Head of Design

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Head of Design

Company: Odin

Location: London, England, United Kingdom

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design & Brand Leadership

Date Posted: 2026-08-21

Experience Level: Senior / Lead (10+ years implied)

Remote Status: Hybrid (3 days in office required)

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the strategic vision and execution of design across Odin's product suite and brand identity, transforming complex financial technology into intuitive user experiences.

• Drive a design-led transformation within the private markets sector, elevating the standard for user experience and visual appeal in a traditionally underserved area.

• Foster a culture of exceptional design craft and systems thinking, establishing repeatable processes for customer research, feedback, and iterative product development.

• Collaborate closely with founders, product, and engineering teams to define design direction, set quality standards, and scale design operations as the company grows.

• Remain hands-on with complex design challenges, from conceptualization and prototyping to user testing and delivering polished, production-ready interfaces.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role is described as "Head of Design" with a focus on both "product and visual brand identity." This implies a leadership position overseeing both Product Design and Brand Design functions, requiring a strategic thinker capable of setting a unified vision. The "10+ years implied" experience level is derived from the seniority of the responsibilities and the expectation of leading design direction and shaping complex products end-to-end.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Define and articulate Odin's overall design philosophy, ambition, and cultural stance, translating it into a cohesive visual brand identity and product experience.

• Oversee the end-to-end design process for new features and product enhancements, from initial discovery and user research to final UI implementation and post-launch analysis.

• Develop and maintain comprehensive design systems, ensuring consistency, scalability, and efficiency across all user interfaces and brand touchpoints.

• Conduct rigorous user research, including customer interviews, usability testing, and data analysis, to deeply understand user needs and validate design decisions.

• Collaborate closely with product management to translate complex business requirements, regulatory constraints, and technical limitations into elegant and effective design solutions.

• Partner with engineering teams to ensure accurate implementation of designs, providing clear specifications, prototypes, and ongoing support throughout the development lifecycle.

• Champion a user-centric design approach, advocating for the customer and ensuring that design decisions are grounded in user behavior and business impact.

• Establish and refine repeatable design practices, feedback loops, and quality assurance processes to ensure consistently high-quality design output.

• Mentor and guide existing design talent, fostering their growth while building out the design function to support Odin's expansion.

• Manage design projects, prioritize tasks, and make thoughtful trade-offs to balance speed, quality, complexity, and compliance requirements.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities are inferred from the job description's emphasis on "defining and elevating the customer experience," "evolving our brand identity," "setting the design direction," and "shaping how design operates." The scope clearly indicates leadership in both product and brand, requiring strategic oversight and hands-on contribution.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong portfolio and demonstrable experience in product and visual design are paramount. Equivalent practical experience is highly valued.

Experience: A minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in product design, with a significant portion in leadership roles, is expected. This should include end-to-end ownership of complex product lifecycles and experience within in-house design teams.

Required Skills:

• Deep expertise in product design, with a proven track record of shaping complex, regulation-heavy products from concept to launch.

• Exceptional visual design craft, with a highly developed eye for composition, hierarchy, interaction, and detail, resulting in polished, production-ready UI.

• Advanced information architecture, interaction design, and prototyping skills using industry-standard tools.

• Strong systems thinking capabilities, with experience designing complete workflows that consider user actions, communications, automations, permissions, and operational processes.

• Proven ability to lead independent discovery processes, including customer interviews, assumption validation, prototyping, and usability testing.

• Experience designing for complex, multi-party products or within highly regulated environments (e.g., FinTech, HealthTech).

• High agency and a proactive approach to identifying needs, driving initiatives, and taking ownership.

• Excellent communication, collaboration, and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and concisely to diverse audiences.

• Decisive judgment with the ability to make thoughtful trade-offs and form clear points of view.

• Outcome-driven mindset, focused on measuring impact and improving customer experience and business results. Preferred Skills:

• Experience in evolving and defining brand identity and visual brand systems.

• Familiarity with the private markets (Venture Capital, Private Equity) or FinTech infrastructure space.

• Experience establishing and scaling design operations, including repeatable research and feedback practices.

• Mentorship and team-building experience.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Must-Have" experience section directly translates into the required skills. The "10+ years" experience level is an inference based on the seniority of the role, the breadth of responsibilities (leading direction, shaping operations, end-to-end ownership), and the expectation of having "experience and conviction to make strong design decisions quickly."

