Lead Product Designer

Alma is hiring!

About

At Alma, we are convinced that trade must be well balanced to be sustainable. Because finance has a key role in business, our mission is to put it back in its rightful place : at the service of merchants and consumers!

That’s why we create financial products that empower merchants to sell more, and help consumers purchase better products while never encouraging them to get over-indebted.

Our tech solutions are accessible to all, easy to implement, and that eliminate purchase friction.

For merchants, our instalment and deferred payment solutions are excellent ways of increasing customers' loyalty and satisfaction, as well as generating up to 20% extra sales revenues without any risk.

For consumers, the purchase experience is enhanced (4.8/5 on Trustpilot) and Alma helps them handle their budget easily. They pay later, Alma pays the merchants right away.

We are the leader in France, on track to win the European market on the (very) powerful Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) industry, as we’re now processing payments in 10 European countries. Over the past 5 years, more than 16,000 active merchants have chosen Alma to be their innovative BNPL solution, and we have served over 5 million consumers.

The team has grown from 2 to 300+ people, we raised a €115M series C early 2022 to help us accelerate further and Alma is already part of the French Tech 120 ranking of the most promising French technology companies. And that's only the beginning.

Job Description

About the job

We are seeking an exceptional Lead Product Designer to drive our design vision across our suite of innovative financial products. As we continue to scale rapidly, you'll lead and mentor our talented product design team while shaping user experiences that delight our customers and drive business growth. In this key role, you will report directly to the Chief Product Officer, positioning you to have a significant impact on the company's product strategy and design direction.

About the mission

Leadership & Impact

  • Lead, inspire, and mentor Alma's team of 4 product designers, fostering a collaborative, innovative, and growth-oriented design culture.
  • Work with business-facing teams to understand business goals and merchant pains, translating them into intuitive and user-centered design solutions.
  • Develop and deploy future design standards at Alma, guiding Product Designers and Product Managers in their implementation.

Expertise & Craft

  • Maintain the experience quality across all of Alma's products, not just those directly under your team's purview.
  • Demonstrate excellent judgment in prioritizing for maximum benefit to Alma.
  • Provide training to designers on key competencies, elevating the overall skill level of the Alma design team.

Communication & Influence

  • Effectively communicate opinions and ideas, influencing peers and elevating design's profile both internally at Alma and externally.
  • Collaborate closely with Alma's Product Managers, Engineers, Operations, Brand, Sales, and other cross-functional teams to craft innovative design solutions.
  • Foster cross-functional collaboration to ensure smooth alignment between Product Design and other teams (Engineering, PMM, Sales, Growth, Brand and Operations).

Design Process & Strategy

  • Develop a compelling design strategy aligned with Alma's overall product roadmap and business objectives.
  • Lead the discovery process, ensuring the design team is deeply involved in user research, problem framing, and ideation phases to identify and validate opportunities.
  • Champion the voice of Alma's users by leveraging research, data, and design thinking to inform decisions.
  • Streamline the design process from ideation to delivery, ensuring high-quality output and consistency across all Alma touchpoints.

Innovation & Growth

  • Stay abreast of fintech and design trends, keeping the Alma team informed to maintain our competitive edge.
  • Promote a culture of experimentation and user-centric design at Alma, driving innovation through continuous feedback and iteration.
  • Demonstrate the value of design to non-designers at Alma, helping them understand its impact and apply design thinking in their work.

About you

There are many paths that could lead you to a role like this. Some relevant skills and past experiences that will help:

  • 8+ years of experience in product design, with at least 4 years leading design teams in a high-growth environment.
  • Track record of shipping complex, high quality products and features on time and on budget and owning the process end-to-end
  • Demonstrated ability to work with Engineering and Product Management teams to discuss UX concepts, make tradeoffs to remove roadblocks, and evaluate new ideas, backed by data and rationale arguments
  • Experience owning a large-scoped B2B/C SaaS product
  • Proficiency in conducting strategic, tactical, and exploratory user research.
  • Ability to own and advocate for a UX-driven vision
  • Team spirit and good communications skills, including the ability to communicate solutions
  • Leadership and conflict resolution skills
  • Experience in coaching, managing and recruiting Product Designers
  • Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to advocate for design decisions at both strategic and tactical levels.
  • Passion for fintech innovation and a deep understanding of customer behaviors in the financial services space.
  • Fluent English (US/UK) / B2 level or equivalent (FR)
  • Enjoy sharing what your team builds in design community events online and in person

About the recruitment process

- Visio call with a member of our Talent Acquisition team : 45min

- Portfolio presentation with the Hiring Manager, Laura (VP Product) : 1h

- Live Case study (Design exercice) : 1h

- Team fit (in person preferably) : 45min

#LI-Hybrid

Additional Information

  • Contract Type: Full-Time
  • Location: Paris
  • Possible partial remote