Product Designer I

“Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.” - Pablo Picasso

You’re not just a designer – you’re a thinker, a strategist, and a doer. You thrive in fast-moving environments, where no two days look the same, and where products come to life through research, deep empathetic thinking, collaboration, and iteration. Your attention to detail, knack for staying organized, and innate ability to juggle priorities ensures that nothing slips through the cracks, while your creativity pushes boundaries to create solutions that are innovative, scalable, and deeply aligned with customer needs and business goals.

If you’re thinking, “Well that’s creepy, how do they already know that much about me?” - Keep reading. You might be the person we’re looking for.

About Pet Parents®:

We rethink everyday pet parenting to make life better for them and simpler for you, so you can provide the care & connection they deserve. ​

We are a small but mighty pet CPG company, we design, market, & distribute pet products online & in pet stores across the country. We were born from a pain point with our own pets. We leaped onto the scene at the beginning of 2016 with rapid growth ever since. In 2020, Inc. ranked Pet Parents® as the #1 fastest growing company in Iowa, #378 of the Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies in America, also gaining us #1 fastest growing pet products company in the US. We are a 4x Inc. 5000 recipient.

We love, love, love what we do and what our company stands for – and we get excited to show that through our hard work.

Your Role in Our Pack:

This is a full-time position in our Ankeny, Iowa office.

Ready to innovate & create in the pet space? As a Product Designer I, you'll be a core contributor of our Product Pack. You'll play an integral part in product design, product marketing material, sourcing, strategizing, negotiating, testing, and just all-around moving the needle on the creation of new products and optimization of existing. You'll all-around create & support the creation & launch of products that will reach happy pet parents and cuddly furbabies all over the United States & abroad.

You will get to touch various aspects of our company: product design, product marketing, sourcing, negotiating, process optimization, product development, research, data collection, planning, and positioning.

At Pet Parents® we develop products to solve problems for pets and their parents. We're big on execution, output, and problem solving. Function, while being beautiful. If coming up with ideas, sketching, and perfecting every aesthetic detail is your sole focus, do not apply, we go far beyond that. We practice holistic research & centered development and democratic design. Function, quality, price, form, & sustainability in balance at all times, with furbabies and their parents at the center, in focus, at all times. We measure our success on the products we actually launch, while continuing to maintain our 4.5 average review ratio, with over 82,000 5 star reviews and counting.

This role requires an uber-precise focus on understanding the ins-and-outs of the product development process, project management software, a high level of organization, planning, sense of urgency, creative thinking, problem solving, empathy, customer psychology, product positioning, product messaging, photography, process improvement, negotiating, critical thinking, creativity, design, comfortability with stress & organized chaos, time & project management, written & verbal communication, troubleshooting, & analytical, technical, & superb problem-solving skills.

At Pet Parents®, we are very collaborative, and our slogan is, Pet Parenting, Better™, this extends to our company as a whole, we are committed to constant improvement with ever-changing improvements and planning. You must be comfortable with feedback from The Pack.

You will have the opportunity to become an expert in the pet industry.

You will research, theorize, strategize, design, & create in the product development process.

With empathy, thoughtfulness, critical thinking, & data, you will form unique selling propositions, messaging, and positioning

You'll be an investigator in searching the entire earth for the best partners to work with to bring more slobbery kisses and purrs to the world

You'll be a creative strategist and co-design thumb-stopping, eye catching, shelf popping, packaging, pdps, and pdqs.

You will be a critical thinker and innovator.

You will work in a fast-paced environment with constant hands-on projects.

You will also be an organizer, researcher, problem-solver & planner.

You will have the opportunity to learn and grow far beyond this initial role. In fact, it's our intention and goal to ensure that

Must have at least 1 of the following:

Minimum 2 years of experience in a product designer role

Minimum 2 years of experience in an industrial design role

Minimum 2 years of experience in a product development role

Minimum 2 years of experience in a product management role

Minimum 2 years of experience in a product design role

Minimum 2 years of experience in a CPG product marketing role

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*Bachelor’s degree required
**NDA and NCA required upon hiring

You must also…

Love dogs and/or cats

Have a go-getter mentality

Have the ability to focus, work efficiently, and effectively

Always be willing to learn

Always be willing to come up with creative ideas

Have a problem-solver mindset and willingness to tackle any problem thrown your way

Have a positive mentality & energy

Be obsessively detail-oriented and organized

Have comfortability in working with a long list of softwares, especially project management softwares & product design softwares (ClickUp, AutoCad, Asana, Fusion 360, Solid Works, Trello, Basecamp, Jira, Monday.com)

Have effective project management skills and be able to prioritize and handle multiple tasks and projects

The "Treats" We Offer

(Some of the pawesome opportunities available at Pet Parents®)

Health, vision, & dental insurance

401k with company match & profit share

Home Owner Bonus

Unlimited PTO

Membership to Legacy Fitness in Ankeny (10min walk from HQ)

Parental Leave

Pawrental Leave

High-performing, passionate, yet casual coworkers that care

Employee Discount

Company Events

Snack and beverage bar

New Furbaby Allowance

Unlimited growth potential for leaders of the pack

Leadership Development

Class A Office

Beach Getaway

If your potential role excites you and you're down to join us in becoming the top dogs in the pet industry, let’s do this thing!