Head of Product Design

Stellic • San Mateo, CA

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

About Stellic We’re building a future where every student can move through their education with clarity, confidence, and purpose. Our platform transforms the student experience, giving them the tools they need to make the right decisions about their degree plans, track their journey, and build an education and career path that’s truly worth it. Stellic is a fast-growing startup backed by leading social impact investors, partnering with top institutions like Cornell, Columbia, UVA, and Ohio State to support over 1 million students across 7 countries. As we scale to serve more universities worldwide, we remain deeply committed to this mission, driven by our values, and committed to building a high-performance team that’s here to make a lasting difference on both students’ lives and higher education. About the Role Are you a design leader who can float easily between vision and hands-on design work? Are you a creative genius who is passionate about consumer-grade user experiences AND the synthesis, transformation and simplification of complex data? Do you gravitate towards mission-centric products that change the lives of every day people? The Head of Product Design role at Stellic is an opportunity to shape the future of the student experience in higher ed. As leader of our product design team, you’ll own the end to end design process — work closely with the founders, PMs, engineers from concept to delivery. You’ll do this at a fast pace, high-growth, mission-driven series A startup in enterprise SaaS. We have found true product/market fit and we are now taking it to the next level. As a player-coach, you will own the end to end design experience for large product areas — work closely with the PMs to define and design experiences, and turn it into reality with our engineering teams in the US and Pakistan. This role is hybrid remote and located in San Mateo 3 days per week.

Requirements

• 8+ years of product design experience, with at least 3 years of design team management experience.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating end-to-end design leadership for complex enterprise products.
• Ability to execute on end-to-end complex design projects in collaboration with engineering and product.
• Experience building and mentoring high-performing design teams while remaining hands-on with design work.
• Track record of establishing design processes, systems, and standards that scale.
• Proven ability to lead user research initiatives and translate insights into strategic design directions.
• Excellence in visual design with the ability to guide others in creating cohesive, delightful experiences.
• Strong communication skills and experience presenting to executive stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead, manage and mentor a small team of talented, passionate designers, providing guidance on projects, career development, and fostering a culture of design excellence.
• Own significant product design initiatives while balancing individual contribution with team leadership responsibilities.
• Drive the evolution of our design system, processes, and best practices across the organization.
• Work closely with Product and Engineering leads to align design strategy with business goals and technical capabilities.
• Guide the team in tackling complex product design challenges by synthesizing business, technology, and user needs into simple, holistic solutions.
• Build and maintain strong partnerships across departments to elevate design's impact throughout the organization.
• Manage resource allocation and project prioritization across the design team while maintaining high quality standards.

Benefits

• Generous stock options in a Series A stage startup
• Flexible, outcome-based culture
• Comprehensive health insurance, with Stellic covering 99% of your premium and 75% for dependents on our base plan
• 401K and commuter benefits
• Annual international retreats in some of the most beautiful cities & towns

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed