Director, Product Design

About the role

This role shapes growth strategy and design culture while guiding how the team leverages AI, data, and experimentation to serve members and business goals.

Designers shape how products look and feel. Designers create user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and polished visuals. They test ideas with users and iterate on feedback. Design work spans research, interaction design, and visual design. Collaboration with product and engineering happens daily. Design decisions are judged by outcomes such as usability, conversion, and customer satisfaction. Most design teams keep a living design system to keep products consistent.

Key facts

Requirements

Significant experience leading and scaling product design teams in consumer technology companies, with a track record of driving measurable business outcomes.

Deep expertise in acquisition, onboarding, activation, engagement, retention, or monetization experiences, and the ability to design for large user populations.

Strong experience partnering with Product, Engineering, Data Science, and executive stakeholders to define strategy and deliver high-impact solutions.

Exceptional ability to use qualitative and quantitative insights to inform decision-making and prioritize opportunities that support member and business needs.

Experience designing and scaling experimentation programs, including hypothesis development, test design, measurement frameworks, and interpretation of results.

Demonstrated success leveraging AI technologies to improve product experiences, accelerate experimentation, or transform team workflows in a responsible and user-centered way.

Strong understanding of emerging AI capabilities and how they can be applied to personalization, growth, engagement, and product innovation.

A systems-thinking mindset to navigate ambiguity, connect near-term wins to long-term strategy, and influence across organizational boundaries.

Excellent communication, storytelling, and leadership skills that inspire alignment and collaboration across functions and levels.

Nice to have

Experience working in a financial technology or highly regulated environment, with familiarity with compliance considerations relevant to member-facing products.

Practical notes

This is a full-time role based in San Francisco, with a hybrid in-office schedule requiring four days in the office and flexibility for Fridays remote for those near office locations.

Typical interview steps

Design interviews usually include a portfolio review, a design exercise, and a team conversation. Candidates present past work and explain their process and decisions. Some loops include a live design challenge. Communication matters as much as the visual output. Portfolios are strongest when they show the problem, the constraints, and the iteration, not just the final screens. Interviewers also watch how you take feedback.

Good to know

Product design in growth organizations combines user research, data analysis, and experimentation to drive member outcomes.

AI-powered tools are increasingly used for research synthesis, prototyping, and personalization in modern product design workflows.

Cross-functional collaboration with product, engineering, data science, and marketing is central to delivering measurable growth outcomes.

Financial technology roles often involve regulated environments where design decisions must consider compliance, risk, and security.

Questions to ask

Good questions to ask the employer in the interview: what does success look like in the first six months, how is the team structured, what is the current biggest challenge, and how are decisions made. Asking about growth paths and the review process is also well received. Employers expect questions, and good ones show preparation.

Career growth

Design careers grow from junior to senior, staff, and principal levels. Some designers move into design management or design operations. Specializations include UX research, interaction design, and brand design. Cross-functional influence grows with seniority. Senior designers are expected to influence product strategy, not just execute visuals. Building a habit of user research strengthens any design career.