Lead Product Designer

Lead Product Designer

[Employer hidden — view at passion-project.co.uk] is on a mission to expand the art market to support more artists and art in the world. As a Lead Product Designer, you’ll play a key role in shaping and elevating our customer experience, ensuring collectors and newcomers can seamlessly discover, follow, and purchase artworks. This role requires strategic, user-centered thinking and exceptional design craft to deliver engaging, frictionless experiences that help position [Employer hidden] as essential to people collecting art.

You’ll work on complex design challenges that directly impact how people first encounter [Employer hidden] and the art world, designing experiences that move casual browsers into engaged collectors. This is an exciting opportunity to drive innovative design solutions that expand our reach beyond traditional art market participants.

You will be part of Product Design, a collaborative group of designers embedded within a multidisciplinary Product organization. People in this group work as part of a team alongside Product, Data, and Engineering to drive user-centered decisions and deliver meaningful impact. Reporting to the Senior Director of Product Design, you will contribute to shaping the product roadmap, developing design solutions to high-impact problems of varying certainty—driving iterative, test-and-learn approaches in ambiguous problem spaces, while confidently accelerating toward focused outcomes in more established domains. You will also collaborate with peers to develop, evolve and continuously improve our design practice and infrastructure.

Role overview

We're looking for a Lead Product Designer to transform [Employer hidden] from a destination for existing art enthusiasts into the discovery portal for new collectors. This role combines strategic thinking with hands-on craft, sitting at the intersection of customer acquisition, brand building, and AI-powered personalisation; designing and delivering the top-of-funnel experiences that introduce people to the art world.

You'll be designing for two critical audiences: existing art world participants who discover us through SEO, and future collectors who don't yet know they're interested in art. This is about shifting from tactical SEO optimisation to strategic traffic and acquisition thinking.

What You’ll Own at [Employer hidden]

Design-led customer acquisition

• Transform high-traffic pages from conversion-focused to discovery-focused experiences
• Design acquisition strategies for audiences currently outside the art world
• Partner with marketing to create cohesive brand experiences beyond traditional product boundaries
• Bringing qualitative and quantitative data together to continuously improve the customer experience

Discovery and journey design

• Design experiences that capture and nurture different stages of art interest and knowledge
• Create seamless transitions between discovery, education, and transaction moments
• Build systems that guide people into art collecting regardless of their starting point

AI-accelerated design practice

• Experiment with AI tools to accelerate design iteration and testing cycles
• Build rapid prototypes to test how AI-augmented content and summaries might affect user engagement patterns
• Design and build experiments to help us learn what information drives discovery versus conversion

Brand building through product

• Ensure product experiences reinforce brand positioning for unfamiliar users
• Create cohesive narratives that position [Employer hidden] as the definitive art discovery platform
• Help develop and evolve visual brand identity, product UI and design system in collaboration with the other designers, Brand & Engineering teams

Why this role matters for [Employer hidden]

We're at an inflection point. We’ve built a strong infrastructure for the existing art market, but our biggest growth opportunity lies in expanding the market itself; introducing new people to art collecting and making the art world more accessible.

This role is critical to [Employer hidden] because it helps us design the front door to that experience. You’ll be creating the first impression for people who might become lifelong collectors, working on some of our highest-traffic, highest-value pages, and setting the foundation for how we attract and engage entirely new audiences.

What we’re looking for

Design and leadership experience.

• 6+ years designing digital experiences with demonstrated impact on acquisition and growth metrics
• Experience designing for multiple audience segments within the same product
• Strong portfolio showing systems thinking and strategic design decisions
• Strong design fundamentals including interaction design, information architecture, usability principles, workshop facilitation
• Fluidity and proficiency in solutionising between web and native app experiences
• Highly collaborative approach, thriving in cross-functional teams with engineers, product managers, and data analysts
• Strong communication and storytelling skills for different types of audiences, including senior stakeholders and leadership

Growth and acquisition mindset

• Understanding of conversion funnel design and optimisation
• Experience working closely with marketing, SEO, and growth teams
• Comfort with experimentation and data-driven design decisions

AI and emerging technology perspective

• Hands-on experience using AI tools to accelerate design work
• Thoughtful opinions on AI's role in user experiences
• Understanding of how emerging technologies might change user behaviour and expectations for [Employer hidden]

Brand and experience thinking

• Ability to design experiences that build brand affinity alongside functional goals
• Experience creating cohesive experiences across different touchpoints/channels
• Understanding of how product design contributes to brand positioning
• Strong sense of aesthetics, trends and role of social media & off-channel experiences in discovery
• Strong visual, microinteraction design and typographic skills.
• Illustration and video editing skills desired, but not required
• Experience building and working with design systems

