Product Design Lead, Marketplace

Propel is a technology company on a mission to strengthen the social safety net for low-income Americans. They are seeking a Marketplace Design Lead to own and elevate the end-to-end Marketplace product experience, partnering closely with senior leaders to create a personalized and high-trust environment for users.

Responsibilities:

• Own the end-to-end Marketplace user experience — from discovery and strategy through detailed execution — shipping high-quality, accessible product experiences
• Define and drive Marketplace design strategy and vision, aligning cross-functional partners on what 'great' looks like in the short-term and long-term
• Build a Marketplace that feels personalized and opinionated, helping users quickly find the right offers with clarity and confidence — not just browse a generic catalog
• Design for trust, clarity, and decision-making, ensuring Marketplace experiences are credible, easy to understand, and built for real-world constraints
• Partner deeply with Product, Engineering, and Data to define goals, prioritize the roadmap, run experiments, and iterate quickly based on performance and user insights
• Scale Marketplace into new verticals and categories, including Propel-branded products and services, while keeping the experience coherent and consistent
• Raise the bar on craft and quality, through strong design direction, critique, and hands-on contributions to key flows and experiences
• Help shape the Marketplace design team over time, including identifying skill gaps, supporting hiring, and setting a strong operating rhythm for execution

Requirements:

• 10+ years of product design experience, including ownership of complex product areas from strategy through launch
• Strong track record designing consumer experiences centered on discovery and browsing (e.g., marketplaces, commerce, travel, media, content-heavy products, etc.)
• Proven ability to set a clear product/design vision and translate it into shippable work in fast-moving, ambiguous environments
• Excellent judgment balancing user needs, business goals, and long-term trust
• High craft bar — strong interaction design, visual polish, and attention to detail that raises the quality of what ships
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills — you can operate as a senior partner to Product and Engineering, align stakeholders, and move decisions forward
• Clear, compelling communicator — you can tell the story, make tradeoffs understandable, and bring teams along
• High ownership and autonomy — you operate like an owner, look around corners, and make smart local decisions
• People management experience (leading small teams, player/coach roles)
• Comfort prototyping and vibe coding with emerging design and AI tools