Head of Design

We're searching for a talented and experienced leader to build and lead our design team from the ground up. This role is to head up our design team, but as a startup, you will be focusing mainly on our product UI/UX.

You are able to lead both vision and the team but you are also ready to get your hands dirty. You attract amazing people as you love to inspire and motivate others. Moreover you’re the heart of the design and are always keen to grow and help anyone around you.

When leading - you lead by example, when setting the bar - you set it up high and make sure everything lives up to it. You think strategically and can take responsibility for the final result.

About Us

Otto is a consumer-focused payments company on a mission to increase the financial health and stability of everyday Americans. We’re starting with the most common and frequent pain-point: bills.

Otto is the first automated bill payment platform that combines intelligent expense management with virtual payment cards to empower people with the ability to pay all their bills on-time, even if they need more time. Customers can easily manage recurring expenses, automate on-time payments, and optimize those payments to perfectly align with income and cash flow.

Otto is backed by world-class VCs such as by Kindred Ventures (Uber, Coinbase, Postmates), 645 Ventures (FiscalNote, Overtime, Squire), Canaan Partners (Bird, Instacart, Astra), Quiet Capital (Modern Treasury, Airbase, Lithic), and a syndicate of strategic angel investors.

This is a great opportunity to join a well-funded startup at a very early stage.

What you'll do:

Own and lead the end-to-end design process of new features and iterations of a product that is used by millions of people.
Work collaboratively with your PM, Eng and UX partners to identify and solve user, product, and business problems.
Own product design and direction for your squad. This requires you to be actively involved in defining strategy as you will be a key contributor to defining your squad’s goals, success metrics, roadmap, and sprint commitments.
Deliver high-quality, polished, delightful, and easy to use designs.
Design and prototype multiple ideas quickly, and connect regularly with customers to validate product directions.
Participate in twice-a-week design collab sessions.
Mentor fellow designers, helping them to think more critically and strategically and improve their craft.
Articulate, negotiate, and refine design requirements in collaboration with product managers and engineers to arrive at the best design solutions.

What you'll need:

6+ years relevant product design experience in a product or design-focused tech company.
Practical experience shipping real products that solve real problems for real people.
Experience performing all functions of the product design lifecycle, including research (sometimes with the UX research team), defining product strategy, wireframes, prototypes, pixel-perfect UI, documentation, and user testing.
Deep practical knowledge of design tools like Figma.
Experience building/maintaining a scalable design system in Figma or equivalent.
Strong communication skills with cross-departmental teammates such as engineering and data analysis.

Bonus Points (no pun intended):

Prototyping in code is a strong plus.
Formal design background is a strong plus.
Design focused software development skills is a strong plus.

Compensation & Benefits

Join a fast-growing brand that is building thoughtful financial products.
Competitive salary, stock options, and 401K.
Full health benefits (medical, dental, and vision insurance).
Unlimited vacation policy, paid company holidays, and WFH flexibility.
Free Otto membership + $100 in monthly credits to pay for bills or subscriptions.

We're flexible in terms of work hours and. We care more about results than we do about hours or where you want to work.