Founding Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Founding Product Designer

Company: Slash Financial

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / Fintech Operations

Date Posted: 2026-08-28

Experience Level: 5-10 Years

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Spearhead the end-to-end product design lifecycle for a rapidly growing fintech company, focusing on core banking solutions and industry-specific financial infrastructure.

• Establish and evolve the company's visual identity and design system, ensuring consistency and craft across all touchpoints, from product interfaces to marketing collateral.

• Drive innovation by leveraging AI tools within the design process to enhance problem-solving, explore creative directions, and accelerate prototyping.

• Collaborate directly with founders and engineering teams, translating complex financial workflows into intuitive and user-friendly digital experiences that ship to customers.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as the "Founding Product Designer," indicating a significant opportunity to shape the design function from its inception. The emphasis on "industry-specific features" and "tailored financial infrastructure" suggests a need for designers who can grasp complex business logic and translate it into elegant, efficient product solutions, a key aspect of operations-focused design.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own the complete product design process, from initial concept and problem definition with founders, PMs, and engineers, through to final shipped product.

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive design system, defining the visual and interaction language for the core product and documenting standards for future design team scalability.

• Lead the art direction and hands-on execution of Slash's visual identity, including brand assets, marketing website design, pitch decks, event graphics, and social media content.

• Foster close collaboration with the engineering team, engaging in rapid prototyping, iterative testing, and direct implementation to ensure designs are effectively translated into functional products.

• Integrate AI tools (e.g., Claude, Cursor) into the design workflow for problem clarification, exploration of design concepts, and rapid prototyping of user flows.

• Conduct direct customer research and user interviews to validate design decisions and ensure product solutions align with actual customer needs and usage patterns.

• Build the operational framework for the design function, defining tools, processes, and quality standards, and actively participate in hiring future design team members.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibility to "Build the function you're joining" highlights the operational aspect of this role. The Founding Product Designer is not just executing design but also establishing the operational processes, tools, and quality standards for how design will function and scale within Slash, akin to setting up a new operational unit.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Experience: 5-10 years of progressive experience in product design, with a strong emphasis on building and scaling design functions within fast-paced environments.

Required Skills:

• Proficient in end-to-end product design, encompassing interaction design, systems thinking, and the ability to simplify complex financial workflows.

• Demonstrated creative range beyond UI, including strong graphic design, illustration, and art direction capabilities, evidenced in a comprehensive portfolio.

• Proven track record of taking ownership of projects from ambiguous problem statements to successful, shipped outcomes, showcasing end-to-end project leadership.

• Adaptability and comfort operating in ambiguous environments, with a proactive approach to building processes and workflows.

• Active and practical experience using AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor in the design process.

• Experience working within a fast-growing startup environment, ideally in a founding or early-stage design role. Preferred Skills:

• Experience in the fintech or financial services industry, with an understanding of banking products and financial infrastructure.

• Familiarity with building and scaling design systems for complex applications.

• Experience conducting user research and translating insights into actionable design improvements.

• Ability to art direct and manage external creative resources if needed.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for "Real creative range beyond UI" and the portfolio needing to "demonstrate this directly, not just claim it" underscores the need for a designer who can contribute to the broader visual and brand operations of the company, not just the core product interface. This is crucial for a "founding" role where brand perception is paramount.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase end-to-end product design projects, clearly detailing the problem, your process, and the impact of your solutions.

• Include examples demonstrating strong interaction design, systems thinking, and the ability to simplify complex financial products.

• Highlight projects that exhibit creative range beyond UI, such as graphic design, illustration, or art direction, with clear articulation of your role and contribution.

• Present case studies of initiatives where you took ownership from ambiguous beginnings to a shipped, successful outcome, emphasizing your proactive approach and problem-solving skills.

• Demonstrate your experience with AI tools integrated into your design workflow, illustrating how they enhanced your process or outcomes. Process Documentation:

• For each portfolio project, outline the design process followed, including stages like research, ideation, prototyping, user testing, and iteration.

• Document the development and application of design systems, showcasing your ability to create scalable and consistent visual and interaction languages.

• Detail how you collaborated with engineering and other stakeholders, illustrating your approach to cross-functional teamwork and efficient execution.

• Explain how you gathered and incorporated customer feedback to validate and refine design decisions, emphasizing a user-centric approach.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "building the system and documentation that will let a future design team scale it consistently" and "building the function you're joining" implies that the portfolio should not only showcase design execution but also the ability to establish operational standards and scalable processes for design.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: Based on industry benchmarks for a Founding Product Designer with 5-10 years of experience in San Francisco, a competitive salary range is estimated between $150,000 - $200,000 annually. This estimate accounts for the high cost of living in San Francisco and the critical nature of a founding hire in a high-growth fintech startup.

Benefits:

• Ground-floor equity, offering significant ownership and potential upside as the company scales.

• Comprehensive health and benefits plan, covering medical, dental, and vision insurance.

• Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO), promoting work-life balance and autonomy.

• Opportunity to work in a vibrant downtown San Francisco office space.

• Access to cutting-edge tools and technologies, including AI-powered design software.

Working Hours: Full-time, typically 40 hours per week