Principal Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Principal Product Designer

Company: Wise

Location: London, England, United Kingdom

Job Type: Full-time

Category: Product Design / UX Design (Fintech Operations Focus)

Date Posted: 2026-06-03T12:15:14.231

Experience Level: 10+ years

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the strategic vision and hands-on execution for the global KYC Onboarding platform, ensuring scalability and efficiency across all regions.

• Drive the creation of reusable design components and patterns that empower regional teams to build localized, compliant, and user-friendly onboarding experiences.

• Collaborate intensively with cross-functional leaders (Product, Engineering, Analytics, Research, Content) to navigate complex regulatory landscapes and deliver exceptional user journeys.

• Pioneer platform design thinking within the fintech compliance space, establishing best practices for regulated industries and B2B environments.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is "Principal Product Designer," the core responsibilities and context heavily lean into operational efficiency, compliance, and building scalable systems for other teams. This role requires a strong understanding of how design impacts operational costs, regulatory adherence, and user adoption at a global scale, aligning it closely with GTM and operational excellence principles.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Define and champion the design vision and strategy for the Global KYC Onboarding platform, focusing on modularity, reusability, and scalability.

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive design system of "Lego pieces" (reusable components, patterns, and guidelines) for KYC onboarding journeys.

• Conduct user research and analysis to understand the needs of both end-customers and internal teams utilizing the platform components.

• Collaborate closely with Group Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and Analytics Leads to translate business requirements and regulatory mandates into effective design solutions.

• Partner with design leaders and teams in Europe, APAC, and Americas to ensure platform components meet diverse regional needs and compliance standards.

• Design user experiences that effectively balance stringent KYC compliance requirements with a seamless and efficient customer onboarding process.

• Identify opportunities to reduce operational costs and customer friction through thoughtful platform design and automation.

• Mentor and guide other designers within the Personal Onboarding, Business Onboarding, and future Platform partner teams.

• Present design strategies, key decisions, and user insights to senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on building reusable components for regional teams and balancing "compliance requirements with smooth user experiences" highlights a critical operational function. This role is about designing for efficiency and scalability within a regulated environment, a core tenet of GTM operations.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

Experience:

• 10+ years of experience in Product Design, UX Design, or a related role, with a significant portion focused on complex platforms and systems.

• Demonstrated experience leading design initiatives and teams in multi-stakeholder, fast-paced environments.

Required Skills:

• Platform Design: Expertise in designing scalable, reusable components and systems that empower other teams.

• Strategic Thinking: Ability to define a long-term design vision aligned with business objectives and regulatory requirements.

• UX Execution: Strong portfolio showcasing detailed UX flows, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity UI designs.

• Stakeholder Management: Excellent communication and collaboration skills to effectively work with diverse internal teams and leadership.

• Customer-Obsessed Mindset: Deep empathy for user needs, balanced with an understanding of business constraints.

• Portfolio: A robust portfolio demonstrating strategic thinking, detailed UX execution, and ideally, experience in regulated industries or B2B platforms.

Preferred Skills:

• Fintech/Regulated Industry Experience: Prior experience designing within financial services or other highly regulated sectors.

• B2B Platform Design: Experience designing tools or platforms for internal or external business users.

• Design Systems: Experience creating, maintaining, and evangelizing design systems.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Proven ability to work effectively with Product Management, Engineering, Analytics, and Research.

• Internationalization & Localization: Understanding of designing for global audiences with diverse regulatory and cultural contexts.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "building for builders" and experience in "regulated industries or B2B platforms" strongly suggests the need for a designer who understands operational impacts, scalability, and complex process flows, not just aesthetic appeal.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials: