management
Posted Apr 24Head of Design
at Kikoff
San Francisco, United StatesOn-site
Responsibilities
- Manage, coach, and develop the product design team - including hands-on mentorship of junior designers, not just feedback in big meetings
- Own hiring and talent strategy: bring in designers who raise the bar, and shape the org structure that lets them do their best work
- Champion the visual front and push the bar on what Kikoff can look and feel like Build the Design Foundation
- Build the design system from the ground up so it is something the whole company and our coding agents will want to use
- Define and enforce design patterns across the product to reduce design debt and bring consistency
- Drive the standards that make every screen feel like Kikoff, across product, marketing, and brand surfaces Drive Cross-Functional Impact
- Define how the Kikoff design team uses AI - with a clear, hands-on plan, not a slide
- A track record of building and rebuilding design systems that the team actually adopts and that hold up as the product grows
- A track record of partnering with product and engineering as a peer, and shipping work that moved the business
Requirements
- Kikoff: A FinTech Unicorn Powering Financial Progress with AI
- With innovative technology and AI, we simplify credit building, reduce debt, and expand access to financial opportunities to those who need them the most.
- We value extreme ownership, clear communication, a strong sense of craftsmanship, and the desire to create lasting work and work relationships.
- Give practical, down-to-earth feedback grounded in visual, UX, and craft fundamentals - not just product framing
- Bring user insights into the work: run journey workshops, listen to the user's voice, and make sure the team is designing for real people, not just shipping screens Reinvent How Design Works in the Age of AI
- Help the team figure out the new workflow together - what to use AI for, what to keep human, and how to keep craft from sliding You Have 10+ years of
- experience in product design, with substantial time in consumer-facing, mobile-first products
- experience scaling a design team through a growth phase: you have hired strong designers and you know how to grow a team without losing the craft