Product Designer

Job Description

Job Description

Reports To: Head of Product
Location: Philomath, Oregon (Onsite)

Company Overview

Active911 is a fast-growing SaaS company dedicated to helping heroes save lives by providing innovative software that empowers over 500,000 first responders worldwide. Our emergency notification, routing, and communication tools enable firefighters, EMTs, law enforcement, and others to respond faster and make informed decisions in critical moments.

Based in Philomath, Oregon, our team is continually pushing public safety technology forward, fueled by a collaborative, mission-driven culture. Join us to make a real impact in a lean tech company where your work directly supports first responders and their communities.

Job Summary

As a Product Designer at Active911, you'll craft intuitive, user-centered designs that make our SaaS tools easier and faster for first responders to use in critical moments. Reporting to the Head of Product, you'll collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, QA, and marketing to design seamless experiences across products like ActiveAlert, ActiveComms, and ActiveAccount.

You'll create wireframes, prototypes, and polished visuals that balance usability, efficiency, and accessibility—always with empathy for users working in high-stress environments. This role is perfect for a detail-oriented designer who thrives on solving problems, cares deeply about user experience, and wants their work to make a life-saving difference.

Responsibilities

• Hands-On Design Work: Produce wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity mockups for mobile and web applications, ensuring designs are simple, clear, and efficient.

• User Research Support: Partner with product and customer-facing teams to gather feedback from first responders, translating insights into actionable design improvements while collaborating with the Lead Designer to optimize our approach to customer research.

• Optimize User Experience: Create intuitive layouts, workflows, and interface content (e.g., labels, instructions, error messages) that minimize cognitive load and enable responders to act quickly under pressure.

• Design System Contribution: Collaborate with the Lead Designer to expand and maintain the Siren design system, building reusable, scalable components.

• Collaboration: Work closely with product managers to define clear design requirements for tickets, and partner with engineers during implementation to ensure design intent is preserved, making thoughtful trade-offs when necessary.

• Accessibility and Compliance: Ensure designs meet accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG 2.1) and support compliance with SOC2 and HIPAA requirements.

• Roadmap Contribution: Understand the product roadmap and advocate for the best possible user experience, working with product managers to balance user value, technical feasibility, and resource constraints. When appropriate, propose alternative solutions that support both near-term needs and long-term goals.

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate with marketing, product, and support teams to ensure cohesive brand and product experiences, while understanding dependencies across Active911 products (Alert, Comms, Account, Team) to design solutions that integrate seamlessly within the ecosystem.

• Continuous Improvement: Use design metrics, testing, and feedback to refine designs and improve usability over time.

• Mission Alignment: Advocate for first responders in every design decision, ensuring interfaces directly support life-saving work.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Experience

• 2–4 years of UX/UI design experience, ideally with SaaS or mobile-first products.

• Strong portfolio demonstrating user-centered design, interaction design, and visual polish.

• Experience collaborating in cross-functional, agile teams with product managers and engineers.

• Familiarity with iterative design practices and agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban).

Technical Expertise

• Proficiency in modern design tools (Figma preferred) for wireframing, prototyping, and visual design.

• Experience contributing to or working with design systems.

• Knowledge of accessibility standards and best practices.

• Basic understanding of front-end development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) is a plus.

• Familiarity with Android and iOS platform guidelines to ensure designs align with native capabilities and constraints.

Soft Skills

• Strong communication and collaboration skills; able to explain design rationale to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Empathy for end-users, especially first responders, and a passion for building mission-critical tools.

• Ability to balance creativity with pragmatism in a lean, fast-paced environment.

Physical and Other Requirements

• Ability to sit or stand for extended periods of time.

• Comfortable working in an office setting.

• Availability for on-call duties in the case of an outage that may include some evenings, weekends, and holidays.

• Willingness to travel up to 5–10% annually for user research or industry events.

Salary Range: $75,000-$115,000

Status: Exempt

At Active911, we take pride in offering a comprehensive benefits package that supports the well-being and success of our team. We provide full medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees, with family coverage available with 50% company-paid. Our generous vacation and sick leave policies ensure you have the time you need for rest, recovery, and personal matters. We allow up to 20% remote work, including extended remote work options for travel or other needs with manager approval. To support your financial future, we contribute 3% to your 401(k) retirement plan. We also offer unique programs like our Gym Membership Reimbursement, a Volunteer First Responder Bonus, and a $5,000 First-Time Homebuyer Down Payment Assistance Program, because we believe in investing in every aspect of your life.

Active911 is an equal opportunity, at-will employer, which complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.