Digital Design Strategy & Operations Director
About Spacecurve
Spacecurve is a new kind of venture capital company that directly builds products, scouts talent, and leads operations together with our portfolio companies. Our mission is to create 10x improved product experiences and marketing strategies compared to competitors. Join our tight-knit teams of elite designers, engineers, marketers, and executors to make a real difference in the next generation of consumer products.
Role Overview
Skillfully orchestrate digital design strategy and operations across all our portfolio companies (in industrial design, software, fashion, e-commerce and more), aligning team skills and actions with strategic goals, driving talent acquisition, and ensuring world-class, timeless design outcomes that can scale rapidly and propagate the world lightning fast. This is a rare chance to work with an ambitious team of executors and to help shape the legacy of the Japanese and worldwide design industry.
The essential differentiating factor for this role will be your ability to identify skill gaps in the team and then scout and onboard top talent by any means necessary. You’re expected to bring a resourceful mindset to design-related recruiting and be able to distinguish best in class talent from the rest. In addition, we expect you to apply a growth-focussed mindset to fulfill business objectives while making sure our products look the sleekest in the world.
Key Responsibilities
Oversee and streamline digital design operations across diverse portfolio companies, ensuring efficient workflows and resource allocation
Identify skill gaps within design teams and develop plans to address them
Partner with recruiters, leverage personal networks, and explore unconventional channels to hire top-tier design talent
Exhibit exceptional ability to distinguish world-class design talent from others
Collaborate with teams to define and execute design strategies that align with company missions and objectives
Set goals, assign resources, assure quality, and improve processes
Demonstrate a strong track record of guiding design teams to successful, mission-driven outcomes
Stay acutely aware of current design trends, strategically incorporating or avoiding them to achieve timeless, impactful results
Apply robust design project management skills to ensure timely and high-quality deliverables
Maintain a growth-focused mindset to enable designs to scale and propagate the world lightning fast
Skills & Qualifications
Strong track record of identifying and hiring the best talent is required
Experience in cross-functional collaboration with product, engineering, and marketing teams is required
Proficiency in design tools (e.g., Figma) and project management software is required
Strong portfolio showcasing your own design work is a huge plus
At least native-like English and good business Japanese language proficiency
Why join us
We will provide you with all the tools and opportunities necessary to make a direct, meaningful and long-lasting impact on the legacy of our brands and the future of the Japanese design industry
You will be part of a high-trust community that encourages risk-taking, experimentation and innovation
You will be working alongside ambitious creatives and executors from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines
Example Project: PSY LIVING (codename)
“This is not just a furniture brand, and not just a fashion brand. We’re a next-generation product and storytelling company with the aim to make the world much more fun”
– Jannik Wambsganss, CEO
We develop a new brand universe to reinvent the “home experience” with unique design and advanced technology at a luxury price point, while offering globally recognized fashion collections at a more accessible price point. Our otherworldly furniture designs provide daily inspiration at home, while our fashion program offers colorful yet refined garments to extend the brand outside the home.
Through immersive storytelling and innovative branding strategies, we build a universe that feels optimistic and free of limiting beliefs. We want people to wake up in the morning and look forward to an exciting new day where infinity is in the palm of their hands. This message is encoded into every single one of our products.
Our products are made in Japan as much as possible and sold direct-to-consumer online and at our Tokyo flagship store, with one in New York opening soon after. Our vision is to operate a world-class manufacturing floor in central Tokyo with an adjacent store and cafe lounge from where guests can overlook production. We hope to energize visitors by letting them participate in our process of making things.
Orion Facey, our Creative Director, has achieved notable creative output in the fashion, art, and industrial design world. Together with Jannik Wambsganss, our CEO and Lead Investor, they form a determined and effective team with the mission to find the best designers, engineers, and marketers, and create a new class of products together.