Head of Design

Location: New York, NY — Hybrid (onsite 3 days/week: Mon / Wed / Fri)
Employment type: Full-time · Direct hire
Seniority level: Director
Base salary: $225,000–$275,000 + meaningful equity

About the role

As Head of Design, you'll own the entire design language for a consumer product reaching hundreds of thousands of young users. Reporting directly to the CEO, you'll sit at the executive table from day one and partner as a peer with the Head of Product and Head of Engineering — not buried under layers of management.

This is a true player-coach role: hands-on building for the first year while leading and growing a team of three designers, with a clear path to 5+. You'll own design strategy, brand, and the craft bar end-to-end.

What you'll do

• Define and own the design system, visual identity, and craft standard for a rapidly scaling consumer product
• Design polished, mobile-first consumer experiences end-to-end, including running user research
• Lead, mentor, and grow the design team from three toward five and beyond
• Partner directly with the CEO and cross-functional leaders on product and brand direction

What we're looking for

• 8+ years in product design, including proven design leadership (director-level, or founder / founding-designer equivalent) at a scaled or well-known VC-funded company
• Track record of owning and shipping whole consumer products end-to-end
• A strong portfolio of polished, mobile-first consumer or social product work with a clear aesthetic point of view (playful or editorial-minimal)
• 0-to-1 / founding-designer experience
• Expert in Figma with strong design-systems fluency
• Comfortable as a hands-on player-coach who still does IC design work while leading a team

Nice to have

• Web product design in addition to mobile
• Experience designing expressive, engaging consumer social or dating products (e.g., companies like Snapchat, BeReal, Partiful, Hinge, or Bumble)

Compensation & logistics

• Base salary: $225,000–$275,000, plus meaningful equity
• Hybrid in NYC, onsite Mon / Wed / Fri
• Full-time, direct placement

Our client is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.