Head of Design

Who We Are

At Apartment List, we’re transforming how people rent—making it smarter, easier, and a lot less frustrating. Our platform has already matched over 1.4million renters with their next home, while helping properties fill units with the right residents. Backed by strong growth and a big vision, we’re building the future of renting—and inviting bold thinkers to help us shape it!

We’re looking for an inspiring Head of Design to lead our multi‑disciplinary Design and User Research organization through its next chapter of growth and innovation. This is a pivotal role at Apartment List, with equal parts visionary, operator, and culture builder.

You’ll define and drive the design vision for our renter and partner experiences, ensuring every interaction with Apartment List is intuitive, delightful, and grounded in empathy. You’ll lead a talented team of product designers, and researchers, and you’ll work closely with cross‑functional leaders in Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Data to translate that vision into measurable impact.

As the design leader, you’ll elevate craft quality, foster a culture of bold thinking and inclusion, and scale the systems that allow design to be both fast and exceptional.

Take this 100% remote role within Canada and report to the Head of Product.

Lead the creation of a bold, inspiring design vision that ties together our product, brand, and personalization strategy.

Ensure every renter and partner experience reflects clarity, confidence, and value which are core to our mission.

Partner with the executive team to set strategic priorities and influence company‑wide decisions through the lens of design and user empathy.

Champion a high standard of design craft across UX, visual design, interaction, and brand.

Oversee the continued evolution of our Design System and componentization architecture to support scalable, consistent experiences.

Advocate for accessibility, usability, and quality across all touchpoints—from logged‑out SEO experiences to AI‑driven personalization.

Connect design decisions directly to user and business outcomes—growth, retention, conversion, and satisfaction.

Foster a culture of experimentation, creativity, and rapid iteration.

Push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI, data, and personalization in marketplace experiences.

Grow and mentor a high‑performing team of designers and researchers, empowering them to lead with clarity and craft.

Develop future‑ready leaders by identifying skill gaps early and investing in growth and succession.

Create systems, rituals, and processes that boost velocity, collaboration, and accountability across the team.

Serve as a strategic thought partner to Product, Engineering, and Marketing leaders.

Shape the product architecture and experience strategy that unites logged‑in and logged‑out experiences.

Bring empathy and user insight into every conversation, ensuring design has a seat at the decision‑making table.

• Leadership experience —8+ years leading design teams, including experience managing managers and scaling multi‑disciplinary design and research organizations in fast‑paced, high‑growth environments.
• 15+ years of experience shipping products —You know what it means to release high quality products at each stage of development. You can share several shining examples of real work you've shipped, from web or native applications, and what you learned along the way.
• Strong interaction design chops —You can take broad, conceptual ideas and turn them into something useful and valuable. You also know how to take advantage of platform specific design patterns.
• Passionate about your end user —you advocate for the best user experience that will achieve both user and business goals.
• Systematic Thinker —Ability to think about designs holistically and how they impact the entirety of a product.
• Business minded —understand how to manage business needs while meeting user needs.
• Bachelor’s degree is…