Head of Product Design

Head of Design

Full-time  ·  Amsterdam, London, or Cape Town  ·  Hybrid

ABOUT CAPCADE

Capcade is building the collaboration infrastructure for private markets. Fund managers, investors, and the service providers around them run their most important work across scattered tools and email threads. That work covers fundraising, due diligence, investor onboarding, post-close reporting, and structured-product programmes. We replace all of it with one secure, structured environment where people, documents, data, and tasks live in the same place.

The work our users do is high-stakes, data-heavy, and heavily regulated. They are executives at fund administrators, heads of investor relations, dealer desks at global banks, and procurement leaders at large institutions. When the product works well, billions move with more visibility and less risk.

We already have many of the best names in global finance on the platform, including hundreds of the Fortune 500. We are a team of around 50 people across seven jurisdictions. We are small enough that your work shows up the week you ship it, and the problems are real enough to keep the work hard and interesting.


ABOUT THE ROLE

We have built a powerful platform. We now need to build a design discipline to match it.  You will be our first design leader, and you will set the craft bar, shape the process, and define how design works alongside product and engineering. You will own how the product feels, not only how it looks, and you will be measured on whether your work changes what users actually do. You will have a real say over the roadmap and over how the product gets built, with direct backing from our COO, CEO, and Head of Product. You will report directly to our CEO.

This is a senior role, but it is not a role where you direct from a distance. Today the design team is one talented individual contributor, and you will shape and grow the team from there. You will be in the work itself, prototyping, designing, and shipping alongside the team, especially early on while it is still small. We are looking for someone who is happy to roll up their sleeves and work hard, and who leads by doing as much as by deciding.

If you are looking for a defined lane and a finished design system to maintain, this is not the right role. If you want to build the function and use modern, AI-native methods to do it, keep reading.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Own outcomes Work with product and engineering to define the right problems, validate solutions, and ship experiences that move real numbers such as usability, activation, and retention. Stay involved through launch and the iterations that follow.


• Prototype with AI  You guide the structure, behaviour, and quality while AI helps generate prototypes, and with product and engineers you shape the user experience. 


• Run research as a way to move faster. Talk to real users, run quick tests, and adjust. Treat research as a tool for resolving disagreement quickly and reaching shared conviction, not just speed for its own sake.


• Build the function. Set the craft bar, start a design system, hire as we grow, and raise the quality of everything the team ships.
  
  

WHERE YOU WILL FOCUS FIRST

Priorities will shift as the business changes, but these are the areas where you will start:

• Data Room and Documents. Improve file browsing, permissions, and document interaction so that complex workflows feel effortless for deal teams.


• AI-powered features. Design clear experiences that help users get real value from Capcade's AI, including file analysis, structured data extraction, and automations.


• Onboarding and activation. Build flows that help new users understand what Capcade can do and reach their first real success quickly.


• Canvas and dashboards. Push our visual workspace further so it becomes a genuine command centre for deal management.


• Admin and configuration tooling. Support permissions and workspace management with interfaces that feel clear and professional.
  
  

HOW WE WILL MEASURE SUCCESS

This is what good looks like in your first six months:

• A clear, shared sense of what good looks like. The bar for craft is visibly higher, both in what ships and in how the rest of the company talks about the product.


• The start of a real design system that teams build on, rather than a library that sits unused.


• At least one important workflow measurably better for users, with numbers behind it, whether that is faster completion, fewer errors, or stronger activation and retention on that flow.
  
  

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• The judgement and experience of a senior leader, combined with the instinct to stay close to the craft and do the work yourself, not only direct it.


• A track record of leading product design on complex products, ideally in B2B, fintech, or other systems-heavy environments, and owning the work from the first problem through to launch.


• Evidence that you have built or materially shaped a design function, rather than only contributing to one that was already mature.


• Active use of LLMs in your real design work. You do not need to write production code by hand, but you do build prototypes.


• A portfolio that shows product thinking, interaction design, and craft, and that connects your work to outcomes.


• The ability to define success metrics with PMs and adjust your approach based on what the results tell you.


• Clear communication and the confidence to hold a quality bar in a room full of engineers and deadlines.

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience in private markets, fund operations, data rooms, or other compliance-heavy areas.


• Having stood up design systems and research practices in the early days of a team or product.


• A history of moving a technical, engineering-led organisation toward caring more about its users, with the stories to show how you did it.
  
  

HOW WE WORK

Work starts with posting validated problems to  LLMs, so we can explore real use case flows. We prototype early, test with real users, and stay involved through launch. We hire for where someone is heading and what they have built. 

 
WHAT WE OFFER

• A base salary benchmarked to your location and set in line with the market for this level of seniority.


• An annual equity grant that vests over four years. This is real ownership in a company still small enough for your work to move its value.


• Direct backing from the COO, CEO, and Head of Product to change how the company builds product. The authority that comes with the role is real, not nominal.


• 25 days of paid holiday, hybrid working, latest modern tools


• Honest, regular feedback, and great colleagues who are good at their jobs 

The product is growing quickly, the AI landscape moves even faster, and our users expect a lot. You will need to enjoy working in that kind of environment.

This is a hybrid role for people already based in Amsterdam, London, or Cape Town. We are not offering relocation or visa sponsorship, so you will need the existing right to work in one of those locations.

HOW TO APPLY

Send us your CV along with a portfolio link.
We are especially interested in your work on complex workflows, B2B tools, and projects where you had to balance craft against speed. If your portfolio includes front-end prototypes or coded experiments, we would love to see them.

Our process is deliberately focused: an intro conversation with HR and a couple of deeper sessions with the people you would work with, built around real Capcade problems.

Capcade processes applicant data for recruitment purposes in accordance with applicable data protection law. Capcade is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity, value our differences, and are committed to creating an inclusive environment.