Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Product Designer

Company: Silna Health

Location: New York City, New York, United States

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / User Experience (UX) / Healthcare Operations

Date Posted: 2025-08-15

Experience Level: Mid-Senior Level (4+ years)

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the design strategy and execution for a healthcare operations platform, focusing on simplifying complex insurance and billing workflows.

• Drive user-centric design principles to build trust and reliability within the healthcare provider community.

• Establish and scale design systems and processes from the ground up, ensuring consistency and efficiency across product touchpoints.

• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, and marketing to define and deliver exceptional brand and user experiences.

• Translate user research and data insights into tangible design solutions that enhance operational efficiency for medical practices.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is "Product Designer," the description strongly emphasizes the role's foundational importance in shaping a new market category and building trust in a sensitive industry (healthcare). This implies a strategic, hands-on leadership role that extends beyond typical product design, requiring a blend of UX, UI, brand, and operational process understanding. The role reports directly to the CEO, indicating significant influence and direct impact on the company's trajectory.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Practice-Centered Design: Develop user experiences that demonstrate deep empathy for healthcare providers, meticulously mapping their daily workflows, time constraints, and the critical nature of administrative tasks to inform design decisions.

• Trust Through Design: Craft intuitive and reliable interfaces that convey security and expertise, ensuring every user touchpoint reinforces Silna's credibility as a trusted healthcare operations partner and compliance-focused platform.

• Defining the Design Function: Actively infuse design thinking and best practices into Silna’s core culture and overall product ethos, establishing design as a strategic imperative.

• Complexity Simplification: Transform intricate insurance verification, claims processing, and billing workflows into clear, intuitive, and error-resistant user experiences that significantly reduce cognitive load for users.

• Brand Experience Integration: Partner closely with the marketing team to ensure a cohesive and consistent visual identity and messaging framework across all digital touchpoints, including the product interface, website, marketing materials, and external presentations.

• Operational Excellence Collaboration: Work in tandem with product management and engineering teams to effectively translate user research insights and business requirements into scalable design solutions that demonstrably improve practice efficiency and alleviate administrative burden.

• Design System Leadership: Architect, build, and maintain robust design systems and component libraries that guarantee UI consistency, facilitate rapid iteration, and support product scalability as the platform evolves.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a "founding" role. This implies not just executing design but also establishing the design function, processes, and systems within a growing startup. The emphasis on "trust," "healthcare operations," and "complexity simplification" suggests a need for a designer who can handle intricate B2B workflows and understand the high stakes involved in healthcare administration.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), or a related field is typically expected for this level of role, though equivalent practical experience will be strongly considered.

Experience: 4+ years of dedicated product design experience, with a strong track record in B2B software or SaaS environments, preferably within high-growth startup settings.

Required Skills:

• Complex Workflow Design: Proven ability to design intuitive user experiences for intricate, multi-step business processes, demonstrating a clear understanding of user flow optimization.

• User Research Methodologies: Proficient in conducting and leveraging user research (interviews, surveys, usability testing) to drive data-informed design decisions and validate design concepts.

• Design Tool Proficiency: Mastery of industry-standard design and prototyping tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, or similar platforms for creating wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Demonstrated success in partnering effectively with product managers, engineers, marketing teams, and stakeholders to achieve shared project goals and product vision.

• User Empathy & Customer Focus: A deep-seated passion for understanding and advocating for the user, with a strong ability to build empathy with diverse user groups, particularly within professional service contexts.

• Visual Identity & Brand Consistency: Skill in developing and maintaining consistent visual design languages and brand experiences across all product touchpoints and marketing collateral.

• Data-Driven Design Decisions: Ability to interpret user analytics, A/B testing results, and other data sources to inform and iterate on design solutions.

Preferred Skills:

• Design System Development: Experience in building and scaling design systems and component libraries from inception in a high-growth startup environment.

• Workflow Automation/BPM Software: Prior experience designing software related to workflow automation, business process management (BPM), or operational efficiency tools.

