Interim Product Design Director in London

hackajob is collaborating with Moneybox to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role. We are hiring an Interim Product Design Director who will be responsible for overseeing and leading the product design process. Your main responsibility will be to provide strategic direction and leadership to the design team throughout the product development lifecycle. You’ll collaborate with various senior stakeholders, including product managers, engineers, analysts, marketers and executives, to ensure that the product design aligns with the company’s overall vision, brand identity and requirements.

You will execute a visionary design strategy, deliver an ambitious roadmap, set clear objectives, establish efficient workflows, and foster a culture of collaboration and creative excellence. You’ll champion exceptional, data-driven user experiences by integrating usability, accessibility, systems thinking and best in class aesthetics. You’ll be responsible for ensuring that designs are suitably tested with users and adhere to FCA regulation.

You are a humble yet assertive leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment. You have a proven track record of managing multiple workstreams and a strong commercial mindset that allows you to balance rapid experimentation with a high bar for quality. All applications must include access to your portfolio, demonstrating design craft, systems thinking, and measurable impact. Please note this is a fixed-term contract for approx. 15 months.

What you'll do

• Commercial Acumen: You'll be a key driver of value for both the business and our customers. This means understanding the 'why' behind every project, clearly communicating the rationale to stakeholders, and ensuring that your team’s work is commercially sound and focused on creating tangible business impact.
• Design Leadership: Lead the 17-person Product Design team who are a mix of product designers, UI/DS specialists, user researchers and content design. You will deliver on the functions scorecard, deliver an ambitious roadmap and execute a visionary design strategy.
• Team Management & Coaching: Directly manage and mentor 4-5 mid-senior leaders. You'll provide regular feedback, conduct reviews, and foster their professional growth, helping them reach their full potential.
• Strategic Collaboration and Cross-Functional Partnerships: Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Business and Marketing Leaders to deliver on company objectives.
• Functional Excellence: Champion the use of lean UX principles and a data-driven approach to design. You’ll implement systems thinking across the team. You'll be responsible for measuring and improving the impact of your team's work and driving functional improvements within the design department.
• Budget Management: Managing the functional tooling, external and payroll budgets, ensuring these stay below the ceiling.
• Design-Ops: Scale workflows, standardise processes, and manage the specialised infrastructure needed for a multidisciplinary team including designers, researchers, and specialists.

Who you are

• Experienced Leader: A leader with a minimum of 15 years of experience in product design, with a significant portion of that time spent in a leadership role. Proven experience leading multidisciplinary teams.
• Fintech & Startup Experience: Demonstrable experience within a consumer-facing company, preferably at a scale-up or startup stage. Fintech experience is desirable, but not essential. You should have a strong understanding of the UK fintech landscape and emerging trends in consumer finance.
• Expert Manager & Coach: Proven ability to manage, coach, and inspire a team of designers and researchers. You know how to delegate effectively, provide constructive feedback, and support your team's growth.
• Strategic & Pragmatic: You possess a strong product sense and can make sensible tradeoffs to balance user needs with business goals. You are flexible in your approach and you move fluidly between high-level strategy and the critical design details that matter. You are comfortable in a high-ambiguity environment and are resilient to change.
• Exceptional Communicator: You excel at stakeholder management and can articulate design decisions and their business impact to both technical and non-technical audiences. You have the ability to speak with business fluency.