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A comprehensive portfolio showcasing a strong track record of shaping complex products end-to-end, with a focus on in-house experience and ownership of complete customer journeys.

• Demonstrations of exceptional visual design craft, cohesive and polished production-ready UI, and a high standard for shipped product quality.

• Case studies that clearly articulate complex problem-solving, rigorous discovery processes (user interviews, testing, iteration), and the resulting user experience improvements.

• Evidence of strong systems thinking, illustrating how you've designed complete workflows and considered the interconnectedness of user actions, communications, automations, and operational processes.

• Measurable business or customer impact, supported by data and clear metrics demonstrating the ROI of design initiatives.

• Examples of designing within regulated environments or for complex, multi-party products. Process Documentation:

• Showcase examples of how you have established and scaled structured, repeatable customer research and feedback practices.

• Illustrate your approach to designing and maintaining design systems, ensuring consistency and scalability.

• Demonstrate your ability to translate complex, regulation-heavy workflows into clear, intuitive, and inevitable user experiences through process flow diagrams or similar documentation.

• Provide evidence of how you collaborate with engineering and product teams, detailing your process for providing context, specifications, and support.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio requirements are directly extracted from the "Your Experience" section, emphasizing "a portfolio demonstrating exceptional visual design, polished production-ready UI and measurable business or customer impact," and the need for "strong systems thinking" and "experience designing complete workflows." The process documentation aspect is inferred from the need to "build repeatable ways of learning from customers, test assumptions early and establish regular feedback loops" and "create structure from incomplete information."

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: £105,000 - £150,000 per annum.

This range is competitive for a senior design leadership role in London, reflecting the significant responsibilities, required expertise, and the company's growth stage. The exact salary within this band will be determined by the candidate's experience, skills, and demonstrated capabilities during the hiring process.

Benefits:

• Health & Wellness:

  • Private health insurance (Vitality)
  • Access to Spill for mental health support
  • £1,000 annual budget for health, therapy, or fitness
  • Paid sick leave, including specific support for pregnancy loss and fertility treatments

• Family Support:

  • Enhanced maternity leave
  • Enhanced adoption leave
  • Enhanced paternity leave
  • Enhanced partner leave

• Retirement:

  • 4% employer contribution to pension, with salary sacrifice options

• Time Off:

  • 25 days annual leave
  • 2 additional wellness days
  • Flexible bank holidays (totaling 33 days of paid time off)
  • Birthday leave

• Flexibility & Global Mobility:

  • Up to 6 weeks per year working from anywhere globally

• Equity:

  • Equity options as part of the compensation package Working Hours: While not explicitly stated as a fixed number, the role implies a full-time commitment. The expectation of being in the office at least three days a week suggests a standard professional work schedule, likely around 40 hours per week, with flexibility managed within the hybrid model.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range and benefits are directly stated in the job description. The "Working Hours" are inferred to be standard full-time, likely around 40 hours per week, given the seniority and the hybrid work arrangement requiring specific office days. The "Equity Options" are specifically mentioned as part of the compensation.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: FinTech / Private Markets Infrastructure. Odin operates at the intersection of financial services and technology, providing a platform for private investment firms. This industry is characterized by high stakes, regulatory complexity, and a growing demand for sophisticated, user-friendly technology solutions.

Company Size: The description mentions Odin is "trusted by over 10,000 angels, VCs, and founders" and administers "$500m in assets." While not a direct headcount, this indicates significant operational scale and market traction. The company is likely in a growth phase, moving from a startup to a scale-up, suggesting a dynamic and fast-paced environment.

Founded: Odin was founded with a mission to transform private markets through design and technology. The company's focus on "rethinking what progress means" suggests a forward-thinking, ambitious, and potentially disruptive culture.

Team Structure:

• The design team currently includes an existing designer, indicating this role will be a significant leadership addition.

• Close collaboration with "founders, Head of Product, and the wider product team" is expected, highlighting a cross-functional and integrated approach.

• The role requires shaping "how design operates as we grow," implying a need to build out and structure the design function.

• The emphasis on in-person collaboration suggests a team that values direct interaction and shared problem-solving. Methodology:

• Data-Driven Design: The role emphasizes being "Deeply user-centric" and using "interviews, data and observation to understand real behaviour." This points to a methodology grounded in user research and analytics.

