The posting
About the Team:
Grindr is an AI-native platform powering how millions of gay people connect globally. With 15M+ monthly users, 130B+ annual messages, and a team of fewer than 200, we move fast, stay lean, and tackle technical problems at a scale few companies ever see.
The Design team at Grindr punches well above its weight. Designers here work directly alongside product and engineering leadership - shaping what gets built and how it shows up for millions of users, not executing against briefs handed down from above. This Senior Product Designer role is a foundational senior IC hire: someone who sets the quality bar, drives design from ambiguity to shipped product, and helps define how the design function operates as we scale. The mandate is real - a full uplift of the Grindr core app, used by millions of people daily, with the ownership and proximity to leadership to make it happen. At a company this size, the decisions you make show up in the product within weeks, not quarters.
At Grindr, we operate in Grindr Mode. Moderately hardcore day to day, truly hardcore when it counts. It's about doing great work without burning out. Outcomes over outputs. Smart, driven people who raise your bar, with room to live full lives.
This is a hybrid role based in our San Francisco or Los Angeles offices and will require you to be in person Tuesdays and Thursdays.
About the Job:
- Own end-to-end product design for core areas of the Grindr app - from early discovery and problem framing through high-fidelity production specs and shipped features
- Drive design decisions independently with clear rationale, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, and Data to move work from ambiguity to execution at pace
- Raise the quality bar across the team by modeling excellent craft, rigorous process, and sharp cross-functional communication
- Collaborate actively with the Design Systems Specialist to contribute to and improve Grindr's evolving design system - bringing a consumer product lens to system decisions
- Shape Grindr's design culture as a senior IC on the team - contributing to how we critique, how we give feedback, and how we operate
Role Requirements:
- 5+ years of product design experience as a senior IC at a consumer-focused tech company
- Portfolio demonstrating strong end-to-end ownership - problem framing to shipped solution - with clear articulation of your role, decisions made, and measurable impact
- Proven experience designing for consumer mobile apps on iOS and/or Android, including complex interaction systems, edge cases, and multi-state flows
- Track record of shipping features end-to-end within tight timelines, with systems thinking that accounts for implementation constraints and business impact
- Strong communication skills - able to articulate design rationale, influence stakeholders, and build alignment with product and engineering partners
- Experience designing for monetization surfaces - paywalls, subscriptions, conversion flows, or upsell moments
You May Thrive in this Role if You:
- Are AI-native or rapidly becoming so - you actively use AI tools in your workflow and are always looking for new ways to leverage them
- Have worked at a growth-stage startup or smaller company and know how to do more with less - you don't need a fully built system to execute at a high level
- Thrive in ambiguity and move quickly when requirements shift - you generate multiple strong concepts fast without sacrificing craft
- Care about community, inclusion, and building products that genuinely serve an underrepresented user base
- Want to grow into a senior design voice on a team being built for scale - and are energized by proximity to product and engineering leadership, not just execution
Benefits and Perks:
- Health, Dental & Vision Full premium coverage for you. Partial coverage for dependents.
- Family Formation Up to $300,000 in fertility and family-building support, covering IVF, surrogacy, egg freezing, and adoption.
- Retirement: 401(k) with 6% match and immediate vesting.
- Compensation: Industry-competitive compensation, company bonus, and equity for every employee.
- Gender-Affirming Care : Industry-leading gender-affirming offerings with up to 90% cost coverage, access to Included Health, monthly stipends for HRT, and more.
- Time Off & Rest Flexible vacation policy. Two company-wide rest weeks per year.
- Other Benefits: Monthly stipends for cell phone, internet, wellness, food, and commuting, breakfast/lunch
About Grindr:
Grindr is building the Global Gayborhood in your Pocket. With more than 15 million monthly active users, Grindr has become a fundamental part of the gay community and is charting a path to make the world more free, equal, and just.
As a public company, we're moving into the next chapter: becoming an AI-native organization that's redefining what's possible for our community. We're embedding AI into our product and operations, moving with startup speed while operating at scale.
Everything we do is rooted in impact for our users and outcomes for the business. This isn't social work, it’s impact through excellence. Business success is what gives us the power to serve our community and the seat at tables others can't reach. How we work is defined by Grindr Mode, our operating model that's moderately hardcore day-to-day and truly hardcore when it counts. We think like owners, drive real outcomes, create clarity through action, and push each other to go further than we thought possible.
We’re headquartered in West Hollywood with offices in the Bay Area, Chicago, and New York. Our work extends beyond the product through Grindr for Equality, our social impact initiative that's partnered with 100+ community organizations globally to advance safety, health, and human rights for LGBTQ+ people worldwide.
We're profitable, growing, and building a team of smart, driven people who bring different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to the work. Want to build technology at a massive scale that serves millions? Come join us!
Grindr is an equal-opportunity employer.
To learn more about how we handle the personal data of applicants, visit our Employee and Candidate Privacy Policy https://www.grindr.com/privacy-policy/applicant-privacy-policy/.
