Product Designer, Funds

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Product Designer, Funds Company: AngelList Location: New York City, NY / San Francisco, CA Job Type: Full Time Category: Product Design / Fintech Operations Date Posted: 2025-09-15 Experience Level: 7+ Years

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the design vision for AngelList's Funds products, focusing on rearchitecting core financial systems into deeply configurable accounting, intelligence, and investor management solutions tailored for institutional clients.
• Innovate by exploring and applying AI agents to transform complex, service-heavy back-office workflows into scalable software products, and pioneer new product categories for fund managers.
• Deliver exceptional user experiences by crafting high-quality interaction and visual designs that simplify complex financial operations and data management.
• Drive design decisions through direct customer engagement, utilizing research and insights to deeply understand user needs and validate design solutions for the private markets infrastructure.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned within the Funds team at AngelList, indicating a focus on financial technology (FinTech) and specifically on the infrastructure supporting venture capital and private equity funds. The emphasis on rearchitecting existing software, applying AI, and serving institutional clients suggests a need for a designer with experience in complex enterprise-level systems and a forward-thinking approach to leveraging emerging technologies within a regulated financial environment. The "Funds" designation implies a deep dive into operations such as accounting, investor relations, and fund administration.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Architect and design intuitive user interfaces for complex financial systems, including accounting, investor management, and portfolio intelligence platforms, ensuring scalability for institutional adoption.
• Conceptualize and prototype innovative solutions leveraging AI agents to automate and streamline back-office functions, such as data reconciliation, reporting, and investor communications.
• Translate user research, market analysis, and customer feedback into actionable design requirements and user stories for the engineering and product teams.
• Develop comprehensive design systems, wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes that clearly articulate user flows and interaction models for sophisticated financial workflows.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, and stakeholders to ensure design solutions are technically feasible, meet business objectives, and align with the company's strategic vision for private markets infrastructure.
• Conduct user testing and usability studies to gather feedback, iterate on designs, and ensure the delivery of high-quality, user-centered products.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of foundational product design for enterprise financial systems and a pioneering role in integrating AI into back-office operations. The focus on "deeply configurable" systems and "institutional needs" implies a need for design that accommodates complex workflows, regulatory compliance, and a high degree of customization, demanding strong systems thinking and detailed interaction design.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

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

Experience: 7+ years of professional experience in product design, with a strong emphasis on complex enterprise software, financial services, or FinTech products.

Required Skills:

• Proven expertise in user-centered design principles and methodologies, with a strong portfolio showcasing end-to-end product design processes.
• Advanced proficiency in design and prototyping tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, or similar.
• Demonstrated ability in systems thinking, with the capacity to design intricate, interconnected financial systems and workflows.
• Strong interaction design skills, focusing on creating intuitive and efficient user flows for complex data and transactional processes.
• Excellent visual design capabilities, with a keen eye for detail, typography, and layout for professional financial interfaces.
• Experience conducting user research, usability testing, and translating insights into design solutions.
• Ability to articulate design decisions clearly and persuasively to cross-functional teams and stakeholders.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience designing for financial systems, including accounting, investor relations, fund administration, or capital markets.
• Familiarity with AI applications and their potential to transform business processes, particularly in back-office automation.
• Experience working in a fast-paced, startup environment with evolving product roadmaps.
• Understanding of venture capital, private equity, or broader private markets ecosystem.
• Knowledge of accessibility standards and best practices in design.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for 7+ years specifically in product design, with a preference for complex financial or enterprise systems, indicates a mid-to-senior level role. The emphasis on "systems thinking" and "rethinking interfaces for both growth and quality" suggests that candidates with experience in large-scale system redesigns or migrations will be highly valued. The desire to "design radically new experiences that take advantage of AI agents" points towards a need for forward-thinking designers comfortable with ambiguity and innovation.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A comprehensive portfolio demonstrating a strong understanding of user-centered design processes from problem definition to final execution, with a focus on complex systems.
• Case studies that highlight experience in designing for enterprise-level software, ideally within the financial services or FinTech sector, showcasing scalability and institutional client needs.
• Examples of how you've translated complex business requirements and user needs into elegant, intuitive interface designs for intricate workflows.
• Demonstrations of your systems thinking approach, illustrating how you've considered the interconnectedness of features and user journeys within a larger product ecosystem.
• Evidence of your ability to leverage AI or innovative technologies to solve complex operational challenges and create new product categories.