• Systems Thinking: A core requirement is "Strong systems thinking, with experience designing complete workflows," indicating a focus on interconnectedness and holistic solutions.

• Iterative Development: The role involves "building and testing prototypes," and establishing "systematic about discovery" and "regular feedback loops," underscoring an agile and iterative approach to design and product development.

• Outcome Focus: The role is "Outcome-driven," prioritizing measurable impact on customer experience, business outcomes, or operational efficiency.

Company Website: https://www.joinodin.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: Company information is primarily derived from the provided "About Odin" and "Mission" sections. The industry context is inferred from the description of Odin's product (platform for private investment firms, VC/PE, FinTech infrastructure). Company size is inferred from user/asset numbers and the mention of growth.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is a senior leadership position, equivalent to a Director or VP level within a design function. It requires not only exceptional individual contributor skills but also the ability to define strategy, build processes, and influence the broader organization. The Head of Design is expected to be a key player in shaping the company's product and brand trajectory.

Reporting Structure: The Head of Design will work closely with founders and the Head of Product. The exact reporting line isn't specified, but it's likely to be directly to a founder or CEO, given the strategic importance of the role and the need to evolve brand identity alongside founders.

Operations Impact: The Head of Design will have a profound impact on Odin's success by:

• Elevating Customer Experience: Transforming complex financial processes into intuitive and engaging experiences, driving user adoption and satisfaction.

• Strengthening Brand Equity: Defining and executing a compelling visual brand identity that communicates Odin's ambition and innovation in the private markets.

• Driving Business Growth: Directly influencing product strategy and market perception, which are critical for Odin's expansion, especially with a major US launch planned.

• Building Design Capability: Establishing a robust design function that can scale effectively, ensuring high-quality design output across the organization.

Growth Opportunities:

• Strategic Leadership: Opportunity to shape the long-term design vision and strategy for a rapidly growing FinTech company.

• Organizational Design: Play a key role in building and scaling the design team and its operational processes.

• Cross-Functional Influence: Collaborate directly with founders and leadership across product, engineering, and marketing to drive company-wide initiatives.

• Industry Impact: Contribute to transforming a traditionally non-design-centric industry (private markets) through exceptional product and brand design.

• Skill Expansion: Potential to deepen expertise in FinTech, complex systems, and brand strategy at a senior level.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Operations Career Level" is inferred from the title "Head of Design" and the responsibilities of defining strategy, building processes, and leading the function. The "Operations Impact" and "Growth Opportunities" are extrapolated from the role's described scope and the company's mission and growth stage.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Odin is a London-based team that values in-person collaboration. This suggests a professional office environment designed to foster teamwork and focused work. The description emphasizes that "being in the office... makes a real difference," indicating a culture that prioritizes face-to-face interaction for speed and intensity.

Office Location(s): The primary office is located in London, United Kingdom. Specific details about the office amenities or accessibility are not provided, but it's implied to be a central hub for the core team.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The emphasis on "at least three days per week in the office" and the mention of "in-person collaboration crucial" highlight a workspace designed for team interaction, brainstorming, and rapid problem-solving.

• Tools & Technology: While not explicitly detailed for the workspace, the role requires proficiency in design tools and prototyping software. It's reasonable to assume the company provides the necessary technological infrastructure to support design work.

• Team Interaction: The role involves working closely with founders, product, and engineering teams, suggesting a dynamic and communicative office setting where design is integrated into the broader product development process.

Work Schedule: The role is full-time. The hybrid model requires at least three days per week in the office. This structure allows for focused work and deep collaboration while also offering flexibility for remote work up to six weeks per year globally. The intensity of the company's operations suggests a demanding but rewarding work schedule.

📝 Enhancement Note: The work environment details are drawn from the "Working at Odin" section, particularly the emphasis on being "London-based," requiring "at least three days per week in the office," and the importance of "in-person collaboration."

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A review of your resume and portfolio to assess alignment with the role's requirements, particularly your design craft, strategic thinking, and leadership potential.

• Portfolio Presentation & Discussion: A deep dive into your portfolio, where you'll present key projects, discuss your design process, rationale, and the impact of your work. Expect to elaborate on how you've handled complexity, ambiguity, and regulatory constraints.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Meetings with founders, Head of Product, and potentially senior engineers to evaluate your collaboration style, systems thinking, and ability to integrate design into the product development lifecycle.

