Lead Product Designer
About this role
This is a senior consulting design position. You'll shift between owning projects from start to finish — running discovery, getting stakeholders on the same page, setting direction — and doing the hands-on design work yourself when that's what the engagement calls for.
The work centers on mature products already in the hands of real users. Success here means making what exists work better: streamlining workflows, tightening visual hierarchy, raising conversion, and cutting friction. There's little greenfield work and few obvious portfolio showpieces. If you take pride in making a live product measurably better for the people who rely on it daily, this will suit you.
What we need
6–10+ years in UX or Product Design, preferably including consultancy, agency, or embedded-team work where client and stakeholder relationships were yours to manage.
Proven range: able to lead a project or small team one week and work as a senior IC the next, depending on what the engagement requires.
A history of strengthening existing products rather than launching new ones — with measurable gains in usability, conversion, or workflow efficiency to point to.
Sharp visual and UI instincts for forms, workflows, CTAs, hierarchy, and layout, plus the ability to argue a layout choice on substance.
Fluency working alongside engineers against shipped code — you can look at a live interface and diagnose the problems before you ever open Figma.
Clarity in explaining the reasoning behind a design and the problem it solves, whether you're talking to an engineer or an executive.
Experience running cross-functional workshops and leading business reviews or strategic planning sessions with senior stakeholders.
Helpful, not required
Design experience in regulated or enterprise contexts (finance, compliance, GRC, banking, and the like).
Experience designing software that lives inside third-party platforms.
Familiarity with established component libraries and design systems such as MUI.
A track record of mentoring designers through critique and example.
Practical HTML/CSS knowledge; JavaScript is a bonus.
A degree in Design, HCI, Computer Science, Engineering, or something adjacent — or equivalent experience.
What you'll be doing
Owning design problems on your assigned projects: framing the question, carrying it through discovery, design, and delivery, and keeping stakeholders with you at every stage.
Leading or contributing as the situation demands — directing the design effort at times, producing the work in Figma at others. Both should feel natural.
Working closely with product managers and engineers to turn vague requirements into concrete, testable solutions, then iterating against what's actually been built.
Running the full loop from rough exploration to high-fidelity handoff, validating with users at the moments where testing genuinely changes the answer.
Facilitating workshops, design reviews, and working sessions with cross-functional and executive groups — making decisions visible and trade-offs explicit.
Mentoring the designers around you and raising the standard of the work.
Building lasting stakeholder relationships: understanding the real goal behind the request, and pushing back thoughtfully when the brief itself is off.
Originally posted on Himalayas
