Founding Product Designer

Gizmo; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A fast-growing tech startup in London is seeking an experienced designer to help enhance their unique AI-powered learning platform. As the third design hire, you will craft engaging core user flows, conduct user research, and design playful game mechanics. The role offers the chance to influence company design culture and work alongside an ambitious team dedicated to innovative product experiences. A competitive salary, equity, and a hybrid working model are included in the benefits package.

Benefits

Highly competitive salary

Substantial equity

Hybrid working model

Private health insurance

Early employee opportunity at a growing startup

Qualifications

• 5+ years designing digital products with a portfolio showcasing UX thinking.
• Comfortable planning and conducting user research, including interviews and surveys.
• Knowledge of motion design tools and experience in playful animation.

Responsibilities

• Rethink user experience by designing core product flows.
• Conduct user interactions to identify needs and evaluate features.
• Create mechanics and progression systems to enhance learning.

Skills

Digital product design

User research planning

Motion design tools (After Effects, Principle, Lottie)

Rapid iterative design

Gamified product design

Job description

We're building Duolingo-for-Anything: an AI-powered platform that turns anything you are learning into a social, gamified learning experience. We are growing rapidly, backed by top VCs, and recently raised $22m in Series A funding.

So far, we've managed to grow to 1 million monthly users, with a product that is essentially an MVP. If you check it out you'll notice it's a little janky - but it's also a uniquely fun and interesting design challenge. Users love Gizmo because of the thought that's gone into solving their problems, and the delight of learning with gamification, social features, and AI that adapts to their needs.

We're now elevating the product with greater polish and craft, and we're looking for our third design hire to help us create the most engaging learning experience yet.

Why this role is special

• Invent the future of learning with AI: AI is evolving at rapid speed, and we believe that the winning UX paradigms haven't been discovered yet. Here you'll have a chance to experiment, invent, and push new tools to their limits
• Be the third full time design hire: You'll shape Gizmo's design DNA. You won't just follow established processes; you'll create them, influencing everything from our visual identity to our design culture
• Join a design-centric team: The whole company believes that outstanding, delightful design will be the key to winning over consumers and building learning experiences that last.
• Work with ambitious, kind people: We've hired a fantastic team who are all deeply committed to building delightful, innovative product experiences

What You'll Do

• Craft core flows: Help us rethink our UX by mapping, prototyping, testing and iterating on core product flows from end to end
• Spend hours with users: Whether it's identifying new needs or evaluating current features, you'll spend a lot of time talking to users
• Design playful game loops: Create motivating mechanics, rewards and progression systems that make learning fun
• Evolve our icon and illustration language: Extend the existing library and create new assets
• Bring interfaces to life with motion: Craft UI and character animations that make every action feel responsive and fun

Requirements

• 5+ years designing digital products with a portfolio showing both sharp UX thinking and a high level of craft
• Comfortable planning and running user research - interviews, surveys, and rapid tests
• Fast, iterative, and impact-focused: you know when to sweat a detail and when to ship to learn more
• Working knowledge of motion tools (After Effects, Principle, Lottie) and an eye for playful animation

Nice to have

• Experience founding a company or building a significant side project that has had some real users
• Experience designing gamified products (mobile, web, or casual games)
• Experience designing social products
• Hands‑on illustration or icon‑system design skills
• Experience building interactive prototypes in HTML/CSS/JS or React
• Experience creating or refining design systems

Benefits

• Highly competitive salary
• Substantial equity included - you'll own a piece of what you're building
• Hybrid working model with 4 days in our Shoreditch office
• Private health insurance
• The opportunity to be one of the earliest employees in one of the UK's fastest-growing startups