured, generates ideas for a new paradigm, layout, flow, etc.
* Works well in a team-based culture.
* Strong verbal communicator. Comfortable presenting work to a team.
* Accepting of feedback. You are able to integrate feedback into your work.
* Proactively focused on statistical optimization and A/B testing.
* Track record of meeting deadlines.

Technical Skills:
* Expert in current industry standard desktop design applications.
* Familiar with Aviary's web applications.
* Can whiteboard / prototype ideas in a clear and communicative way.
* Knows XHTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery.
* Any Flash knowledge a plus.

Compensation:
* Compensation is competitive with comparable companies.
* Health coverage benefits.

Who can apply:
Birds of all kinds of feathers, funny squawk, spotted feathers - Welcome!

How to apply:
Send an email to jobs@aviary.com if you are personally interested in the position with links to your portfolio or any example work you have done, updated resume and anything else you think might be of relevance to us. No recruiters, please.