• Healthcare Operations Domain Knowledge: Familiarity with or direct experience in healthcare operations, medical billing cycles, insurance claims processing, or related administrative workflows.

• Accessibility & Inclusive Design: Knowledge of WCAG guidelines and a commitment to implementing accessible and inclusive design practices in all deliverables.

• Early-Stage Startup Experience: Proven track record as an early design hire in a startup, contributing to foundational design processes and culture.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "What Sets You Apart" section provides crucial qualitative requirements. Candidates should highlight instances where they've demonstrated obsessive attention to detail, thrived under constraints, championed customer empathy, and acted as an early design leader. The ability to balance data with intuition is also a key differentiator.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Complex Workflow Case Study: A detailed case study showcasing the design process for a complex B2B workflow solution, highlighting problem definition, user research, iterative design, and final outcomes.

• Process Optimization Examples: Demonstrations of how your design solutions have directly improved user efficiency, reduced errors, or simplified administrative tasks within a business context.

• System Implementation Standards: Examples of design system components or style guides you have built or contributed to, emphasizing consistency, scalability, and maintainability.

• ROI Demonstration: Evidence or clear articulation of the business impact and return on investment (ROI) achieved through your design work, such as increased user adoption, reduced support tickets, or improved conversion rates.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Optimization: Showcase your approach to mapping, analyzing, and redesigning complex user workflows, illustrating how you identify bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement.

• Implementation & Automation Methods: Detail your experience in translating design concepts into functional prototypes and collaborating with development teams for efficient implementation, including any experience with automation principles in design.

• Measurement & Performance Analysis: Outline how you measure the success of your designs post-launch, using user feedback, analytics, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to validate impact and guide future iterations.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given this is a "founding" role, the portfolio should not only showcase finished products but also the candidate's ability to establish design processes, systems, and a design culture. Demonstrating foresight in anticipating future needs and scalability is paramount.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: Based on industry benchmarks for a Founding Product Designer with 4+ years of experience in New York City, a competitive salary range is estimated to be between $130,000 - $170,000 annually. This range accounts for the strategic importance of the role, the need for extensive experience in complex B2B SaaS design, and the high cost of living in New York City.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Likely includes medical, dental, and vision insurance plans to support employee well-being.

• 401(k) Retirement Plan: A retirement savings plan to help employees plan for their future.

• Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO): Offers flexibility and encourages a healthy work-life balance by allowing employees to take time off as needed, with management approval.

• Equity/Stock Options: As a founding team member, there is a strong possibility of receiving equity or stock options, providing a stake in the company's success.

• Professional Development: Opportunities for continuous learning, potentially including access to conferences, workshops, and training relevant to design and the healthcare industry.

• Impactful Work Environment: The chance to contribute significantly to a mission-driven company and shape a new market category.

Working Hours: Standard full-time working hours are expected, likely around 40 hours per week. However, the "Unlimited PTO" suggests a focus on results and flexibility rather than strict adherence to hours, common in high-growth startups.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary estimate is based on aggregated data for similar roles in NYC tech startups, considering the "founding" nature of the position and the direct reporting line to the CEO. The "Unlimited PTO" is a common startup benefit that implies a results-oriented culture.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Healthcare Technology (HealthTech), specifically focused on optimizing insurance and billing operations for medical practices. The company is carving out a new market category by simplifying these complex administrative functions.

Company Size: Post-Series A funding, likely indicating a team size of 20-50 employees, transitioning from a very early-stage startup to a growth-focused phase. This size offers a balance of agility and structure.

Founded: Recently founded, but has achieved product-market fit and secured significant Series A funding, suggesting a strong product vision and market validation. This implies a dynamic, fast-paced, and innovative environment.

Team Structure:

• Reporting: The Product Designer will report directly to the CEO, indicating a high level of visibility and influence within the organization.

• Functional Teams: The designer will collaborate closely with Product Management (likely a small, agile team or led by the CEO initially) and Engineering (a core team focused on building and scaling the platform). A Marketing function will also be a key partner.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Expect frequent interaction with all departments, including operations, sales, and customer success, to gather insights and ensure the product meets diverse business needs.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Emphasis on using user research, product analytics, and A/B testing to inform design choices and product strategy.

