Senior Product Designer - Embed

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Product Designer - Embed

Company: Kota

Location: Remote (Europe, +/- 4hrs GMT)

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / GTM Operations

Date Posted: 2026-07-27

Experience Level: Senior (5-10 years implied)

Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the design strategy and execution for Kota Embed, a critical component of Kota's platform for embedded insurance and retirement benefits.

• Drive design quality and innovation within a complex, API-driven B2B product environment, ensuring a seamless user experience for technical stakeholders and end-users.

• Champion systems thinking and the development of reusable design patterns (primitives) to build a robust and scalable design system.

• Collaborate closely with engineering, product management, and founders to translate intricate data models and business requirements into intuitive and effective design solutions.

• Foster a culture of shared ownership and continuous improvement by actively involving developers and stakeholders in the design process and facilitating cross-functional design ceremonies.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the role is Senior Product Designer, the emphasis on "owning the design quality while the ground is moving," close collaboration with CTO, and influencing developers/stakeholders suggests a strong GTM Operations and Product Operations overlap, particularly in ensuring the successful integration and adoption of the embeddable product. The focus on "prototypes are spec" and "builder craft" with code comfort indicates a hands-on role that bridges design and engineering, a key aspect of effective GTM operationalization for technical products.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design and iterate on user interfaces and user experiences for the Kota Embed product, focusing on complex B2B surfaces where data models directly constrain the interface.

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive design system, promoting patterns to primitives, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and scalability across the product.

• Conduct rapid user research and testing, employing methods such as 5-user tests, Figma prototyping, and analysis of product analytics (Datadog/Mixpanel) to inform design decisions.

• Collaborate with engineering teams to define product specifications, ensuring prototypes are production-ready and closing the gap between design and development.

• Facilitate internal design reviews and cross-functional workshops, actively engaging developers and stakeholders to build shared context and ensure design quality.

• Define problem statements, assumptions, and success criteria for design initiatives, adhering to an outcomes-over-outputs discipline.

• Contribute to the product strategy by bringing a deep understanding of user needs, technical constraints, and industry best practices in embedded finance and fintech.

• Champion the adoption of design best practices and processes within the product team, acting as a key advocate for user-centric design.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of individual contribution and cross-functional influence. The explicit mention of "prototypes are spec" and "builder craft" with code comfort points to a need for operational excellence in design, where the output directly informs engineering and minimizes ambiguity. This aligns with GTM operational needs for clear, actionable design specifications for embedded products.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: No specific degree mentioned, but a strong portfolio demonstrating relevant experience is paramount.

Experience: Implied 5-10 years of experience in product design, with a significant portion in complex B2B or API-driven product environments.

Required Skills:

• Proven experience designing complex, API-driven B2B products, with an understanding of how data models influence UI/UX.

• Demonstrated ability to "ship something with invisible complexity" and explain the thought process behind successful execution.

• Proficiency in rapid user research methodologies, including 5-user tests and iterative prototyping (Figma, etc.).

• Experience with product analytics tools (e.g., Datadog, Mixpanel) for data-informed decision-making.

• Strong systems thinking capabilities, with a track record of developing and promoting design patterns into reusable components.

• Experience in influencing UX decisions with developers and stakeholders, including facilitating design-related ceremonies.

• Excellent craft fundamentals in typography, spacing, rhythm, and visual hierarchy, with a focus on both quality and speed.

• Builder craft mentality, including comfort with tools like Cursor/Claude Code, treating prototypes as specifications.

• Strong outcomes-over-outputs discipline, focusing on defining problems and success criteria before solutions. Preferred Skills:

• Experience in embedded financial products, fintech, insurance, or benefits platforms.

• Understanding of developer product experiences and designing for technical users.

• Familiarity with modern tech stacks and an ability to collaborate effectively with engineering teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "builder craft" and comfort with code tools like Cursor/Claude Code, alongside treating prototypes as specifications, implies a need for a designer who can operate with a high degree of technical understanding. This is crucial for embedding complex financial products, where the operationalization of the design requires a deep translation into engineering requirements. The "rough data is better than no data" mantra suggests comfort with agile, iterative operational processes.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Case studies showcasing experience with complex B2B or API-driven products, detailing the design process from problem definition to shipped solution.

• Demonstrations of systems thinking, including the creation or contribution to design systems and reusable components.

• Examples of how data constraints were navigated and translated into effective user experiences.

• Evidence of rapid prototyping and iterative design, with clear explanations of research findings and their impact.

• Documentation of how design quality was maintained in fast-paced, evolving product environments.

