At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead product design from concept to launch, ensuring a user-friendly experience.
- Company: Join a well-funded startup focused on enhancing relationship wellness globally.
- Benefits: Be part of a founding team with growth opportunities and a meaningful mission.
- Why this job: Shape a product that improves happiness and wellbeing for couples worldwide.
- Qualifications: Experience in product design and a passion for user-centric solutions.
- Other info: Work closely with an experienced team and make a real impact.
The predicted salary is between 36000 - 60000 £ per year.
The Opportunity
We’re a well-funded pre-seed startup on a mission to improve the happiness and wellbeing of people across the globe. Ember is a relationship wellness app that enables couples to strengthen and enhance their connection, communicate more effectively, and cultivate healthier partnerships. The app helps couples develop a deeper understanding of one another, while facilitating better communication, resolving conflicts constructively, and strengthening emotional intimacy. Built on years of relationship coaching experience from co-founder and relationship coach Ellie Baker, and grounded in relationship science, Ember is intentionally designed to meet couples at any stage of their journey– supporting them through the good times, the bad times and the 'just okay, but it could be better' times. Powered by AI, Ember's platform analyzes a couple's existing communication patterns to deliver personalized guidance and support, functioning as a tool that gets couples talking in real life, not just through their devices. The app helps couples create space each day to connect and grow together through structured conversations, daily rituals, and insights that help create meaningful moments. In a world where people track and optimize every aspect of life as individuals: sleep, fitness, nutrition, productivity — Ember focuses on strengthening the thing that can have the biggest impact on happiness and personal growth: your relationship with your partner.
We’re in stealth(ish) mode, this is the chance to be one of the founding employees, working alongside an experienced founding team to significantly help shape the product and business we’re building. We have been running in beta for 6 months now and are getting amazing consumer feedback, plus extremely encouraging CACs and retention.
Who you’ll be working with:
- James Hind previously the founder of carwow, and ran it for 14 years. It has now had 2m+ consumers buy and sell cars through it, $100m+ annual revenues, employs 600 people and gets 1bn annual YouTube views.
- Ellie Baker is an experienced couples coach and relationship expert. MA in Psychology from the University of Oxford.
- Nick Kuh, who was Director of Engineering at ASquared and founder of multiple app startups.
- Rafał Radziszewski, experienced Ruby and Elixir developer, ex Team Lead at v7. Co-founded startup before.
- Josie Nelder, experienced Full Stack Developer at Habitual, ASquared and Matchbox Mobile.
- Adnan Ebrahim, founder of MindLabs (£6m+ raised) and of CarThrottle, acquired by Dennis Publishing.
We’re well funded. We’re backed by a well-known VC, and multiple useful tech angels. The vast majority of Ember’s funding came from carwow’s early investors. We closed out pre-seed round in Summer 2025.
We have a big vision and mission. We’re building a product that will improve the happiness and wellbeing of people around the world. We love the fact that the bigger we get, the more people we’ll be directly helping. Our growth will directly translate to making couples happier.
The Role
As our only designer, you will be a hugely key part of the team, working very closely with all of us to shape the product. This is initially an extremely hands-on role, and the right person will grow with us.
Areas of work:
- Product Design End-to-End Ownership: Lead the entire design process from initial discovery and wireframing to high-fidelity UI and developer handoff.
- Strategic Leadership: Partner directly with the founders to define the "what" and "why" behind every feature we build.
- Cross-Platform Consistency: Ensure a seamless, cohesive experience across our mobile apps and web platform.
- User Research: You ask "Why?" You want to understand the business goals and the "jobs to be done" before you ever open Figma.
- User-Centric Rigor: You are obsessed with the "why" behind user behavior. You have a proven process for conducting lean user research, synthesizing feedback, and turning it into product improvements.
- Data Literacy: You are comfortable looking at a Funnel or Heatmap. You use quantitative data to validate your design hypotheses and aren’t afraid to pivot when the data shows a feature isn’t working.
Founding Product Designer employer: Ember New
Contact Detail:
Ember New Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Founding Product Designer
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to people in the industry, attend events, and connect with potential colleagues on LinkedIn. The more people you know, the better your chances of landing that dream job.
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! Create a portfolio that highlights your best work and showcases your design process. Make it easy for us to see how you think and what you can bring to Ember.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for interviews by researching our company and understanding our mission. Be ready to discuss how your design philosophy aligns with improving relationships and enhancing user experiences.
✨Tip Number 4
Apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, we love seeing candidates who take the initiative to engage directly with us.
We think you need these skills to ace Founding Product Designer
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Your Passion: When you’re writing your application, let your enthusiasm for relationship wellness shine through! We want to see how much you care about improving couples' connections and how that aligns with our mission at Ember.
Tailor Your Portfolio: Make sure your portfolio reflects your best work relevant to product design. Highlight projects that showcase your ability to create user-centric designs and demonstrate your understanding of the 'why' behind user behaviour. We love seeing how you think!
Be Authentic: Don’t be afraid to let your personality come through in your application. We’re a small team, and we value authenticity. Share your story, your design philosophy, and what makes you tick as a designer. We want to get to know the real you!
Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to apply directly through our website. It’s the best way for us to keep track of your application and ensures it gets into the right hands. Plus, it shows you’re serious about joining our team!
How to prepare for a job interview at Ember New
✨Know Your Product Inside Out
Before the interview, dive deep into Ember's mission and features. Understand how the app enhances communication and emotional intimacy for couples. This knowledge will help you demonstrate your passion for the product and show how your design skills can contribute to its success.
✨Showcase Your Design Process
Be ready to discuss your end-to-end design process. Prepare examples of past projects where you led from discovery to high-fidelity UI. Highlight how you’ve collaborated with stakeholders to define the 'what' and 'why' behind your designs, as this aligns perfectly with the role's requirements.
✨Emphasise User-Centric Design
Since user research is key for this position, come prepared with examples of how you've conducted user research in the past. Discuss how you synthesised feedback to improve products and how you ensure that user behaviour informs your design decisions.
✨Be Data-Driven
Familiarise yourself with basic data analysis concepts, like funnels and heatmaps. Be ready to discuss how you've used quantitative data to validate your design hypotheses in previous roles. This will show that you can pivot based on data insights, which is crucial for a startup environment.