• Design Challenge/Case Study: You may be asked to tackle a specific design problem or present a strategic approach to a hypothetical Odin challenge, demonstrating your problem-solving skills, decision-making process, and communication abilities.

• Culture Fit & Leadership Assessment: Discussions to gauge your alignment with Odin's values, your leadership philosophy, and your approach to building and managing a design function.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate Strategically: Select 3-4 of your most relevant projects that showcase your ability to handle complex problems, lead design initiatives, and deliver measurable impact. Prioritize those demonstrating end-to-end ownership and systems thinking.

• Tell a Story: For each project, clearly articulate the problem, your role, your process (discovery, ideation, iteration), the trade-offs you made, and the ultimate outcome (quantified impact where possible).

• Highlight Leadership & Process: Emphasize how you've influenced product direction, built design systems, established research practices, and collaborated effectively with cross-functional teams.

• Showcase Craft & Polish: Ensure your presented work reflects exceptional visual design, interaction detail, and a high standard for production-ready UI.

• Address Complexity: Be prepared to discuss how you navigate ambiguity, regulatory constraints, and technical limitations within your case studies.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand Odin's Business: Research Odin's mission, product, target market (private markets, VC/PE), and competitive landscape. Understand the inherent complexities of financial infrastructure.

• Focus on Systems & Workflow: Practice articulating how you would design complex, multi-step workflows for financial operations, considering all touchpoints and stakeholders.

• Demonstrate User Empathy: Prepare to explain how you would identify and address the needs of diverse users within the private markets ecosystem.

• Think Strategically: Be ready to discuss how design can drive business outcomes and differentiate Odin in its market.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process and preparation tips are inferred from the job description's emphasis on "exceptional craft," "systems-level product thinking," "leading discovery," "customer empathy," and "outcome-driven" work. The portfolio requirements are heavily emphasized.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (highly probable, industry standard), Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop).

• Prototyping & Interaction: InVision, Principle, Framer, or advanced Figma prototyping capabilities.

• User Research & Testing: UserTesting.com, Lookback, Maze, or similar platforms for remote usability testing and feedback collection.

• Collaboration & Project Management: Jira, Asana, Trello, or similar tools for tracking design tasks and collaborating with product and engineering.

• Documentation: Confluence, Notion, or shared drives for design specifications and process documentation.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Product Analytics: Amplitude, Mixpanel, Google Analytics, or internal BI tools for tracking user behavior and product performance.

• Data Visualization: Tableau, Power BI, or Looker for creating dashboards and reporting on design impact.

CRM & Automation: (Likely used by other teams, but understanding their data flow is beneficial)

• CRM: Salesforce, HubSpot (understanding how customer data flows and impacts user experience).

• Automation Tools: Understanding how design integrates with automated workflows, communication, and operational processes.

📝 Enhancement Note: The tools are standard for a senior Product Design and Brand Leadership role. Figma is assumed to be the primary tool due to its widespread adoption. The inclusion of analytics and CRM tools reflects the "outcome-driven" nature of the role and the need to understand business impact.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Customer Centricity: A deep commitment to understanding and advocating for the customer, ensuring their needs are at the forefront of design decisions.

• Design Excellence: Upholding an exceptionally high standard for visual craft, interaction design, and overall user experience quality.

• Rigorous Reasoning & Curiosity: A culture that encourages challenging assumptions, asking insightful questions, and seeking root causes.

• High Agency & Ownership: Empowering individuals to take initiative, drive work forward proactively, and take responsibility for outcomes.

• Systems Thinking: A focus on designing holistic solutions that consider the interconnectedness of all product and operational components.

• Outcome-Driven Impact: Measuring the success of design work by its tangible impact on customer experience, business goals, and operational efficiency.

• Collaboration & Conviction: Fostering an environment where constructive debate is encouraged, feedback is welcomed, and decisions are made with conviction but without ego.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: Design is deeply embedded within product and engineering teams, with close collaboration from concept through development.

• Transparent Communication: Articulating thinking clearly, writing concisely, and providing engineers with the necessary context for successful implementation.

• Feedback Loops: Establishing regular channels for feedback from customers, stakeholders, and team members to ensure continuous improvement.

• Constructive Debate: A willingness to engage in thoughtful discussions and challenge ideas constructively to arrive at the best solutions.