You'll thrive in this role if you

• Care deeply about expanding access to art and believe design can make the art world more welcoming
• Get energised by designing for people who don't yet know they're interested in art
• Enjoy experimenting with new tools and approaches to accelerate your design practice
• Value both qualitative insights and quantitative data in your design decisions
• Want to work at the intersection of product design, brand building, and customer acquisition
• See the world and experiences beyond the digital

This role probably isn't for you if you

• Are uncomfortable with ambiguity and searching for answers independently or exploring unchartered territory
• Find it frustrating when business metrics don't immediately align with user experience goals
• Would rather perfect existing experiences than experiment with new approaches to customer acquisition

What success looks like

First 3 months

• Understand [Employer hidden]'s current collector journeys and identify opportunities to improve discovery experiences for new audiences. Begin experimenting with AI tools to accelerate your design process.

First 6 months

• Lead design for a key acquisition-focused initiative from research through delivery. Establish patterns for how we design discovery experiences that work for both art world newcomers and existing collectors.

Beyond 6 months

• Drive measurable improvements in how new visitors engage with [Employer hidden]. Influence our broader product strategy around customer acquisition & retention and help define what it means to be the definitive art discovery platform.

Working with us

We know no one is a perfect match on paper. If you're passionate about using design to expand the art market and make collecting more accessible, we'd love to hear from you.

Please Note: We can only accept applications from those authorized to live and work in the UK. This is a hybrid role with office attendance required 1-2 days/week.

How we will Evaluate your Skills:

Our standard interview process looks like:

1. Talent Acquisition Interview
2. Hiring Manager Interview (including Portfolio Review)
3. Meet your close collaborators

If you are selected to interview for the Product Design position, we will share a detailed guide on what you can expect from the hiring process and how to prepare for each stage.

What We Offer:

• Opportunity to reimagine the art industry while working with a talented, diverse, international team.
• Competitive salary and equity
• Flexible time off: our culture of trust and empowerment allows employees to take the time they need away from work while still excelling in their roles
• We are a global hybrid team: most employees work from our NYC, London, or Berlin offices 2-3 days per week. (In-person expectations vary by role)
• Private healthcare & benefit options, including: medical, dental, enhanced parental leave, Pension Plan, life assurance, Employee Assistance Programme featuring free mental health support, physio, and more
• Professional development, including: mentoring, lunch & learns, regular training, 1:1 management, and an open feedback culture
• Engaging opportunities and internal programming globally, to foster new relationships and build upon our collaborative community. Including: happy hours, holiday parties, global "All Hands" meetings, "[Employer hidden] Salon" (a yearly exhibition of our team's creativity), attendance to art world events, and more

*[Employer hidden] is committed to equitable compensation practices, and your offer will depend on the relevant experience and skillset you bring to the team.*

*All compensation packages include meaningful [Employer hidden] equity and competitive health benefits. Please see our “What We Offer” above for more detail, or speak to our Talent Acquisition Team to learn more!*

Please note that we do not accept applications sent by email. You should submit your application directly through our careers website!

[Employer hidden] Values

*[Employer hidden] has five core values that will inform your experience at [Employer hidden].*

For the Love of Art: We show relentless curiosity, empathy, and passion for collectors, artists, gallerists, and the art market. We take action to make the art world more fair and welcoming.

Own Our Outcomes: We are all individual owners of [Employer hidden]’s shared success. We are resourceful and resilient, and to get the job done, we each take responsibility for our outcomes.

Lead with Openness: We trust in our teammates. We seek diverse perspectives, communicate authentically, and act with integrity. A more open art world starts with us.

Transform Together: Our mission asks us to challenge the status quo. We embrace feedback, learning, and change so that we can transform our industry, our company, and ourselves.

Impact Over Perfection: Using both art and science, we debate and decide swiftly and iterate on our plans as we learn. To make the biggest impact, we prioritize speed and clarity of action over perfection.

[Employer hidden] is an equal opportunity employer. We value a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. We encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, disability, and veteran status.

To Apply

To apply, please submit your application here. When you apply, you will be directed to a third party site.

[Employer hidden] IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. WE VALUE A DIVERSE WORKFORCE AND AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE. WE ENCOURAGE APPLICATIONS FROM ALL QUALIFIED INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT REGARD TO RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, GENDER, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER IDENTITY OR EXPRESSION, AGE, NATIONAL ORIGIN, MARITAL STATUS, DISABILITY, AND VETERAN STATUS.