London, England, United Kingdom (View all jobs)

About the role:

You will be leading the product design function at Zilch, driving design strategy, customer experience, and ultimately be responsible for the overall design of our product.

Our Product and Design Teams are champion problem solvers, who fall in love with problems before discovering usable, viable and feasible ways to solve customer problems. As Design Lead at Zilch, you have a passion for financial inclusion and deep interest in solving problems in ways that achieve business objectives and exceeds customers’ expectations. Our leaders at Zilch are focused on creating the right environment for the product and design teams so that the teams can proactively optimise their areas. We are looking for a leader who is passionate about driving the Zilch Product experience forward as well as improving the design team itself. You will be championing consistent design experience across all squads whilst delivering complex initiatives as an individual contributor yourself. At Zilch, we believe product development is a team sport, so we want people who thrive in working closely with product managers, engineers, and data scientists to go from exploring problems to building solutions with confidence. While being the product design lead for your own squad.

As Design Lead, you will be demonstrating and work with stakeholders, product managers, engineering managers, engineers, QA and product analysts. You’ll need to have a passion for making sure we’re building the right thing, and we are building things right. As Design Lead at Zilch, you should have a combination of deep knowledge of the customer, the data, the industry, our strategy, our business model, compliance and risk constraints and our desired outcome along with a sense of true ownership of the customer experience.

Day-to-day duties will include:

• You will develop and communicate a clear design strategy that aligns with the overall product and business goals.
• You will champion user-centric design. Deeply understand user needs, pain points, and behaviours to create innovative, intuitive, and visually engaging solutions.
• You will oversee design across squads, partnering closely with product managers and stakeholders to shape a cohesive product experience vision.
• You will manage and support a team of three product designers through coaching, feedback, and professional development.
• You will act individual contributor for one of the squads and will be empowered to solve problems in ways our customers love that also work for the business.
• You will have shared ownership of targets with product, monitor KPIs and proactively use data to drive the product experience forward.
• You will ensure that our product is intuitive, accessible, and delightful to use for our customers.
• Regularly analyse data, feedback, and usage metrics to make informed design decisions and continuously optimise the product experience.
• You will be responsible for making sure the product experience delivers value in a viable way for our business.
• You will be speaking to customers regularly to empathise with their biggest problems and validate solutions intended to solve those problems.

What we’re looking for:

• 7+ years of design and leadership experience across at least two product-led B2C companies, including hands-on zero-to-one experience bringing new products to market.
• 2+ years of experience managing other designers.
• Passionate about developing and empowering designers—helping them make informed decisions, navigate challenges, and grow their craft.
• Skilled in Figma, design systems, and crafting exceptional customer experiences. Although this is primarily a management role, you’ll also be hands-on in designing high-quality experiences.
• Advocate for new ways of working and continuous improvement across design and product teams.
• Committed to delivering customer value early and often, ensuring that every solution truly solves real customer problems. Do not let perfect get in the way of good.
• Curious about product, technology, finance, and business building. Leads with integrity, transparency, and accountability for product outcomes.
• Confident in interpreting data—from analytics to customer feedback and market trends—to guide design and product direction.
• Confident with evaluating data (analytics, customer feedback, industry trends) and ideas.
• Skilled at influencing leaders, aligning teams, and communicating clearly with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Customer obsessed, always asking whether what we intend to build will solve the customers problem.
• Strong ability to manage senior stakeholders, secure buy-in for design initiatives, and represent the customer’s voice in leadership discussions.
• Ruthlessly prioritises to deliver high-quality experiences quickly. You’ll go from one meeting where you’re having a 1:1 with a product designer, to another one where you’ll be explaining the design choices you’ve made for your own squad.

Bonus skills:

• B2C Fintech, e-commerce or marketplace experience.
• Scale-up experience – as it can feel like a roller-coaster at times.

To apply for this role, please submit your CV along with a cover letter.

We acknowledge receipt of your resume for a position at Zilch and we appreciate your interest in joining our business.

We will screen all applicants and select candidates whose qualifications meet our requirements. We will carefully consider your application during the initial screening and will contact you if you are selected to continue to the next stage of the recruitment process. We wish you every success.

Zilch Technology is an equal opportunities employer and we encourage all applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief.

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