• Shared Ownership: A collective responsibility for the success of the product and the customer experience.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values and collaboration style are synthesized from the "Your Must-Have Qualities" section of the job description, which explicitly outlines the desired attributes and behaviors for successful candidates.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Complexity & Ambiguity: Navigating the intricate regulatory landscape of private markets and translating dense financial workflows into intuitive user experiences.

• Elevating a Non-Design-Centric Industry: Shifting the perception and standard of design within private markets, which traditionally prioritizes function over form.

• Scaling Design Operations: Building and structuring the design function to support rapid company growth while maintaining high quality and efficiency.

• Balancing Speed and Quality: Making rapid design decisions in a fast-paced environment while ensuring the highest standards of craft and user experience.

• Brand Evolution: Developing and implementing a new brand identity that reflects Odin's ambition and innovation, potentially challenging established norms.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Strategic Design Leadership: Deepen expertise in defining and executing design strategy for a high-growth FinTech company.

• Industry Transformation: Contribute to a significant shift in how design is perceived and utilized within the private markets sector.

• Organizational Development: Gain experience in building and scaling a design team and its operational framework from the ground up.

• FinTech Domain Expertise: Develop a nuanced understanding of the private markets ecosystem, its challenges, and its technological needs.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Enhance skills in influencing and collaborating with executive leadership, product, and engineering to drive cohesive product vision.

📝 Enhancement Note: Challenges are derived from the job description's emphasis on "complex, regulation-heavy workflows," "ambiguity," and the need to "shape design operations" and "evolve brand identity." Growth opportunities are inferred from the senior leadership nature of the role and the company's growth trajectory.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you approach defining and evolving Odin's brand identity to reflect our mission of 'rethinking what progress means'?" (Focus: Brand Strategy, Visionary Thinking)

• "Describe a time you transformed a complex, regulation-heavy workflow into a simple and intuitive user experience. What was your process, and what was the impact?" (Focus: Problem Solving, Process, Impact)

• "How would you go about establishing Odin's design system and ensuring its adoption and maintenance across the product and engineering teams?" (Focus: Systems Thinking, Scalability, Collaboration)

• "What are your strategies for building and leading a high-performing design team in a fast-paced startup environment?" (Focus: Leadership, Team Building, Operations) Company & Culture Questions:

• "What excites you most about Odin's mission and the private markets industry?" (Focus: Motivation, Industry Interest)

• "How do you ensure user needs are met while balancing business objectives and technical constraints?" (Focus: User-Centricity, Trade-offs)

• "Describe your approach to collaborating with founders and senior leadership. How do you advocate for design perspectives?" (Focus: Stakeholder Management, Influence)

• "How do you measure the impact of design on business outcomes and operational efficiency?" (Focus: Outcome-Driven, Metrics) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each project, clearly define the problem statement, your specific role and responsibilities, your design process (including research and iteration), the key decisions and trade-offs made, and the measurable results achieved.

• Quantify Impact: Wherever possible, use data and metrics to demonstrate the success of your designs (e.g., increased conversion rates, reduced error rates, improved user satisfaction scores).

• Showcase Systems Thinking: Explicitly highlight how your designs fit into a larger system or workflow, demonstrating an understanding of interconnectedness.

• Emphasize Craft and Polish: Ensure your visual presentation is impeccable, reflecting the high standards you'd bring to Odin's product.

• Be Prepared for Deep Dives: Anticipate detailed questions about your design rationale, the challenges you faced, and how you would apply your learnings to Odin's specific context.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview questions are crafted to probe the key requirements and responsibilities outlined in the job description, focusing on leadership, strategic thinking, complex problem-solving, and Odin's specific industry context.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Head of Design position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Ashby HQ.

• Tailor Your Resume: Highlight experience in product design leadership, brand identity development, FinTech, complex workflow design, and experience in fast-paced, high-growth environments. Quantify achievements where possible.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 3-4 of your most impactful projects that demonstrate end-to-end ownership, systems thinking, exceptional craft, and measurable outcomes, particularly those involving complex or regulated products.

• Prepare Your Presentation: Practice presenting your portfolio case studies, focusing on clearly articulating the problem, your process, your strategic decisions, and the quantifiable impact of your work. Be ready to discuss how you'd approach Odin's specific challenges.

• Research Odin: Thoroughly understand Odin's mission, product, target market, and the unique challenges of designing for the private markets. Consider how your design philosophy aligns with their stated values.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.