Process Documentation:

• Showcase your approach to user research and discovery, detailing how you gather insights to inform design decisions for complex financial products.
• Illustrate your workflow for creating and iterating on designs, including wireframing, prototyping, and high-fidelity visual design for enterprise-grade applications.
• Provide examples of how you collaborate with engineering and product management teams to ensure successful implementation of design solutions, managing feedback loops and design handoffs.
• Highlight your process for testing and validating designs with users, particularly in enterprise or financial contexts, and how you incorporate feedback for continuous improvement.

📝 Enhancement Note: For this role, the portfolio should not just showcase visual design but also a deep understanding of complex system architecture and workflow design within a financial context. Candidates should be prepared to articulate their process for handling ambiguity, integrating new technologies like AI, and designing for scalability and institutional adoption. Demonstrating impact through metrics or specific user outcomes in previous roles will be crucial.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: The base salary for this role is $200,000+ annually. Given the experience level (7+ years), location (New York City/San Francisco), and the specialized nature of FinTech product design, the total compensation package, including equity, is likely to be significantly higher. A realistic total compensation range, considering base, bonus, and equity, could be in the $250,000 - $350,000+ range, depending on the candidate's specific experience and negotiation.

Benefits:

• Competitive base salary and equity package, including stock options, reflecting the company's growth and employee contribution.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance plans.
• Generous paid time off (PTO) and holidays, supporting work-life balance.
• Opportunities for professional development, including access to learning resources and industry conferences.
• Participation in the Funders & Founders Program, indicating a unique employee engagement initiative.
• Access to detailed benefits information via the provided link (https://angell.ist/venture-benefits).

Working Hours: Standard full-time working hours are expected, typically 40 hours per week. However, the hybrid work model allows for flexibility, with employees expected in the office twice a week. The nature of product design, especially in a fast-paced FinTech environment, may require occasional extended hours to meet project deadlines.

📝 Enhancement Note: The stated base salary of $200,000+ for a 7+ year experienced Product Designer in NYC/SF is competitive but likely represents the lower end of the total compensation for a role with this level of responsibility and the inclusion of equity. The benefits package is standard for tech companies, with specific mention of equity and a unique "Funders & Founders Program" that could offer additional perks or networking opportunities relevant to the venture ecosystem.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: FinTech, Venture Capital Infrastructure, Financial Services Technology. AngelList operates at the intersection of technology and finance, providing the backbone for startup funding and venture capital management.

Company Size: AngelList is a significant player in its niche, supporting over $171B+ in assets and impacting a large percentage of top-tier VC deals. While employee numbers aren't explicitly stated here, its scale suggests a dynamic, growth-oriented environment that balances startup agility with the rigor required for financial services.

Founded: AngelList was founded to "accelerate innovation by increasing the number of successful startups in the world." This mission drives its product development and company culture, fostering a sense of purpose and impact.

Team Structure: The "Funds team" is focused on specific strategic goals: increasing invested capital volume with larger, more complex customers and improving the quality of their full-service fund management platform. This implies a specialized, results-driven team working on core financial infrastructure. Designers will likely report through a design leadership structure and work closely with product managers and engineers within the Funds vertical. Collaboration is expected to be cross-functional, involving product, engineering, sales, and customer success teams.

Methodology: AngelList's approach is likely data-driven and product-centric, emphasizing user feedback and iterative development. The mention of "rearchitecting existing software" and "applying AI agents" suggests a commitment to modernization, efficiency, and leveraging cutting-edge technology to solve complex problems in private markets.

