Lead Product Designer (San Francisco, Remote)

Kalepa; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 245,000; Full time

Job summary

Kalepa is building AI-powered insurance tools. We seek a Lead Product Designer to own complex, cross-cutting experiences, shaping what we build and how it looks. You will partner with the Head of Product, designers, PMs, and engineers to bring polish and structure to complex workflows.

You’ll define how AI shows up in the product, raise the design bar, and scale patterns across lines of business while collaborating with a global team. This role reports to the Head of Product.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience designing digital products for B2B or data-rich environments.
• Proven ability to simplify complexity and create thoughtful UI patterns.
• Experience scaling platforms and design systems.
• Strong collaboration with product, eng, and client success.
• Experience with AI-driven features is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead design for the platform's most complex, cross-cutting problems from discovery to delivery.
• Turn ambiguous domains into clear product directions with cross-functional partners.
• Design data-dense workflows that help underwriters act with confidence.
• Define how AI appears in the product, including how it communicates confidence.
• Establish scalable patterns to support new lines of business.
• Mentor teammates and raise design standards.

Skills

Product design

UI design

UX research

Design systems

AI product design

Cross-functional collaboration

Mentorship

Prototyping

Data-dense workflows

Tools

Material UI

Job description

About Kalepa:

Insurance is a $7T global industry built on professional labor: underwriting, claims, pricing, operations, and distribution. Kalepa is building AI that can perform that work.

We create professional-grade AI systems for insurers: software that can read, reason, decide, and act inside real workflows and operate over long-time horizons. Kalepa begins by augmenting professionals with the tools to succeed at their jobs. That earns us the right to learn from real decisions, capture decision traces, and automate what can be automated successfully over time.

Our products are already in production with leading insurers, driving measurable outcomes and expanding across functions. The opportunity is far broader than any single workflow: to build the AI operating system for decision-making across insurance. For people who want to work on AI that matters, in a sector where correctness, trust, and real-world impact count, Kalepa is just getting started.

Kalepa is backed by leading investors such as IA Ventures and Inspired Capital, and our team brings experience from Facebook, Palantir, Google, Amazon, McKinsey, Mastercard, and Uber.

Our Values (This is important):

Many organizations have a dusty list of corporate values that no one ever follows. Kalepa is not one of those companies. Our values are designed to unlock the potential of our employees.

Success at Kalepa is bred from five core principles:

• Hustle and Determination - We hire people who take full ownership of their craft and relentlessly pursue excellence with speed and determination. We choose the hard problems and do not give up. This is the foundation of how we work and how we win.
• Deliver Customer Impact - We're obsessed with customer impact. Every feature, every line of code, every decision is measured against one question: does this help insurers make better decisions? If it doesn't drive speed, accuracy, or profitability for our customers, we don't build it.
• Meritocracy - We're building something exceptional, and that requires exceptional people and ideas. We have a high bar but we reward excellence with rapid growth. If you're the best at what you do, you'll thrive here.
• Transparency - We value honest, transparent communication over politics. We challenge ideas, not people. We say what needs to be said, even when it's hard. This is how we solve problems fast and find the truth.
• Experiment Relentlessly - Many of the problems we face have never been solved before. We tackle them by testing quickly, measuring rigorously, and iterating until we find the path forward. Speed of learning is our advantage.

In addition to our NY office, we have remote employees speaking 10+ languages across the globe. But we invest in bringing our people together both for regional meetups and global offsites (2021 - Playa Del Carmen | 2022 - Rome | 2023 - Buenos Aires | 2024 - Lisbon | 2025 - Cartagena).

Kalepa's culture isn't for everyone, and that's ok. But for the people who are a fit, they can't imagine working elsewhere.

About the role:

Salary range: $190 - 245K USD*

We're looking for a talented and versatile Lead Product Designer to join our team and help improve the new experiences of our platform. You'll own complex, cross-cutting problems, shape what we build as well as how it looks, and raise the bar for design quality across the team. You'll collaborate closely with our current Lead Designer, product managers, and engineers to bring polish, clarity, and structure to complex workflows. This role reports to the Head of Product.

What You'll Do

• Lead design for the platform's most complex, cross-cutting problems, from discovery and research through delivery and iteration.
• Turn ambiguous problems and new business areas into clear product direction, partnering with product, client success, and sales to balance user needs and business goals.
• Design data-dense workflows that help underwriters find what matters and act on it with confidence.
• Define how AI shows up in the product: how we communicate confidence, surface sources, and keep underwriters in control of decisions.
• Establish scalable patterns so the platform can grow across new lines of business without fragmenting the experience.
• Use AI and rapid prototyping tools to move quickly from idea to validated concept.
• Raise the design bar across the team through critique, mentorship, and shared standards.

About You

• 7+ years of experience designing digital products for B2B, data-rich, or productivity tool companies.
• Experience working in a rapidly scaling, ownership-mentality startup environment.
• Experience taking an existing platform and helping to generalize and scale the user experience to support new and expanding workflows.
• A strong portfolio showcasing your ability to simplify complexity, design thoughtful UIs, and apply clear interaction patterns.
• Systems thinking, with experience shaping and contributing to design systems.
• Strong visual design skills and attention to detail - particularly in information hierarchy, interaction, and layout.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills you're proactive, responsive, and eager to get feedback.
• Curious and adaptable you're enjoy solving ambiguous problems and growing your skills in the process.

Bonus Points For

• Experience working with MUI (Material UI) or similar design systems.
• InsurTech, FinTech, or other highly-regulated industry experience.
• A technical background or interest in how things are built.

*The salary range listed is an estimate and will vary based on a variety of factors. Final compensation will be determined during the offer stage based on relevant experience, performance during the interview process, and geographic location, and may therefore differ from the posted range.