At Zinc, we are building thoughtful, high-impact product experiences that transform how organisations build trust and transparency. We believe design is at the heart of delivering value to our customers, and we’re looking for a Product Design Lead who thrives as both a strategic thinker and a hands-on contributor.

You’ll be the ultimate player-coach: mentoring and developing two direct-report designers while leading your own 3–4 person development pod. You’ll balance craft, product thinking, and collaboration to deliver best-in-class user experiences across Zinc’s B2B and B2B2C SaaS platforms. This is a high-impact opportunity to drive product direction, elevate team performance, and shape how design is embedded across the company.

Zinc designers own the solution, the experience and the visuals of what we choose to build, influenced by devs

Designers own research, they define the research methods and lead, supported by pms and the feature lead.
Designers have direct contact with all customers facing teams.
Designers own all things experience and visual about Zinc.

If you’re passionate about leading through collaboration, growing others, and designing user-centered solutions that deliver business outcomes—we’d love to hear from you! 🎯

Department: Tech - Product
Employment Type: Full Time
Location: Zinc - London
Workplace type: Hybrid
Compensation: £65,000 - £70,000 / year
Reporting To

Key Responsibilities 🗝️

🌟 Lead from the Front
Drive the entire design process, from discovery through delivery using insights and data to guide high-impact, user-centered solutions. Lead workshops, unblock challenges, and collaborate closely with product managers and engineers to launch features and deliver team-wide training.

👥 Coach and Grow Designers
Support the growth of two direct-report designers through mentorship, feedback, and opportunities to shine. Foster a trusting, ego-free culture focused on learning, development, and celebrating achievements.

🧭 Strategic Product Thinking
Make thoughtful design decisions that align with both user needs and business goals. Prioritise effectively, communicate clearly, and inspire confidence in direction and execution across your pod.

🤝 Elevate Design at Zinc
Champion the role of design within the company. Lead cross-functional initiatives, coach others in best practices, and stay close to the customer experience to ensure design solutions deliver meaningful impact.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise 🚀

🛠️ Hard Skills:

🔹 User Research & Discovery – Can independently plan and conduct qualitative research, synthesise insights, and turn them into actionable direction. This is core to how we design at Zinc - you’ll both model and coach this skill.

🔹 UX/UI Design in Figma – Expert-level proficiency in Figma across UX and UI. You’ll design elegant end-to-end experiences and raise the quality of the team’s work through clear, actionable critique.

🔹 Workshop Hosting & Presentation – Skilled in leading engaging collaborative sessions and communicating ideas with clarity and energy. These are critical for alignment, pitching concepts, and co-creating with engineers and product managers.

🔹 Design Systems – Knows how to scale design through systems. Able to contribute components, patterns, and documentation in collaboration with engineers, and decide when to flex or reinforce the system.

🔹 Strategic Product Thinking – Able to connect design decisions to product strategy and business goals. You bring a long-term perspective while navigating day-to-day trade-offs.

🔹 Data Analysis – Comfortable using quant and qual product data to inform decisions, spot patterns, and strengthen design outcomes.

💡Soft Skills:

🧠 Pragmatism – You balance ambition with feasibility, prioritising high-impact solutions that are achievable and thoughtful.

❤️ Empathy – You understand both customers and teammates deeply, leading with care and championing solutions that solve real pain points.

🗣️ Communication – You’re a strong facilitator, coach, and storyteller. You keep your team and stakeholders aligned and engaged.

🔍 Curiosity – You always ask "why"—digging deep into customer needs and continuously seeking better ways to solve problems.

What we offer 🍉

Zinc offers a chance to work on a product that brings a fresh perspective on data ownership in hiring

24 days holiday + Bank Holidays + your birthday off 🎉
£1200 annual benefits allowance (ThanksBen, from month 2)
Early finish Fridays (16:00)
Yearly company retreat to Serbia 🇷🇸🏔️✈️
Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, and Adoption Leave (2 months full pay, then statutory)
Statutory pension with NEST (3% employer, 5% employee)
Zinc shares, issued through the EMI Scheme
Unlimited access to MoreHappi coaching
Company socials, quarterly team socials Free Monday lunches
Nursery workplace benefit scheme (Yellownest)
Option to lease an electric car through Electric Car Scheme
Celebrated Zinc anniversaries 🥳

About Zinc

Who we are ⚡

Zinc builds automated reference and background checking tools designed to improve candidate experience and set new industry standards. Founded in 2017 by a team with extensive HRTech experience, Zinc is an early-stage startup rapidly growing as it redefines efficiency, transparency, and fairness in background checks.

📚Read more about our story here: https://zincwork.com/mission

We're a culture first company, by this we don't just mean an active calendar of both company and team organised events 🍔🍻🎯 (which we do have 🤩),Zinc's culture is defined by a respectful and autonomous approach to all employees, fostering support for new ideas, promoting a flexible work environment, and operating within a flat structure. While socials, lunches, and events enhance the experience, the core of Zinc's culture drives employees to embrace innovation, share successes, and feel motivated about the company's future.

🪴We recently redefined our company values:

🧩The pieces that make Zinc: Pragmatic, Integrity, Empathy, Collaborate, Empowered, Speed.

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