Principal Product Designer

About the Role We are hiring a Principal Product Designer to join Smarkets. This role has real weight and freedom: you’ll help set the product direction and build the core experience from the ground up. You’ll work in an open, undefined territory, bringing structure, insight, and craft to genuinely hard problems, collaborating with leadership, product, and engineering end-to-end.

What You'll Do

• Design autonomously. You’ll define and drive design work from scratch - identifying what needs to be done while raising the quality bar. You’ll be working closely with execs, product, engineering.
• Simple interfaces. Designing products that solve problems in a simple and elegant way while taking care of every small detail, from wire-framing to designing end-to-end flows and prototypes
• Design for clarity and depth. Our product touches prediction and betting markets across many categories e.g. sports, politics, current events, technology etc. Your job is to make these powerful tools feel accessible, intuitive, and engaging.
• Prototype quickly and test ideas. You’ll use tools like Figma, Cursor, and light code to explore concepts, validate assumptions, and refine interfaces based on real feedback.
• Develop insights through research. You’ll talk to users, analyse behaviour, and extract meaningful patterns that inform product direction.
• Running guerrilla and customer testing workshops
• Enhance our design system for both of our products. You’ll redefine the standards and systems that keep our products cohesive as they grow.
• Act as a force-multiplier. You’ll raise the bar - not just through your own work, but by modeling great thinking, process, and collaboration across the company.

What We're Looking For

• 6+ years designing consumer products, ideally at early-stage companies
• A portfolio demonstrating systemic thinking and attention to detail
• Expertise in iOS, Android, and web design
• Strong visual/interaction skills and fluency in Figma and AI-coding tools (Cursor, v0, etc.)
• Clear, thoughtful communication — whether you’re sharing work, making a case, or putting together a presentation
• Strong sense of ownership and ability to navigate ambiguity
• Strategic product thinking and the ability to articulate design logic
• Understanding of the technical implications of your design choices
• A focus on UX and an understanding of human behaviour
• Clean visual aesthetic with a mastery of typography and grids
• Skills in typography and grids
• Passion for complex problem-solving
• Bonus: Experience in fintech, crypto, or data-intensive products
• Bonus: Formal design education

Nice to Have

• Experience in fintech, crypto, or data-intensive products
• Formal design education

Compensation & Benefits

• Stock Options: Vest over 4 years
• Pension Scheme: Competitive plan via Aviva, up to 6% matched
• Health Insurance: Comprehensive coverage
• Enhanced Parental Leave: Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Stay Fuelled: Fresh breakfast and lunch daily, snacks, drinks
• Cycle-to-Work Scheme
• Learning & Development: £1,000 annual education budget
• Holiday: 25 days + bank holidays, carry over 5 days
• Flexible Working: Hybrid model with 3 days in the office and 2 days from home
• Team Energy: Regular socials, hackathons, and events