Chief Design Officer

Healari; Norway; Remote; NOK 1,500,000 - 2,000,000; Full time

Job summary

A pioneering startup in emotional wellness located in Norway seeks a UI/UX/Product Designer to lead the design process and product strategy. As the first design hire, you will have full ownership of the product design and play a crucial role in building a meaningful social network. This founding-team role is initially compensated via equity with a significant grant, transitioning to a paid position upon successful funding.

Qualifications

• Strong mobile app portfolio is essential.
• Excited to work in early-stage environments.
• Fluent in Figma for collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Define brand identity and design systems.
• Make key product strategy decisions with the CEO.
• Lead user research and prototyping efforts.

Skills

UI/UX Design

Prototyping in Figma

Mobile App Design

User Research

Job description

Shape the Future of Human Connection

Healari is building the antidote to lonely doom-scrolling and vanity metrics: A social network designed for genuine emotional wellness and real human connection. We’re an early-stage, pre-seed startup; currently part of GünderAcademy, a leading Nordic accelerator powered by SR-Bank.

As our first design hire and a core founding team member, you’ll have full product ownership from day one. You’ll collaborate closely with our CEO, gaining both the freedom to work autonomously and the support of a tightly aligned creative partner. Your input will directly shape the direction of the Healari product experience, visual identity, and brand voice.

What You’ll Own

• Design Leadership: Define and evolve our brand identity, design systems, and creative direction. Create the product design from user flows and wireframes to polished UI and seamless interactions. Make Healari ready for MVP development, and continue evolving the product toward Beta and final launch.
• Product Strategy: Make key decisions alongside the CEO to align user needs, emotional impact, and business goals. Help shape our product roadmap and contribute to early product strategy.
• User Advocacy: Lead user research, rapid prototyping and testing to deeply understand our community, ensuring we build something people truly love and feel better after using.
• Culture & Team Building: Join as a founding team member and have outsized influence on the product, culture, and trajectory of a company from early stage. Set the foundation to lead your own future design team as we scale.

Who We Think You Are

• UI/UX / Product Designer with a strong mobile app portfolio.
• You’re excited by early-stage ambiguity and thrive on solving real human problems.
• A strong independent contributor who can set their own schedule, execute with high agency, and iterate quickly, while also collaborating closely with the CEO to shape strategy and vision.
• You know that the best design is a blend of beautiful UI aesthetics and ruthless usability, without compromising either.
• Fluent in Figma for prototyping and collaboration.
• Ideally have an altruistic nature and personal interest for psychology/self-development.
• Bonus points for previous experience in start-up or SaaS environment, but passion and talent beats pedigree.

Compensation

This is a founding-team role, compensated through equity until the successful close of our first seed round. We are committed to fair and generous compensation, so the candidate will receive a significant equity grant of 5%, with a standard cliff and vesting schedule. Upon successful funding, this role will transition to a paid position.

Ready to create with meaning?

If you believe technology should deepen human connection, not distract from it; we’d love to hear from you.