Senior Designer

Who We Are

Nightjar is an experience design and technology company based in Sydney, specialising in UX strategy, design, and innovative tech. We partner with brands and startups across the world, to build engaging design-led solutions which make a global impact. Our clients include Destination NSW, Pernod Ricard, House of Heat, Sonoma, ALNF, Lifeline, MAMA, National Dental Care, Two Good and the United States Studies Centre to name a few.

Nightjar is a close knit team and you will be relied upon to be a contributing and involved member in terms of both your work output but also your attitude, work ethic, and sense of adventure! The Nightjar team is truly global and you’ll enjoy working with team members anywhere from Amsterdam to London to Wollongong, from our leafy Surry Hills studio.

Nightjars are a special breed; we push ourselves to create work that gets results, and as a team we break through the barrier of convention to deliver original, impactful experiences. We are passionate above all else, and you will need to demonstrate an energy and enthusiasm for solving problems and the work that goes out the door. This unwavering dedication to quality means we’ve been nominated for Awwward’s Studio of the Year in 2020, 2021 and 2022, with a few Good Design Awards, AGDAs, and a Webby to boot.

Your Role

As a Senior Designer at Nightjar, you will help the team develop creative concepts and designs across a broad spectrum of interactive content.

You will work most closely with Sam, our Design Director, and be a key decision maker in the design team. Our attention to detail is second to none, so you should also have a keen eye 👁. You will display a strong level of conceptual thinking and be able to convey your ideas with both verbal and written comms, internally and to clients.

You will help set the bar for the quality of creative output at Nightjar. You will redefine brands for the digital space, produce UI concepts and designs that are not only highly intuitive and engaging, but answer real business problems. An understanding of strategy, ideation, visual design as well as current and emerging technologies is essential.

You will be excited to explore different territories and ideas, and present multiple solutions to the problem at hand. You will take on feedback and work together with the design and strategy team to make things better, not just take the easy route.

What You’ll Do

• Take it next level: Bring cutting edge ideas and concepts to the team that push boundaries in how people interact with the products we design.
• Be rigorous: Explain, discuss, and justify design decisions using user-centred design principles.
• Be meticulous: Maintain and strive for the highest creative and design quality possible.
• Be passionate: Put the effort in to make it look stunning, collaborating with our front-end developers to bring your work to life.
• Problem solve: Proactively identify/resolve issues to our Producers and know when to push back, especially on decisions that impact the design craft.
• Prototype: Understand animation principles/process to deliver on rapid-prototyping, micro-interactions and contextual magic moments throughout the experience.
• Be a team player: Work closely with the UX, Technical and Production teams throughout projects, communicating regularly on everything from quoting hours needed for tasks, and keeping producers abreast on project statuses and delivery.
• Elevate Nightjar brand: Working with leadership team to move the Nightjar brand forward on social, through talks and presentations and continually reinvigorating our visual representation as times change but how our vision remains constant.
• Award winning: We set the bar high at Nightjar and want the design and technology world to look to us for inspiration whilst collectively moving the industry forward. Award winning work keeps us innovative and hungry to compete on the world stage.

Skills

• Proficient in Figma, and Adobe suite with a keenness to learn emerging tools. You will lead and own the design process.
• Animation tools such as Framer, Principle and After Effects skills to create prototypes from your designs and allow for easy handoff to our development team.
• Understanding of pattern libraries to full design systems.
• Knowledge of visual design theory (i.e., composition, colour theory, typography etc.)
• At Nightjar, we hire for attitude and train for skills. We recognise that new tools, products and systems are always appearing and we're always open to trying out new processes if they help our productivity, efficiency, and happiness. You'll need to also be flexible and willing to throw out old systems that no longer serve us or our partners.
• The Nightjars work in Slack and Asana. These are all intuitive programs which help streamline our workflow and delegate tasks. You'll be using them daily to communicate and manage your projects.

Required Experience

• 5+ years working in startups, studios or agencies delivering top-notch interaction design for 💻 web and mobile📱platforms that drive digital direction for brands, and a portfolio that reflects this.
• Excellent working knowledge of design processes, methodologies and principles.
• A love for the craft of design before anything else, with a strong understanding of user experience and information architecture.
• You will need to demonstrate your design capability by showing a strong portfolio full of beautiful, usable experiences designed for all kinds of devices and contexts.

Nightjar Perks

• Leafy and lovely studio environment in a cool hood
• Friday team lunches
• Monthly Nightjar excursions
• Annual Nightjar trips away
• Birthday day off
• Generous parental leave policy
• Friday afternoon 'Wine & Refine' sessions to discuss what we did well and what we can improve with drinks to follow at the Bero
• Performance reviews and development plans to enable you to shine ✨
• Personal tax returns completed for you
• Training budget for whatever tickles your fancy, we're always here to help you grow
• A team surrounding you who is dedicated to doing the absolute best that can be done on any given opportunity
• Work on Award-winning projects and learn from Awwwards and Webby judges
• A grumpy office Griffon by the name of Graeme 🐶

Sorry, we’re sticklers - applications without portfolios will not be considered!