• Examples of collaboration with engineering and stakeholders, highlighting UX influence and facilitation of design processes. Process Documentation:

• Ability to articulate the process for defining problem statements, assumptions, and success criteria for design initiatives.

• Examples of how user research and product analytics were integrated into the design workflow at a "sprint cadence."

• Demonstration of how prototypes were treated as specifications, bridging the gap between design and engineering.

• Understanding of how to build and facilitate design-related ceremonies (e.g., standups, retrospectives) to integrate design into the team's shared context.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio must go beyond visual artifacts to demonstrate a deep understanding of process, collaboration, and the operationalization of design within a technical product context. The emphasis on "prototypes are spec" and "builder craft" means the portfolio should highlight outputs that directly informed engineering, showcasing the efficiency and clarity of the design specifications.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: As this is a senior role in Ireland/EU with remote flexibility, and considering the company's funding and stage (founded 2022, raised €20M+), a competitive salary range would likely fall between €70,000 - €100,000 annually, depending on specific experience and negotiation.

Benefits:

• Health Insurance contribution via Kota

• Access to a Workplace Pension with matched contributions up to 5% via Kota

• WFH stipend to support home office needs

• Group Life Assurance via Kota

• Generous Paid Time Off

• Annual, company-wide offsite

Working Hours: Standard full-time hours, likely around 40 hours per week, with flexibility due to the remote nature and focus on outcomes. The "+/- 4hrs GMT" location requirement suggests a need for core overlap during European business hours.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary estimate is based on industry benchmarks for senior product designers in European tech hubs, considering the company's funding status and the specialized nature of the role. The benefits package is comprehensive and directly leverages Kota's own product offerings, demonstrating a unique value proposition.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Fintech, Insurtech, Benefits Technology. Kota operates at the intersection of modern software development and financial services, aiming to make insurance and retirement benefits as accessible as software.

Company Size: Growing startup, founded in 2022, with significant investment (€20M+). Likely in the range of 50-150 employees, with a strong engineering and product focus.

Founded: 2022. This indicates a fast-paced, agile environment where processes are still being refined and there's a high degree of ownership and impact.

Team Structure:

• The role reports to the CTO, indicating a direct line to technical leadership and strategic product direction.

• The design team is existing but likely small, emphasizing the need for a senior IC to lead quality and build out systems.

• Close collaboration with engineering and product management is central to the role's success. Methodology:

• Data-driven decision-making is emphasized, with the use of tools like Datadog and Mixpanel for analysis.

• Agile and iterative design processes are core, with a focus on rapid research and shipping.

• Systems thinking and the development of design system primitives are key to scaling the product efficiently.

• A "builder craft" approach, where prototypes are treated as specifications, suggests a highly integrated design-to-engineering workflow.

Company Website: https://www.kota.io/

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture is described as having a strong sense of purpose, curiosity, craftsmanship, and a commitment to modern technology. The values (Integrity, Care Deeply, Own Your Ship, Raise the Bar, Play to Win) reinforce a high-performance, owner-operator mentality. This is crucial for understanding how design operates within Kota's GTM strategy.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: Senior Individual Contributor (IC) with leadership potential in design quality and system building. This role is positioned as being instrumental in shaping the design output for a core product component (Kota Embed).

Reporting Structure: Reports directly to the CTO, providing high visibility and direct influence on product strategy and technical direction.

Operations Impact: The Senior Product Designer's work directly impacts the usability, adoption, and scalability of Kota Embed. This has significant implications for Go-To-Market (GTM) success, as a seamless integration experience is critical for B2B partners and their end-users. The ability to translate complex financial products into accessible interfaces is a key operational lever for revenue growth.

Growth Opportunities:

• Design Leadership: Opportunity to become the de facto design lead for Kota Embed, shaping its future direction and potentially growing into a design management role as the team expands.

• Systems Development: Deep involvement in building and evolving a foundational design system, creating reusable patterns that compound value across the product suite.

• Fintech/Insurtech Expertise: Gaining specialized knowledge and experience in the rapidly growing embedded finance and benefits space.

• Cross-Functional Expertise: Developing strong collaborative skills with engineering and product leadership, enhancing overall product development acumen.

• Strategic Influence: Directly contributing to the product strategy and technical decision-making alongside the CTO and founding team.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers significant growth potential beyond traditional design. The emphasis on systems, collaboration with the CTO, and the critical nature of the Embed product to Kota's GTM strategy positions this as a high-impact role for a designer looking to influence product strategy and operational excellence.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Fully Remote, with a specific requirement for team members to be within +/- 4 hours of GMT. This suggests a focus on synchronous collaboration during core European business hours.

Office Location(s): Remote within the European Union and Ireland. This facilitates compliance and talent acquisition across a broad geographic region while maintaining a cohesive team schedule.