• Agile Development: Likely operates within an agile framework, requiring iterative design processes and close collaboration with development sprints.

• User-Centric Design: A core philosophy centered around understanding and addressing the needs and pain points of healthcare providers.

• Process Optimization Focus: The company's mission is to simplify complex operational workflows, so a mindset geared towards efficiency and process improvement is ingrained in its culture.

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

📝 Enhancement Note: The company is in a critical growth phase, moving beyond initial product validation to scaling. This means the culture is likely energetic, adaptable, and focused on rapid execution, with opportunities for individuals to significantly shape processes and outcomes.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This "Founding Product Designer" role represents a significant career opportunity, placing the individual at the forefront of design initiatives within a rapidly scaling startup. It's a high-impact, high-visibility position that offers substantial influence over the product's user experience and brand identity.

Reporting Structure: Direct reporting to the CEO provides unparalleled access to executive leadership, strategic decision-making, and mentorship opportunities, fostering rapid professional development.

Operations Impact: The designer's work will directly influence the core value proposition of Silna Health – simplifying complex healthcare operations. Success in this role means making a tangible impact on the efficiency and profitability of medical practices, which, in turn, drives Silna's growth and market penetration. The design function is integral to building trust and establishing market leadership.

Growth Opportunities:

• Design Leadership: Potential to build and lead a design team as the company scales, defining hiring, processes, and overall design strategy.

• Strategic Influence: Direct involvement in product strategy, market positioning, and company-wide decision-making due to the direct reporting line to the CEO.

• Domain Expertise: Deepen expertise in healthcare operations, B2B SaaS design, and building products for regulated industries.

• Career Advancement: Progression from a foundational design role to Head of Design or a similar leadership position within a high-growth tech company.

• Market Category Shaping: Opportunity to contribute to defining and establishing a new market category, offering significant professional recognition and impact.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is ideal for a designer who thrives in ambiguity, wants to build something from the ground up, and seeks a high level of autonomy and impact. The growth trajectory is steep, moving from an individual contributor shaping foundational elements to potentially leading a department.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Silna Health is based in New York City, suggesting a modern office environment conducive to collaboration and innovation. As an on-site role, expect a physical workspace designed for team interaction.

Office Location(s): New York City, NY. Specific location details would likely be provided during the interview process, but expect a location within a major business hub.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Spaces: The office environment will likely feature open work areas, meeting rooms, and potentially dedicated brainstorming spaces to facilitate seamless collaboration between design, product, and engineering teams.

• Tools & Technology: Access to state-of-the-art design software, hardware, and productivity tools necessary for effective product design and prototyping.

• Team Interaction: Regular opportunities for informal and formal interactions with colleagues, fostering a strong sense of team cohesion and shared purpose. The direct reporting to the CEO also implies a close working relationship with leadership.

Work Schedule: While standard working hours are expected (approx. 40 hours/week), the "Unlimited PTO" policy suggests a culture that prioritizes output and flexibility. This means the focus is on achieving goals and delivering high-quality work rather than strict time tracking, allowing for adaptability in managing personal and professional commitments.

📝 Enhancement Note: Being an on-site role in NYC, the environment is expected to be professional, dynamic, and conducive to the collaborative nature of startup work. The emphasis on collaboration is key for a founding designer who needs to work closely with engineering and product.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A brief call with a recruiter or hiring manager to assess basic qualifications and cultural fit.

• Portfolio Review & Design Challenge: Expect a detailed review of your portfolio, focusing on complex workflow design and your process. You may be given a take-home design challenge or asked to present a case study from your portfolio that best demonstrates your skills relevant to Silna's needs.

• Team Interviews: Meetings with key team members, including product managers, engineers, and potentially other founders or executives, to evaluate collaboration skills, technical understanding, and alignment with company values.

