Chief Design Officer

Best Friend Finance; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 167,000 - 223,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Direct founder access

Equity

Token incentives

Health benefits

Job summary

Best Friend Finance is seeking a Chief Design Officer to lead product and brand for UGLYCASH and Reserve. You will work directly with the founders, engineers, and a fellow designer to shape the user experience across money, payments, and identity.

You’ll own product design from early flows to polished interfaces and drive brand evolution with a strong emphasis on typography, interaction detail, and scalable design systems. This is a hands-on role with broad influence and noticeable impact.

Qualifications

• Portfolio showing real products and the decisions behind them.
• Strong taste and craft in interactions and typography.
• Self-driven and able to work with minimal support.
• AI-native in practice to accelerate exploration and execution.

Responsibilities

• Own product design from early flows to polished interfaces.
• Turn complex financial ideas into simple experiences.
• Shape brand, design systems, and how projects appear.
• Collaborate with founders, engineers, and a second designer.

Skills

Product thinking

Design craft

Independent work

AI-native

Job description

What we’re building

Our purpose is to increase economic opportunity and make better money.

UGLYCASH is the financial home for people earning on the internet: creators, freelancers, remote workers, and entrepreneurs whose banks weren’t built for how they earn. Starting in Latin America, we’ve reached $5M+ in revenue run rate and 32,000+ monthly active customers in 22 months.

Reserve is building better money, including the money UGLYCASH customers already hold and use. Together, we’re rethinking both the financial experience and the money behind it.

The role

We’re looking for a Chief Design Officer with the taste and range to lead brand.

You’ll work directly with the founders, engineers, and one other designer across UGLYCASH and Reserve. We’re lean. This is a role for someone who wants to make decisions and do the work, not build a team before getting started.

Product design is the core of the role. You’ll help decide what’s worth building, turn complex financial ideas into simple experiences, and own the details from early flows and prototypes to polished interfaces, implementation, and iteration.

Your ownership also extends to brand: evolving our visual identities, design systems, and how both projects show up in the world. We see product and brand as one experience, not separate disciplines.

Who you are

• A product thinker who ships. You understand the customer, question the brief, and help shape the solution. Your portfolio shows real products and the decisions behind them, not just beautiful screens.
• Strong taste, serious craft. You care about interactions, typography, and the smallest details. You can make something easy to use without making it look like everything else.
• Resourceful and independent. You can prioritize, work through ambiguity, and deliver with little support. You know when to explore and when to ship.
• AI-native in practice. You use AI to accelerate exploration, prototyping, and execution, and you’re curious about how it can change the experiences we build.

We care more about your work, judgment, and what you personally built than titles or years of experience.

• $15,000–$20,000/month + equity + token incentives + health benefits
• You’ll have direct founder access and real influence over what we build, how it works, and what it stands for. There are already tens of thousands of people using it. There’s still a lot worth inventing.
• Show us work you’ve shipped, what you personally owned, and a product decision you’re proud of.