Founding Product Designer

Slash; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Autonomy & ownership culture

Health and benefits plan

Office in downtown SF

Unlimited PTO

Job summary

Slash is hiring its Founding Product Designer in San Francisco. You’ll set the visual and product language for everything we build, from core banking features to the marketing site and social presence.

You’ll own design end-to-end, build the design system, and direct Slash’s visual identity, collaborating directly with founders and engineering to deliver real customer impact. This is a hands-on, high-ambiguity role with high autonomy.

Qualifications

• Strong product design fundamentals, including interaction design and systems thinking.
• Portfolio demonstrates graphic design, illustration, or art direction.
• Track record of owning projects from problem to shipped outcome.
• Comfort building process alongside the product without a predefined playbook.
• Active use of AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor.
• Experience at a fast-growing startup, ideally in founding or early design role.
• Based in San Francisco and able to work from the office.

Responsibilities

• Own product design end-to-end, from sketch to shipped product.
• Set the design system and establish the visual language for the core product.
• Direct Slash's visual identity across branding, site, decks, event graphics, and social content.
• Work in-line with engineering to prototype ideas quickly and test with customers.
• Use AI to clarify problems, explore directions, and prototype flows.
• Talk to customers directly to validate design decisions.
• Help build the design function and participate in hiring future designers.

Skills

Product design fundamentals

Creative range

Ownership track record

AI tooling

Startup experience

San Francisco presence

Tools

Claude

ChatGPT

Cursor

Job description

About Slash

Slash is building the future of business banking, one industry at a time. We believe businesses deserve financial infrastructure tailored to how they actually operate. That's why we're creating a new category of business banking. We combine the reliability of traditional banking (high yields, competitive rewards, and comprehensive security) with industry-specific features that make businesses more efficient, more competitive, and more profitable.

Started in 2021, Slash is one of the fastest growing fintechs in the world and we power over ten billion dollars a year in business purchasing across numerous industries. We recently raised a $100M Series C led by Ribbit Capital with participation from Khosla Ventures, Goodwater Capital, NEA, and Y Combinator, accelerating our expansion into new markets and products.

Slash is headquartered in San Francisco, and has a strong in-person culture.

About the role

Slash is hiring its Founding Product Designer. This is the first dedicated design hire at the company, and you'll set the visual and product language for everything we build, from the core banking product to the marketing site to how we show up on socials.

This role is broader than product design. We need someone who can take a complex financial workflow and make it simple in Figma, and who also has the creative range to art direct a launch, illustrate an idea, or design something with enough craft that it makes Slash look and feel like a company operating at a different level than other fintechs.

You'll work directly with our founders and engineering team, with no layers between you and the decisions that matter. What you design ships.

What you'll do

• Own product design end to end. Take problems from our founders, PMs, and engineers and carry them from the first sketch through the shipped product.

• Set the design system. Establish the visual and interaction language for the core product now, while building the system and documentation that will let a future design team scale it consistently.

• Direct Slash's visual identity. Take ownership of brand, marketing site design, decks, event graphics, and social content. This is hands-on work: illustration, layout, and original creative, not just applying an existing brand kit.

• Work in-line with engineering. Pair directly with engineers to prototype ideas quickly, test them, and get real product in front of customers rather than polishing specs that sit in Figma.

• Use AI as part of your process. Use tools like Claude and Cursor to clarify problems, explore directions, and prototype flows before they reach high-fidelity design.

• Talk to customers directly. Validate design decisions against how customers actually use Slash, not assumptions about how they should.

• Build the function you're joining. Set the tools, process, and quality bar that will define how design operates at Slash as the team grows, including a hand in hiring the designers who join after you.

What you need

• Strong product design fundamentals. Interaction design, systems thinking, and the judgment to simplify a genuinely complex financial product without dumbing it down.

• Real creative range beyond UI. Graphic design, illustration, art direction, or a similar creative background. Your portfolio needs to demonstrate this directly, not just claim it.

• A track record of ownership. You can point to specific projects you carried from an ambiguous problem through a shipped, successful outcome, not just execution against a defined spec.

• Comfort operating without a playbook. This role requires building the process alongside the product. You should be someone who is energized by that, not someone who needs it handed to you.

• Active use of AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor as part of how you already work.

• Experience at a fast-growing startup, ideally in a founding or early design role. This is a strong plus, not a requirement, but we're looking for someone who has operated at this level of ambiguity and speed before.

• Based in San Francisco. Slash has a strong in-person culture and this role is expected in our office.

What's in it for you

• Ground-floor equity and the chance to define design at a company scaling fast

• High autonomy and ownership culture

• Comprehensive health and benefits plan

• Working out of our downtown San Francisco office space

• Unlimited PTO