Company Website: https://angel.co/ (While the job is posted on Lever, AngelList's primary platform is Angel.co)

📝 Enhancement Note: AngelList's mission to accelerate innovation and its position as a nexus for venture capital suggest a culture that values ambition, impact, and technological advancement. The focus on building financial infrastructure for a sophisticated user base implies a need for precision, reliability, and a deep understanding of the financial ecosystem. The company's culture is likely influenced by its "Beliefs" and "Values & Leadership Expectations" shared via its website, which candidates should research.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is for an experienced Product Designer, likely operating at a senior or lead level given the 7+ years of experience requirement and the mandate to "rearchitect core systems" and "build entirely new categories of products." The designer will be expected to take significant ownership of product strategy from a design perspective, influencing the direction of complex financial software.

Reporting Structure: The Product Designer will likely report to a Head of Design or a Design Lead overseeing the Funds product vertical. They will work in close collaboration with Product Managers and Engineering Leads within the Funds team.

Operations Impact: The designer's work will directly impact the efficiency and scalability of AngelList's fund management platform, influencing the volume of capital deployed to startups and the quality of service for institutional investors. By designing better tools for fund managers, they will enable more capital to flow to entrepreneurs, directly supporting AngelList's core mission. The integration of AI and system rearchitecture will have a significant impact on operational efficiency for both AngelList and its clients.

Growth Opportunities:

• Specialization: Deepen expertise in FinTech product design, particularly in complex financial systems and the application of AI in back-office operations.
• Leadership: Potential to grow into a lead designer role, mentoring junior designers and shaping the design strategy for the Funds vertical.
• Impact: Contribute to building foundational financial infrastructure that supports the growth of the startup ecosystem, offering a high degree of professional satisfaction.
• Skill Development: Gain exposure to cutting-edge AI technologies and their practical application in enterprise software, as well as experience with large-scale system redesigns.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers a significant opportunity for a product designer to make a substantial impact on a critical part of the financial ecosystem. The chance to work on system-level rearchitecture and AI integration provides a unique growth path for designers looking to expand their technical and strategic capabilities in a complex domain.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: AngelList offers hybrid work arrangements. Employees are expected to work from either their San Francisco or New York City offices twice a week, with specific days being Tuesdays and a choice between Wednesday or Thursday. This indicates a collaborative office environment designed to foster teamwork and spontaneous interaction, balanced with the flexibility of remote work.

Office Location(s): The company has offices in San Francisco, CA, and New York City, NY. These are major tech and financial hubs, offering access to talent and industry networks.

Workspace Context:

• The hybrid model suggests a work environment that encourages face-to-face collaboration, brainstorming, and relationship-building on designated office days.
• Employees will likely have access to modern office facilities, including collaboration spaces, meeting rooms, and the necessary technology to support both in-office and remote work.
• The design team will be integrated within product and engineering teams, fostering a culture of shared ownership and cross-functional problem-solving.