Workspace Context:

• A highly collaborative, remote-first environment where design is integrated into the day-to-day workflow of engineering and product teams.

• Access to modern technology and tools, including design software and analytics platforms, to support efficient work.

• Opportunities for deep collaboration with the CTO, product teams, and other stakeholders, fostering a shared understanding of product goals.

• Emphasis on craftsmanship and quality, even in a fast-paced startup environment.

Work Schedule: Full-time, with flexibility inherent in a remote setup, but with a need for core working hours overlap for effective collaboration, particularly within the +/- 4hr GMT window. The focus is on outcomes rather than strict adherence to hours.

📝 Enhancement Note: The remote-first nature combined with the specific time zone requirement indicates a structured approach to remote work, aiming to maximize collaboration and minimize communication delays, which is vital for operational efficiency in a product development context.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Recruiter Screen (15-30 mins): Initial alignment on basic qualifications and cultural fit.

• Intro Call (30 mins): 1-on-1 with a team member to discuss background, approach to collaboration, and design systems.

• Design Deep-Dive (60-90 mins): Detailed portfolio review with product and existing design team members, focusing on design methodology and a design systems challenge.

• Culture Call with Founders: Final discussion with founders focused on culture, product thinking, and strategic alignment.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Showcase Complexity: Highlight projects where you navigated intricate data models or API constraints in B2B products. Quantify the impact of your design solutions.

• Demonstrate Systems Thinking: Present examples of how you've built or contributed to design systems, emphasizing the creation of reusable patterns and primitives.

• Detail Your Process: Clearly articulate your approach to user research, rapid prototyping, and data analysis. Explain how you prioritized and triaged information.

• Highlight Collaboration: Provide examples of how you influenced developers and stakeholders, facilitated design meetings, and integrated design into the broader team context.

• Emphasize "Builder Craft": If possible, show examples where your prototypes were highly detailed or served as direct specifications for engineering. Mention any comfort with code environments.

• Focus on Outcomes: For each project, clearly state the problem, your assumptions, the success criteria, and the measurable outcomes achieved.

Challenge Preparation:

• Design Systems Challenge: Be prepared to discuss your philosophy on design systems, how you'd approach building one for Kota Embed, and how you'd evangelize its use.

• Problem-Solving: Expect to be asked to break down a hypothetical complex problem related to embedded finance or B2B integration, outlining your design approach and considerations.

• Collaboration Scenarios: Prepare to discuss how you would handle disagreements with engineering or stakeholders, or how you would get buy-in for your design decisions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is structured to assess not only design craft but also strategic thinking, collaboration skills, and the ability to operate within a fast-paced, technically complex environment. The portfolio review and challenges are specifically designed to probe the "builder craft" and systems thinking requirements.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (explicitly mentioned), with a strong emphasis on creating production-ready prototypes.

• Collaboration/Code: Cursor (mentioned as a tool for "builder craft"), Claude Code (mentioned for "builder craft"). These suggest a need for designers comfortable with code environments or tools that bridge design and code.

• Analytics & Monitoring: Datadog, Mixpanel (explicitly mentioned for data analysis and research).

Analytics & Reporting:

• Proficiency in interpreting data from tools like Datadog and Mixpanel to inform design decisions and measure success.

• Ability to translate data insights into actionable design improvements. CRM & Automation:

• While not explicitly stated, familiarity with how embedded products integrate with partner systems (potentially CRM, ERP, or other SaaS platforms) would be beneficial. Understanding API integrations is key.

📝 Enhancement Note: The specific mention of Cursor and Claude Code alongside Figma indicates a leaning towards a more integrated workflow between design and engineering, where prototypes can be highly detailed, potentially even containing elements that directly inform code. This is a critical differentiator for this role.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Have Integrity: Uphold ethical standards in design and product development, especially within financial services.

• Care Deeply: Go the extra mile to create delightful and accessible user experiences that solve real problems for customers.

• Own Your Ship: Take full responsibility for design quality, asking "why," doing the work, gathering data, and solving problems proactively.

• Raise the Bar: Continuously strive for excellence, pushing beyond "good enough" in craft, process, and outcomes.

• Play to Win: Embrace innovation and a proactive approach, challenging norms to deliver exceptional products.

Collaboration Style:

• Highly collaborative, with a strong emphasis on cross-functional teamwork between design, engineering, and product.

• Open to feedback and iterative improvement, fostering a culture where design is a shared team responsibility.

• Facilitates ceremonies and meetings to ensure design is integrated into the team's overall context and workflow.

