Director of Design

The Role

As the Director of Design, you will be responsible for both product and brand design at Pomelo, developing design strategies that align with our mission and business goals. You will lead a team of designers, foster creativity, and champion design across the company while also rolling up your sleeves and contributing directly to the design work. You will work closely with leadership, engineering, and product teams to deliver user-centered designs that are cohesive, impactful, and aligned with Pomelo’s vision.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Design Strategy: Own and develop Pomelo’s design vision and strategy across both product and brand design, ensuring alignment with business objectives and company values.
• Holistic Design Thinking: Use a systems-thinking approach to design, integrating user insights and business goals to create effective, delightful consumer experiences across multiple touchpoints.
• Design & Validation: Lead the creation and validation of designs through sketches, prototypes, high-fidelity visuals, and user testing. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure high-quality implementation and user experience.
• Hands-on Design Work: Embrace the player-coach mentality, contributing directly to design projects while guiding and mentoring the design team.
• Collaboration & Advocacy: Partner with leadership and cross-functional teams to advocate for design, driving a culture of collaboration that prioritizes user-centered design across Pomelo.
• Design System Development: Develop and maintain a cohesive design system that ensures scalability, consistency, and efficiency as we grow.
• Mentorship & Growth: Foster the professional growth of the design team, providing guidance, constructive feedback, and opportunities for creative development.
• Team, Culture & Process Building: Develop and scale the team and establish design processes and tools to build an agile, collaborative environment pushes Pomelo’s user experience and brand forward.

What We’re Looking For

• Proven Product & Brand Design Skills: We believe the best design leaders are strong designers. They are able to do great work themselves and apply their skills and knowledge to bring out the best from their team members. Please provide a portfolio that showcases your expertise.
• Management Experience. Prior experience leading a design team with 3 or more designers, ideally across both product and brand design
• Player-Coach Mentality: Ability to lead while still engaging in hands-on design work. You should be comfortable balancing leadership responsibilities with contributing to the execution of key projects.
• Leadership & Communication: Strong communication and interpersonal skills to inspire and motivate the design team, as well as advocate for design across the organization.
• Collaboration & Adaptability: Excellent collaboration skills, with a proven ability to work cross-functionally with product, engineering, marketing, and other teams. Resourceful and adaptable, able to thrive in a fast-paced, early-stage startup environment.
• Systems Thinking: Ability to connect different aspects of the customer experience and create a cohesive and seamless journey within the product and brand.
• Data-Driven Design: Experience in using qualitative and quantitative data to inform design decisions, ensuring that designs are both user-centered and aligned with business goals.
• Craftsmanship & Design Judgment: A keen eye for design detail, with strong skills in visual, interaction, written, and systems design. Excellent judgment when it comes to design taste and execution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Startup Experience: Prior experience an early-stage startup environment
• Fintech Design Experience: Experience designing for user-facing fintech products is a plus, with a deep understanding of how design impacts user behavior in financial contexts.
• Education & Experience: B.A./B.S. in Graphic Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent experience.