Product Design Lead (Business Strategy)

Lab49 is a strategic consulting firm that designs and builds digital products for the world’s leading investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers, and fintech startups. We’re seeking an experienced Product Design Lead to help shape product vision, deliver effective design solutions, and transform the user experience of financial technology products for our clients.

This role combines strategic thinking, hands-on design, and business development, making it ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of creativity, client engagement, and consulting.

About You

You are an outcome-driven design leader with a rare ability to move seamlessly between big-picture strategy and detailed execution. Grounded in user experience, your impact extends far beyond design. You orchestrate across disciplines, align stakeholders, and make strategic decisions that unlock business value. Your strength lies in distilling complexity into clear, elegant solutions, whether crafting a product interface, shaping a go-to-market strategy, or building a persuasive pitch. You bring a confident design voice to client conversations, articulating user needs in a way that resonates with both product teams and business leaders. You excel at quickly spinning up clickable prototypes that bring ideas to life and communicate the art of the possible. Whether leading cross-functional teams, shaping roadmaps, or identifying growth opportunities, you deliver clarity, momentum, and measurable impact. You thrive in ambiguity, are energized by new challenges, and operate with a generalist mindset that feels equally at home in a design review, a strategic workshop, or a business development pitch. You lead by example, elevate teams, and bring a human-centered lens to even the most technical environments.

About the Role

As a Product Design Lead, you’ll lead all aspects of the design process - from research and discovery through to delivery - ensuring exceptional user experiences and visually compelling solutions that align with client goals. You’ll work closely with senior stakeholders to shape product vision, deliver effective product design, and uncover consulting opportunities to grow the business.

You’ll conduct customer research, benchmark competitors, map user journeys, design discovery artifacts and detailed solutions, run user testing, create prototypes, and contribute to comprehensive design systems. You’ll balance being a hands-on designer - producing UX and screen designs - with nurturing your team and networking with clients to understand their challenges and how Lab49 can support their product roadmaps.

In addition to delivery, you’ll play a key role in business growth by contributing design expertise to pre-sales meetings, proposals, pitches, and RFPs - crafting conceptual designs when needed.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end design process, including discovery research, sketches, wireframes, high-fidelity designs, prototypes, design reviews, user testing, and close collaboration with the software engineering teams.
• Shape product vision and deliver effective design solutions that transform user experiences for fintech and financial services products.
• Conduct customer research, competitor benchmarking, user journey mapping, discovery workshops, and detailed designs to craft comprehensive solutions.
• Present and articulate your work clearly and persuasively to clients, demonstrating executive presence and earning trust at all levels.
• Contribute to business development efforts, identifying and developing consulting opportunities, crafting pitch materials, and supporting RFP responses.
• Build strong client relationships, network to understand client challenges, and help align Lab49 solutions with their product roadmaps.
• Deliver high-quality UX and visual design that meets client objectives, delights users, and aligns with technical feasibility.
• Scope projects effectively and assemble capable delivery teams to ensure successful outcomes.
• Act as a thought leader within the Experience Design practice, continuously improving our capabilities and offerings.

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of experience in UX/UI design, with at least 2–3 years in a leadership role.
• Strong portfolio showcasing both UX and visual design, including product visioning, strategic solutions, and hands-on execution.
• Proven ability to lead all aspects of the design process, from research to delivery, and to present work effectively to senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience conducting research, benchmarking, mapping journeys, designing and testing prototypes, and building design systems.
• Comfort with consulting and business development - identifying opportunities, contributing to pitches and RFPs, and supporting accounts growth.
• Experience working closely with engineers to deliver polished, user-centered products.
• Familiarity with tools like Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, Miro, InVision, and similar.
• Excellent communication, storytelling, and interpersonal skills, with a knack for simplifying complexity and influencing diverse audiences.
• Ability to balance hands-on design work with team leadership and client engagement.

Why Lab49?

At Lab49, you’ll work on cutting-edge digital solutions with some of the brightest minds in the industry, helping world-class financial clients transform their products and user experiences. You’ll thrive in a fast-paced, innovative environment where your creativity and leadership make a real impact — on both our clients and our Product Design practice.

If you’re passionate about shaping product vision, delivering effective design solutions, and transforming the user experience for financial services, we’d love to hear from you.

Base salary is only one component of our total compensation package. Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus, which is determined upon company and individual performance.

Salary range disclosure as required by S9427A when hiring in New York.

Lab49/ION is committed to maintaining a supportive and inclusive environment for people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We respect the varied identities, abilities, cultures, and traditions of the individuals who comprise our organization and recognize the value that different backgrounds and points of view bring to our business.

Lab49/ION adheres to an equal employment opportunity policy that prohibits discriminatory practices or harassment against applicants or employees based on any legally impermissible factor.