• Values transparency and shared ownership, working to close the gap between design and engineering.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values emphasize a proactive, high-ownership, and quality-focused culture. For a designer, this means being comfortable challenging the status quo, taking initiative, and working closely with technical teams to ensure the operational success of the product.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Navigating Invisible Complexity: Designing for embedded financial products involves complex data models, regulatory considerations, and technical integrations that are not always apparent to the end-user. The challenge is to make this complexity seamless.

• Balancing Speed and Quality: Operating in a fast-paced startup environment while maintaining high standards of design craft and user experience. The "rough data is better than no data" mantra suggests a pragmatic approach to balancing these.

• Bridging Design and Engineering: Effectively translating designs into production-ready specifications that minimize ambiguity for developers, especially with "prototypes as spec."

• Building a Design System from Evolving Needs: Establishing scalable design patterns and primitives for a product that is actively being defined and iterated upon.

• Influencing Stakeholders: Gaining buy-in and aligning multiple stakeholders (engineering, product, founders) on design direction and priorities.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Specialization in Embedded Finance: Deep dive into the intricacies of embedded insurance and benefits, a rapidly growing sector.

• Advanced Design Systems: Contribute significantly to the architecture and evolution of a new design system.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Enhance skills in product strategy, technical collaboration, and stakeholder management by working closely with the CTO and engineering leads.

• Startup Growth Experience: Gain invaluable experience in scaling a product and design function within a high-growth startup.

• Hands-on with Modern Tools: Develop proficiency with cutting-edge design and development tools that blend creative and technical workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are framed as opportunities for growth, emphasizing the learning curve associated with complex fintech products and the dynamic nature of a startup. The role is positioned to develop a designer into a well-rounded product leader with deep technical and operational understanding.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• Operations Strategy: "Describe a time you had to design for a product where the data model significantly constrained the user interface. How did you approach this, and what was the outcome?" Focus on your process for understanding constraints and turning them into design opportunities.

• Collaboration & Stakeholder Management: "How would you ensure buy-in from engineering for your design system components, especially if they push back on adopting new patterns?" Prepare to discuss how you facilitate design reviews and build shared context.

• Problem-Solving: "Imagine we need to design an onboarding flow for a new partner integrating Kota Embed. What are the key considerations, and how would you approach defining success criteria for this flow?" Think about your approach to defining problem/solution spaces and measurable outcomes.

Company & Culture Questions:

• Operations Culture: "How do you see the values of 'Own Your Ship' and 'Raise the Bar' influencing your day-to-day design work at Kota?" Be ready to connect your work style to Kota's stated values.

• Operations Team Dynamics: "How would you collaborate with the CTO and engineering team to ensure the 'prototypes are spec' approach is effective and minimizes friction?" Discuss your communication strategies for bridging design and engineering.

• Operations Impact Measurement: "How would you measure the success of your design work on the Kota Embed product, beyond just user satisfaction?" Consider metrics related to adoption, integration efficiency, and partner success.

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Case Study Structure: For each case study, clearly present the problem, your role, your process (research, ideation, prototyping, testing), the constraints you faced, your solution, and the measurable outcomes.

• Highlight "Builder Craft": If you have examples where your prototypes were exceptionally detailed or directly informed engineering, showcase these. Explain your comfort with tools that bridge design and code.

• Demonstrate Systems Thinking: Clearly articulate your contribution to design systems, focusing on how you identified and created reusable primitives.

• Quantify Impact: Use data and metrics whenever possible to demonstrate the effectiveness of your designs and the ROI of your work.

• Tell a Story: Frame your portfolio pieces as narratives that showcase your problem-solving skills, strategic thinking, and impact.

📝 Enhancement Note: Preparation should focus on demonstrating an understanding of complex technical products, a proactive and collaborative approach, and the ability to translate strategic goals into actionable design specifications that drive operational success for an embedded product.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this operations position:

• Submit your application through the provided Ashby link.

• Tailor your resume: Highlight experience with B2B, API-driven products, design systems, rapid prototyping, and any experience with fintech or embedded financial products. Use keywords like "design systems," "user research," "prototyping," "API-driven design," and "stakeholder management."

• Curate your portfolio: Select 2-3 projects that best showcase your experience with complex product design, systems thinking, and your "builder craft." Ensure each case study clearly outlines the problem, your process, the constraints, your solution, and the impact.

• Prepare for the design systems challenge: Familiarize yourself with common design system components and best practices, and be ready to discuss how you would approach building one for Kota Embed.

• Research Kota: Understand their mission, products (especially Kota Embed), funding, and values. Prepare thoughtful questions about the product, team, and culture, demonstrating your interest and understanding of their operational goals.

⚠️ 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.

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