Staff Product Designer

To give you a better sense of what you'll be working on, here are some recent projects we've been tackling:

• Reimagining the live meeting experience to help advisors stay present and engaged while Zocks captures everything important and serves up valuable insights in real time.
• Building the foundational design system and interaction patterns for our new mobile app, defining how advisors will access AI assistance on-the-go.
• Building the foundations of document intelligence features that help advisors extract, understand, and act on information from complex financial documents using AI.
• Simplifying complex data sync flows with external platforms so users can easily keep their information up-to-date without the usual headaches.

What You'll Do:

• Own design for our most complex product areas - You'll lead end-to-end design for our highest-impact, most ambiguous initiatives that require deep strategic thinking and technical sophistication. You'll work from discovery through launch, defining both what we build and how we build it.
• Elevate craft and establish quality standards - You'll set the bar through your own work and raise team capabilities through critique, design reviews, and collaborative problem-solving. You'll help our designers level up their strategic thinking and execution.
• Partner with leadership on design strategy and systems - Shape our design practice, establishing the patterns, frameworks, and standards that let our team maintain quality. You'll identify which infrastructure unlocks our current and near-term work, then build it thoughtfully, prioritizing what matters over premature optimization.
• Influence product direction - You'll join product and strategy discussions as a peer, bringing design perspective to roadmap decisions early. You'll proactively identify opportunities, advocate for user needs at the leadership level, and ensure we're building the right things, not just building things right.
• Mentor and elevate the team - You'll guide designers through informal mentorship, leading by example, facilitating critiques, pairing on complex problems, and helping them think more strategically. You won't have direct reports, but your influence will be significant. Think of it as technical leadership: you set standards, share expertise, and help others level up through collaboration.

What You Need:

• 8+ years of product design experience - You've led design for complex B2B or enterprise products across multiple releases. You've shaped product strategy and influenced roadmaps, not just executed against them. You have a portfolio demonstrating both strategic impact and exceptional craft.
• Proven track record as a design leader - You've operated at a Staff or Senior+ level, leading strategic initiatives and influencing beyond your immediate projects. You've driven change through credibility and relationship-building, earning trust without relying on formal authority.
• Comfort with ambiguity and autonomy - You thrive when problems aren't well-defined. You can independently scope initiatives, make strategic decisions about where to focus, and drive work from concept to impact with minimal guidance. You know when to move fast and when to dig deep.
• Technical depth and AI/ML fluency - You can engage with engineering on technical decisions and understand how constraints shape design options. Experience with AI/ML products, APIs, or real-time systems is valuable, and you can quickly develop fluency in technical domains new to you.
• Systems thinking at appropriate scale - You've built design systems or established patterns that helped teams ship faster and maintain quality. At Zocks, this might mean creating interaction patterns for AI-generated content. You understand the difference between premature optimization and strategic infrastructure, especially in resource-constrained environments.
• Mentorship and team development - You've developed designers through informal mentorship, leading by example, facilitating tough critiques, and pairing on ambiguous problems. You make others better by modeling strategic thinking, not just critiquing deliverables. This isn't a reporting relationship, but your influence will be significant - think technical leadership over people management.

What makes this role unique:

• High impact, small team - With 4 designers supporting R&D, your work will have immediate, visible impact. You'll shape product direction in ways that would take years at larger companies.
• Staff IC role at growing startup - This is a chance to establish a Staff-level IC position as we scale. You'll help define what Staff means at Zocks and grow with the company as we expand the design team.
• Strategic partnership with leadership - You'll work directly with our leadership and have regular access to product and engineering leadership. Your opinions will shape where we invest and how we build.
• Room to lead without management - If you're a senior IC who wants strategic influence without direct reports, this is your opportunity to lead through craft, systems thinking, and mentorship.

Bonus points for:

• Experience leading design for AI products and/or productivity tools.
• Advanced prototyping skills beyond Figma - whether through AI tools, HTML/CSS, or other creative approaches.
• Background in startups or high-growth environments where you’ve helped scale design practices alongside rapid product releases.