Work Schedule: While the standard work week is 40 hours, the hybrid arrangement provides some flexibility. The focus is on delivering results and meeting project milestones, which might occasionally require extended hours, particularly during critical development phases for new product features or system overhauls.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid work policy is a key aspect of the work environment. For a product designer, this means balancing focused individual work with collaborative sessions, design critiques, and stakeholder meetings that are often more effective in person. Candidates should be comfortable with this blend and understand the expectation of regular office presence.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter or hiring manager will review your application and resume, focusing on alignment with the core requirements, particularly years of experience and relevant domain exposure.
• Portfolio Review & Discussion: Expect a session where you present your portfolio, discussing your design process, problem-solving approach, and specific contributions to past projects, especially those involving complex systems or financial applications.
• Design Challenge/Whiteboarding Session: You may be asked to work through a design problem, either live or as a take-home assignment, demonstrating your systems thinking, interaction design skills, and ability to articulate your thought process. This might involve wireframing, user flow mapping, or conceptualizing AI-driven features.
• Cross-Functional Interviews: Interviews with product managers, engineers, and possibly other designers to assess collaboration skills, technical understanding, and cultural fit.
• Final Round: Potentially a meeting with senior leadership to discuss strategic alignment, vision, and overall fit with the company's mission and values.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate Selectively: Focus on 3-5 of your strongest projects that best demonstrate your experience with complex systems, financial products, and your ability to innovate with new technologies like AI.
• Tell a Story: For each case study, clearly outline the problem, your role, the process you followed, the challenges you faced, your solutions, and the impact of your work (quantifiable where possible).
• Highlight Process: Emphasize your systems thinking, user research methodologies, interaction design decisions, and how you navigated constraints or ambiguities. Show your iterative design process.
• Showcase AI/Innovation: If you have projects involving AI, automation, or designing for complex backend systems, make these prominent. Explain the rationale behind your design choices in these areas.
• Visual Polish: Ensure your portfolio is visually polished, easy to navigate, and clearly communicates your design craft and attention to detail.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Familiarize yourself with the basics of venture capital, fund management, and common back-office workflows (e.g., accounting, investor reporting, deal flow management).
• Practice System Design: Be ready to think about how different components of a financial system interact and how to design for user workflows that span multiple modules.
• AI Integration: Consider how AI agents could realistically improve efficiency or create new capabilities in financial operations. Think about user interaction patterns for AI-powered features.
• Communicate Clearly: Practice articulating your design rationale, trade-offs, and assumptions. Be prepared to answer "why" behind every design decision.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is likely to be rigorous given the role's seniority and the company's focus on sophisticated financial products. A strong portfolio that clearly articulates process, impact, and systems thinking, particularly concerning complex financial workflows and AI integration, will be critical for success. Demonstrating an understanding of the venture capital ecosystem is also a plus.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (highly probable, industry standard for collaboration), Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop).
• Collaboration & Project Management: Jira, Confluence, Asana, Trello (for workflow tracking and documentation).
• User Research & Testing: UserTesting.com, Maze, Lookback, or internal tools for usability testing and feedback collection.

Analytics & Reporting:

• While not directly a designer's tool, understanding how to interpret data from analytics platforms like Google Analytics, Amplitude, or Mixpanel will be beneficial for data-informed design decisions.
• Familiarity with dashboarding tools like Tableau or Looker might be helpful for understanding how financial data is presented to users.

CRM & Automation:

• CRM: While AngelList itself is a platform, understanding CRM concepts is valuable as it relates to investor management and customer data.
• Automation: Experience or understanding of how automation tools (e.g., Zapier, Workato) or internal scripting could integrate with design solutions to streamline workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in modern collaborative design tools like Figma is essential. Beyond design tools, an understanding of the broader tech stack and how design integrates with development workflows (e.g., via Jira, API concepts) will be advantageous. Familiarity with FinTech-specific tools or data structures is a bonus but not explicitly required.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Accelerate Innovation: A core value driving the pursuit of new solutions and technologies to improve the private markets.
• Build the Future: A forward-looking mindset focused on creating foundational infrastructure for startups and investors.
• Customer Focus: Deep engagement with customers to understand their needs and deliver impactful solutions, especially for complex institutional clients.
• Excellence & Craft: A high bar for quality in product design, engineering, and service delivery, essential for financial systems.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Utilizing data and insights to inform product strategy and design choices.
• Collaboration: Working effectively across teams to achieve shared goals.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: Designers are expected to work closely with Product Managers and Engineers, acting as key partners in the product development lifecycle.
• Feedback Culture: An environment that encourages open feedback and constructive critique to elevate design quality and product outcomes.
• Shared Ownership: A sense of collective responsibility for product success, fostering a team-oriented approach.
• Agile Methodologies: Likely follows agile or lean development practices, requiring adaptable and iterative collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: AngelList's stated beliefs and values emphasize a strong mission-driven culture combined with a commitment to technical excellence and innovation. For a designer, this means being comfortable with ambiguity, embracing a fast-paced environment, and contributing to a product that has a significant impact on the financial industry.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Complexity of Financial Systems: Designing for intricate financial workflows, regulatory environments, and institutional-level requirements can be demanding.
• System Rearchitecting: Undertaking a significant overhaul of existing software requires meticulous planning, robust systems thinking, and careful management of technical debt and legacy constraints.
• AI Integration: Exploring and implementing AI agents effectively requires understanding new interaction paradigms and ensuring user trust and reliability in automated processes.
• Balancing Innovation with Stability: The need to innovate with AI and new features while maintaining the stability and security of core financial operations.
• Serving Diverse Institutional Needs: Catering to the varied and often highly specific requirements of different types of fund managers and investors.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• FinTech Expertise: Deepen knowledge of financial systems, venture capital operations, and regulatory compliance within the private markets.
• AI Design: Gain hands-on experience designing user experiences for AI-powered applications and understanding the nuances of agent-based interactions.
• System Design & Architecture: Develop skills in designing and evolving large-scale, complex software systems.
• Strategic Influence: Opportunity to influence product strategy and roadmap through design leadership and user advocacy.
• Industry Exposure: Networking and learning opportunities within the vibrant startup and venture capital ecosystem through company initiatives and office location.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are significant but also represent substantial growth opportunities for a product designer. Tackling complex financial systems and integrating cutting-edge AI offers a unique and rewarding career development path. Candidates who thrive on solving intricate problems and pushing technological boundaries will find this role particularly appealing.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• Product Vision: "How would you approach designing the next generation of our accounting and investor management systems for institutional clients, considering a need for deep configurability?" (Focus: Systems thinking, user needs, scalability)
• AI Integration: "Describe a scenario where AI agents could transform a back-office workflow for fund managers. Walk us through the user experience you'd design for this." (Focus: AI application, user interaction, problem-solving)
• Design Process: "Walk us through a complex project from your portfolio. What was the problem, your role, your design process, and the ultimate impact?" (Focus: Portfolio presentation, process articulation, impact demonstration)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you most about AngelList's mission to accelerate innovation in the venture capital space?" (Focus: Alignment with company mission)
• "How do you approach collaboration with product managers and engineers, especially when dealing with complex technical constraints or ambitious product goals?" (Focus: Teamwork, communication, stakeholder management)
• "How do you stay updated on emerging technologies like AI and integrate them into your design thinking?" (Focus: Continuous learning, innovation mindset)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure: Organize your portfolio around key projects that best showcase your skills for this role. For each project, clearly define the problem, your specific contributions, your design process (research, ideation, prototyping, testing), the final solution, and the measurable impact.
• Highlight Systems Thinking: Explicitly explain how you approached designing for complex, interconnected systems and workflows.
• Showcase AI/Innovation: If applicable, present projects where you've explored AI or other innovative technologies, detailing your rationale and design choices.
• Visual Clarity & Narrative: Ensure your presentation is visually engaging and tells a compelling story about your problem-solving abilities. Be prepared to answer in-depth questions about your decisions.
• Company Context: Briefly tailor your project selection or narrative to demonstrate how your experience is relevant to AngelList's specific challenges in the FinTech and venture capital space.

📝 Enhancement Note: Candidates should prepare to demonstrate not only their design skills but also their strategic thinking, understanding of financial systems, and ability to innovate with AI. The interview will likely assess how well they can translate complex business needs into user-centric, scalable product solutions.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided Lever link.
• Portfolio Preparation: Ensure your portfolio is up-to-date and highlights projects demonstrating complex system design, user-centricity, and ideally, experience with financial technology or innovative AI applications. Prepare to articulate your process and impact clearly.
• Resume Optimization: Tailor your resume to emphasize your 7+ years of product design experience, focusing on achievements related to enterprise software, financial systems, and any work involving AI or complex workflow rearchitecture. Use keywords like "systems thinking," "interaction design," "visual design," and "FinTech."
• Company Research: Thoroughly research AngelList's mission, values, products (especially the Funds offering), and recent news. Understand their position in the venture capital ecosystem.
• Interview Practice: Practice articulating your design process, problem-solving approach, and how you handle ambiguity and collaboration, especially in the context of financial services and AI integration. Be ready to discuss your portfolio in detail.

⚠️ 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.