Lead Product Designer - Design System

About Cleo

At Cleo were not just building another fintech app. Were embarking on a mission to fundamentally change humanitys relationship with money. Imagine a world where everyone regardless of background or income has access to a hyperintelligent financial advisor in their pocket. Thats the future were creating.

Cleo is a rare success story: a profitable fastgrowing unicorn with over $200 million in ARR and growing over 2x yearoveryear. This isnt just a job; its a chance to join a team of brilliant driven individuals who are passionate about making a real difference. We have an exceptionally high bar for talent seeking individuals who are not only at the top of their field but also embody our culture of collaboration and positive impact.

If youre driven by complex challenges that push your expertise the chance to shape something truly transformative and the potential to share in Cleos success as we scale while growing alongside a company thats scaling fast this might be your perfect fit.

Follow us on LinkedIn to keep up to date with new product features and insights from the team.

Please note that at this time we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for the Lead Product Designer role. Only candidates who do not require visa sponsorship should apply

On the frontier of design

Were moving through uncharted territory with brand new design challenges around conversation UI brand TOV and applied machine learning AI that dont have much precedent yet. Were using all that to help people improve their financial health solving money problems that make a very real and tangible difference to our users.

About the Role

This is a unique opportunity to shape Cleos next chapter leading initiatives that enhance both the pace and quality of our work.

Cleo is a conversationfirst financial assistant empowering people to build a stronger relationship with their money. We are launching Cleonardo our firstever tokenized design system alongside a refreshed brand identity and new threetab Information Architecture (IA). This evolution reflects the maturity and quality we believe our users deserve in their financial journey.

As Cleos Design Systems Lead youll be part of a newlyformed designled crossfunctional squad dedicated to evolving implementing and scaling Cleos design system Cleonardo.

With a focus on Quality as a companywide OKR your work will have a direct and highimpact role in shaping the user experience across the Cleo platform.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define and evolve visual language: Work with Principal designers to lead the development of Cleonardos visual language including typography colour iconography and componentryensuring consistency with Cleos rebrand and scalability across products.
• Tokenize and standardise brand elements: Integrate new brand elements into Cleonardo to create a cohesive and accessible design system that reflects our refreshed look and feel across all Cleo products.
• Holistic problemsolving: Apply strategic thinking and a bigpicture perspective to evolve the design system identifying and addressing challenges that span across teams and user experiences. Balance innovation with practicality to implement solutions that enhance the products usability and cohesiveness.
• Conduct UI audits and ensure quality: Regularly audit Cleos UI and design system to identify and resolve inconsistencies continuously improving Cleonardos alignment with brand standards and design quality.
• Maintain and scale Design System Libraries: Manage Cleonardos Figma libraries for desktop and mobile ensuring they are accessible scalable and integrated into team workflows.
• Drive Crossfunctional adoption: Partner with product and engineering teams to embed Cleonardo across Cleo establishing a contribution model that enables efficient collaboration and system coherence.
• Champion Accessibility and Inclusivity: Embed accessibility and inclusion standards within Cleonardo ensuring that all elements meet and exceed accessibility requirements.
• Communicate and advocate for Cleonardo: Act as an ambassador for the design system providing regular updates to stakeholders and educating teams on new patterns and components.
• Inspire innovation and elevate design standards: Bring fresh forwardthinking ideas to the table exploring new approaches to design systems that can elevate Cleos user experience and set new standards for quality and accessibility.
• CrossFunctional collaboration: Work closely with product engineering brand and content teams to align Cleonardo with broader company goals ensuring that the design system meets diverse needs and drives consistency across departments. Build relationships with key stakeholders hold retrospectives and gather input to promote team alignment growth and continuous improvement.

What Were Looking For:

• Proven experience with Design Systems: Your portfolio highlights multiple design systems youve created or largely contributed to showcasing a strong understanding of scalable design. Ideally you have approx 6 years in Product Design with 2 years at least specialising in design systems.
• CrossPlatform expertise: You have experience designing for both mobile app and desktop environments ensuring seamless usability across devices.
• Deep design knowledge: Skilled in creating modular accessible and usercentred designs that scale to millions of users.
• Collaborative and adaptable: Comfortable working within diverse fastpaced teams you have a track record of effective collaboration in a rapidgrowth environment.
• Impactdriven: Youre motivated by seeing tangible impact excited by the idea that work done on a Monday could be live by Friday driving results.
• Technically proficient: Experienced in partnering closely with engineers you understand the technical considerations of design system implementation.
• Experimentation and analysis mindset: You value experimentation data and analysis using these insights to inform and iterate on design decisions.

How long will the process take

We aim to move as fast as possible. Usually 23 weeks is usually enough time for us all to get to know each other.

• Step 1: An initial call with our Talent Team to learn more about your experience and why you want to work at Cleo
• Step 2: A craft interview with a Lead Designer to walk through some of your mobile app work and impact
• Step 3: A case study interview to present an example of design systems work with two of our design systems team
• Step 4: A final Values interview with crossfunctional peers from either product engineering content or data

What do you get for all your hard work

• A competitive compensation package (base equity) with biannual reviews aligned to our quarterly OKR planning cycles. This role is PD4 level. You can view our public progression framework and salary bandings here: at one of the fastestgrowing tech startups backed by top VC firms Balderton & EQT Ventures
• A clear progression plan. We want you to keep growing. That means trying new things leading others challenging the status quo and owning your impact. Always with our complete support.
• Flexibility. We cant fight for the worlds financial health if were not healthy ourselves. We work with everyone to make sure they have the balance they need to do their best work
• Work where you work best. Were a globally distributed team. If you live in London we have a hybrid approach wed love you to spend one day a week or more in our beautiful office. If youre outside of London well encourage you to spend a couple of days with us a few times per year. And well cover your travel costs naturally.
• Other benefits;
• Companywide performance reviews every 6 months
• Generous pay increases for highperforming team members
• Equity topups for team members getting promoted
• 25 days annual leave a year public holidays an additional day for every year you spend at Cleo up to 30 days)
• 6 employermatched pension in the UK
• Private Medical Insurance via Vitality dental cover and life assurance
• Enhanced parental leave
• 1 month paid sabbatical after 4 years at Cleo
• Regular socials and activities online and inperson
• Well pay for your OpenAI subscription
• Online mental health support via Spill
• Workplace Nursery Scheme
• And many more!

We strongly encourage applications from people of colour the LGBTQ community people with disabilities neurodivergent people parents carers and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

If theres anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation please let us know.

UK App access: The Cleo app is no longer downloadable in the UK (but only until next year). If youre an existing user youll still have access to the app. But some features wont be available (just for a little while). Why 99 of our users are based in the US where financial health is often overlooked. Weve decided to shift our focus to where we can provide the most value and make the greatest impact for users who need it most. Then well be able to apply what we learn to better support our UK users in the future.