Lead Designer

Elevation Capital; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 8,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Elevation Capital is seeking a Founding / Head of Design for one of its early-stage portfolio companies in Bengaluru. You will own the design function from day one, shaping the product vision, user experience, and design culture while collaborating with founders, product, engineering, and business teams.

You will lead end-to-end design—from research and system building to launch—ensuring complex workflows are intuitive, scalable, and data-informed.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in product design, user experience, or design leadership.
• Background in trading platforms, fintech, wealth, payments, or marketplaces involving money flows is preferred.
• Experience designing complex systems (dashboards, workflows, analytics, financial products).
• Ability to operate hands-on while also thinking strategically.
• Exceptional communication skills across technical and non-technical groups at all levels.
• A deep interest in innovating solutions for complex problems.

Responsibilities

• Drive product design strategy and develop scale design processes, systems, and technical expertise.
• Act as a thought partner to founders on product strategy, UX decisions, and roadmap prioritization.
• Lead user research, journey mapping, and usability testing for complex workflows and decision-heavy interfaces.
• Champion and advocate for design among senior leadership.
• Build and maintain design systems that scale across platforms and teams.
• Balance the needs of clients and user groups, while staying ahead of the competition.
• Transform ambiguous feedback and communications into clear, actionable plans for your teams.

Skills

Product design

UX strategy

Design leadership

User research

Design systems

Communication

Strategic thinking

Job description

Note: This role is with one of our portfolio companies

We are looking for a Founding / Head of Design to build and scale the design function for one of our early-stage portfolio companies. This is a high-ownership, zero-to-one role where design will serve as a core strategic lever rather than simply a support function.

In this position, you will work closely with the founders, product, engineering, and business teams to define the product vision, user experience, and design culture from day one. You will oversee the entire design process, from conceptualization to launch, ensuring that the product is intuitive, efficient, and scalable.

Key responsibilities:

• Drive product design strategy and develop scale design processes, systems, and technical expertise
• Act as a thought partner to founders on product strategy, UX decisions, and roadmap prioritization.
• Lead user research, journey mapping, and usability testing - especially for complex workflows and decision-heavy interfaces.
• Champion and advocate for design among senior leadership
• Build and maintain design systems that scale across platforms and teams.
• Balance the needs of clients and user groups, while staying ahead of the competition
• Transform ambiguous feedback and communications into clear, actionable plans for your teams
• 8+ years of experience in product design, user experience, or design leadership.
• A background in Trading platforms, Fintech, Wealth, Payments, or Marketplaces involving money flows is preferred.
• Experience designing complex systems (dashboards, workflows, analytics, financial products).
• Ability to operate hands-on while also thinking strategically.
• Exceptional communication skills that facilitate productive working relationships and interaction with diverse technical and non-technical groups across all organizational levels.
• Experience creating and maintaining robust design systems.
• A deep interest in innovating solutions for complex problems.