Senior Product Designer - Engine by Starling

At Engine by Starling, we are on a mission to find and work with leading banks all around the world who have the ambition to build rapid growth businesses on our technology. Engine is Starling's software-as-a-service (SaaS) business, the technology that was built to power Starling Bank, and a year ago we split out as a separate business. Starling Bank has seen exceptional growth and success, and a large part of that is down to the fact that we have built our own modern technology from the ground up. This SaaS technology platform is now available to banks and financial institutions all around the world, enabling them to benefit from the innovative digital features and efficient back-office processes that have helped achieve Starling's success.

We draw upon our experience as FinTech experts and best-in-class technologists to become the chosen option for these banks and preferred partners for leading consultancies. As a company, everyone is expected to roll up their sleeves to help deliver great outcomes for our clients. We are an engineering-led company and we’re looking for someone who will be excited by the potential for Engine’s technology to transform banking in different markets around the world.

Hybrid Working
We have a Hybrid approach to working here at Engine - our preference is that you're located within a commutable distance of one of our offices so that we're able to interact and collaborate in person.

About the Role
At Engine by Starling we’re at an exciting point of our journey, building out a series of mobile SDKs and web portals to delight our clients as we help them bring best-in-class digital banking to customers around the world. We like to spend our time building products that we’re really proud of. We focus on the experience, often delivering things with real polish but sometimes making a fast strategic move. We’re always working closely and collaboratively with our product teams and clients to solve problems, build new products and improve existing ones.

You’ll be able to own the design of products and features, working closely with the rest of the Engine team to design the product, and then staying closely involved as our engineering team builds, helping make sure the outcome is as good as possible. The Engine team works with clients around the world. Some of the interesting challenges will be balancing the needs of both clients and their customers, creating journeys that work in multiple regions.

Responsibility

• Lead design work across multiple product areas, solving complex, ambiguous problems with product owners and tech leads. Anticipating and pre-empting unintended consequences and risks.
• Own the entire product design lifecycle, from discovery through to delivery, ensuring your work directly impacts the domain's goals and desired outcomes.
• Design the visual and functional experience of our mobile SDKs and web portals for your product domains, such as payments, lending, saving, onboarding, and cards.
• Adopt and develop our multi-brand design system to ensure a consistent user experience and unrivalled client configuration.
• Contribute to our ways-of-working, suggesting improvements and simplifications to team processes.
• Ensure our products are designed and documented to a standard that enables rapid adoption and meaningful configuration by our clients.
• Champion design, both internally and externally, demonstrating how best-in-class design can transform banking.

Requirements

• 5+ years experience as a UX / Product Designer working with design systems, tools, and research platforms (Figma, User Testing etc).
• Lots of examples of designing thoughtful, accessible experiences for customers, driving inclusive and accessible design that demonstrates tangible impact for customers and businesses.
• Accomplished visual design quality - able to push and evolve our design language to the next level.
• Experience planning and running various research methods to test and evaluate our ideas.
• Proactively communicates complex design decisions and strategies persuasively to all audiences and stakeholders. Anticipates and challenges design decisions that conflict with principles or user safety.

The Engine team is a collaborative and friendly environment where we encourage openness and the sharing of opinions. You should be comfortable seeking and giving feedback, sharing your work, and contributing to discussions. This role also involves partnering effectively with cross-functional stakeholders and product owners.

Nice to have

• Experience in a Product Design role for a FinTech or Software Startup / Scaleup - ideally with mobile design experience.
• Experience navigating and resolving conflicting requirements between end-users and enterprise clients, making pragmatic design trade-offs that satisfy both user needs and business viability.
• Experience designing across multiple platforms end-to-end, sometimes simultaneously, including; iOS, Android, and Web.
• Practical experience driving adoption, alignment, and maturity of a design system - extending the system beyond Figma and UI components.
• Strong visual craft (illustration, iconography, motion etc), with a desire to define visual standards that help the wider design team maintain standards.
• Experience leading internal 'communities of practice' to improve a specific area of design maturity (e.g. research, accessibility, or design systems).
• Bachelor's degree in Design, HCI, or related field (or equivalent professional experience).

Interview process
Interviewing is a two-way process and we want you to have the time and opportunity to get to know us, as much as we are getting to know you! Our interviews are conversational and we want to get the best from you, so come with questions and be curious. In general, you can expect the below, following a chat with one of our Talent Team:

• First 45 min interview with someone from our Design team.
• In-depth 60 min interview with the Design team: We’ll look to see a case study of a project from start to finish to show your thinking, how you worked with the team and to highlight your design craft.
• Final interview with some more senior members of the Engine team.

Benefits

• 33 days holiday (including public holidays, which you can take when it works best for you).
• An extra day’s holiday for your birthday.
• Annual leave is increased with length of service, and you can choose to buy or sell up to five extra days off.
• 16 hours paid volunteering time a year.
• Salary sacrifice, company enhanced pension scheme.
• Life insurance at 4x your salary & group income protection.
• Private Medical Insurance with VitalityHealth including mental health support and cancer care. Partner benefits include discounts with Waitrose, Mr&Mrs Smith and Peloton.
• Generous family-friendly policies.
• Incentives refer a friend scheme.
• Perkbox membership giving access to retail discounts, a wellness platform for physical and mental health, and weekly free and boosted perks.
• Access to initiatives like Cycle to Work, Salary Sacrificed Gym partnerships and Electric Vehicle (EV) leasing.

About us
You may be put off applying for a role because you don't tick every box. Forget that! While we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we're always open to discussion. So, if you're excited about working with us, but aren’t sure if you're 100% there yet, get in touch anyway. We’re on a mission to radically reshape banking – and that starts with our brilliant team. Whatever came before, we’re proud to bring together people of all backgrounds and experiences who love working together to solve problems.

Engine by Starling is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster diversity & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment at Engine by Starling are considered without regard to race, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

When you provide us with this information, you are doing so at your own consent, with full knowledge that we will process this personal data in accordance with our Privacy Notice. By submitting your application, you agree that Engine by Starling and Starling Bank will collect your personal data for recruiting and related purposes. Our Privacy Notice explains what personal information we will process, where we will process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal information, and the rights you can exercise over our use of your personal data.