• CEO Interview: A final discussion with the CEO to assess strategic thinking, vision alignment, and overall fit for a founding role.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Process: Clearly articulate your design process, from problem identification and user research to ideation, prototyping, and iteration. Highlight how you handled constraints and made trade-offs.

• Showcase Complexity: Select case studies that demonstrate your ability to design for complex, multi-faceted business workflows, similar to insurance and billing. Quantify impact where possible.

• Highlight Founding Experience: If you have prior experience as an early design hire or in building design systems/processes from scratch, make this prominent.

• Demonstrate Empathy: Explain how you incorporated user empathy and research into your design decisions, especially for professional users.

• Brand Integration: Show examples of how you’ve considered brand consistency and its impact on user trust and perception.

• Conciseness and Clarity: Ensure your portfolio is well-organized, easy to navigate, and clearly communicates your contributions and the outcomes of your work.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Familiarize yourself with common challenges in healthcare operations, insurance, and medical billing workflows. Research Silna Health's specific market and competitors.

• Emphasize User Empathy: Prepare to discuss how you would approach understanding the target user (healthcare providers) and their pain points.

• Process Thinking: Be ready to outline how you would establish a design process and system within a startup environment.

• Strategic Alignment: Consider how your design philosophy aligns with Silna's mission to build trust and simplify complex operations.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process will likely be rigorous, reflecting the importance of this founding role. The emphasis will be on assessing not just design execution but also strategic thinking, problem-solving capabilities in complex domains, and the ability to build a design function from the ground up. A strong portfolio showcasing relevant experience is critical.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (highly probable given industry trends and its comprehensive capabilities), Sketch, Adobe XD, InVision, or similar. Proficiency in creating interactive prototypes is essential.

• User Research Platforms: Tools like UserTesting.com, Maze, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, or internal methods for conducting user interviews and collecting feedback.

• Collaboration & Project Management: Tools such as Jira, Asana, Trello, Slack, Notion, or similar for managing design tasks, tracking progress, and facilitating team communication.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Product Analytics: Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, or similar platforms for tracking user behavior, feature adoption, and conversion funnels.

• Data Visualization: Tableau, Looker, Power BI, or even advanced Excel/Google Sheets for presenting data insights to stakeholders.

CRM & Automation:

• While not directly a designer's primary tool, familiarity with CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot) and workflow automation tools can provide context for the B2B SaaS environment and the types of processes being simplified. Understanding how data flows through these systems is beneficial.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the company likely has established tools, the emphasis on building a design system suggests the designer will be instrumental in selecting and implementing design tooling and potentially contributing to the standardization of other development and collaboration tools.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Trust & Reliability: Central to Silna's mission in healthcare. Designs must reflect security, accuracy, and dependability.

• Customer Empathy: A deep understanding and prioritization of the healthcare provider's experience, needs, and challenges.

• Simplicity & Clarity: Transforming complex administrative tasks into intuitive and easy-to-manage processes.

• Efficiency & Optimization: A constant drive to improve workflows, reduce friction, and enhance operational performance for users.

• Innovation & Impact: A commitment to creating novel solutions that make a significant difference in the healthcare industry and demonstrating tangible impact through work.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: Expect a highly collaborative environment where design is deeply integrated with product management, engineering, and marketing from conception through launch and iteration.

• Feedback-Driven: A culture that values constructive feedback, open communication, and iterative improvement based on input from all team members and users.

• Shared Ownership: As a founding member, there will be a sense of shared ownership over the product's success and the company's overall direction.

• Transparency: Open communication regarding company goals, challenges, and progress is likely a cornerstone of the culture.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values emphasize building trust in a sensitive industry and simplifying complex processes. A designer who aligns with these principles and can foster a collaborative, data-informed, and user-centric approach will be highly valued.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Establishing Design Foundation: Building a design function, including processes, systems, and best practices, from inception in a fast-paced startup environment.

• Navigating Healthcare Complexity: Deeply understanding and designing for nuanced, often regulated, healthcare workflows (insurance, billing, compliance) that have high stakes for users.

