Head of Design

Head of Design

Red Cell Partners is seeking a hands-on design leader to lead and execute product design across Red Cell and its portfolio companies.

Role overview

• Serve as both a design operator and design leader: set direction while actively doing the work
• Shape products, companies, and brands from inception through growth (design is a core operating capability, not a service function)
• Dedicate up to 25% of time to supporting Marketing/Brand/Communications with web development efforts for Red Cell and incubation companies’ digital presence

Responsibilities

• Partner with founders, product, engineering, and leadership to turn ambiguous problem spaces into clear product design direction
• Create early concepts and future-state prototypes to test ideas quickly and inform strategy
• Own design concepts for UX across web/mobile/agents/wearables and emerging modalities using research and trends
• Design and ship end-to-end improvements: UX/UI, prototypes, brand systems, and storytelling
• Collaborate with Marketing to apply style and branding into user experiences across RCP and investments
• Establish lightweight frameworks, standards, and patterns to enable speed without bureaucracy
• Define how design scales as companies mature (from early scrappy builds to durable, repeatable systems)
• Navigate evolving priorities and high-stakes decisions while balancing speed, quality, and pragmatism

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in product, UX, and front-end design, including leadership in high-growth startups/scale-ups
• BS or MS in Design, HCI, or related field
• Strong understanding of AI fundamentals and how they apply to product experiences
• Knowledge of front-end languages: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Expert skills in Figma, including component libraries, auto-layout, variants, prototyping, and design tokens
• Deep understanding of responsive, mobile-first design
• Proven success designing across multiple company growth phases (concept → scaled product)
• Exceptional craft in UX, visual design, systems thinking, and storytelling
• Strong product intuition and ability to align user needs, business goals, and technical constraints
• Track record developing experiences that exceed original proposals and support transformational innovation (including “north star” representations)

Nice-to-haves

• Thrives in ambiguity; self-starter who frames rationales and persuades peers/executives
• Confident at guiding design decisions through unclear requirements and evolving priorities