• Balancing User Needs and Business Goals: Ensuring design solutions meet the diverse needs of healthcare providers while also driving Silna's business objectives and market differentiation.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Effectively communicating design vision and rationale to non-design stakeholders and aligning diverse perspectives towards a unified product experience.

• Rapid Scaling: Adapting design processes and systems to accommodate rapid company and product growth without sacrificing quality or consistency.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Strategic Design Leadership: Opportunity to shape the long-term design vision and strategy for a company building a new market category.

• Healthcare Domain Expertise: Gaining in-depth knowledge of the healthcare industry's operational and regulatory landscape.

• Startup Growth Dynamics: Experience in scaling a product and design function within a high-growth startup environment.

• Mentorship from CEO: Direct guidance and mentorship from the CEO, providing invaluable insights into business strategy and leadership.

• Building a Team: Potential to recruit, mentor, and lead a future design team.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role presents significant challenges that are also rich opportunities for growth. The ability to navigate ambiguity, solve complex problems, and build foundational elements will be key to success and professional development.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• Designing for Trust: "How would you approach designing an interface for sensitive financial and patient data in the healthcare industry to build maximum trust with providers?" (Focus on visual cues, information hierarchy, security indicators, clear communication).

• Simplifying Complexity: "Describe a time you successfully simplified a complex business process through design. What was your methodology, and what were the key outcomes?" (Showcase your process, user research, iterative design, and impact measurement).

• Building a Design System: "As the founding designer, what would be your first steps in establishing a design system at Silna Health? What principles would guide its development?" (Discuss foundational elements, component library, style guides, governance, and scalability).

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: "How do you ensure alignment and effective collaboration with product and engineering teams, especially when advocating for design-centric solutions?" (Highlight communication strategies, shared understanding, and collaborative tools).

Company & Culture Questions:

• Silna's Mission: "What excites you most about Silna Health's mission to simplify healthcare operations, and how does your design philosophy align with it?" (Research the company's values and mission statement; connect your personal design ethos).

• Startup Environment: "What are your expectations for working in a fast-paced, early-stage startup environment? How do you handle ambiguity and rapid change?" (Demonstrate adaptability, proactivity, and resilience).

• Measuring Design Impact: "How do you measure the success and impact of your design work within a business context?" (Prepare to discuss KPIs, user feedback, conversion rates, efficiency gains).

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Storytelling: Structure your portfolio presentation as a narrative. For each case study, clearly define the problem, your role, the user, your process, the solutions you designed, and the measurable impact.

• Focus on Process, Not Just Polish: While polished visuals are important, emphasize the why behind your design decisions. Show your thinking, your iterations, and how you arrived at the final solution.

• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, use data and metrics to demonstrate the success of your designs (e.g., "reduced task completion time by 20%," "increased user satisfaction scores by 15%").

• Handle Constraints: Discuss how you worked within constraints (technical, time, budget) and how those constraints informed your design choices.

• Engage and Interact: Be prepared for questions that probe deeper into your decisions. Treat it as a collaborative discussion rather than a one-way presentation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process will likely test your ability to think strategically about design's role in a business context, your problem-solving skills in complex domains, and your capacity to build and lead. Be prepared to articulate your value proposition clearly and connect your experience directly to Silna Health's mission and challenges.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Ashby. Ensure your resume and any requested documents are uploaded.

• Tailor your Resume: Highlight experience relevant to B2B SaaS, complex workflows, user research, and design systems. Quantify achievements with specific metrics where possible, focusing on impact.

• Curate your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest case studies that best showcase your ability to design for complex business processes, demonstrate user empathy, and ideally, highlight any experience in building design foundations or working in early-stage startups. Ensure your portfolio clearly articulates your process and the outcomes.

• Prepare a Concise Introduction: Be ready to briefly introduce yourself and your most relevant experience during initial screenings, focusing on why you're a strong fit for a founding role at Silna Health.

• Research Silna Health: Understand their mission, product, target market, and recent funding news. This will help you align your answers and questions with the company's strategic goals and challenges.

⚠️ 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.